The Chilean man who was denied boarding at Vancouver International Airport this week because of his large service dog has secured a flight home.
Matias Rodriguez’s Great Dane, Logan, is trained to detect changes in his owner’s blood sugar and alert him to a potential diabetic emergency.
On Tuesday, he spoke to CTV News about the trouble he was having getting Aeromexico to let him board a flight out of YVR.
Rodriguez was working construction in Canada on a temporary basis, but his work status had expired, and he was trying to get home to Chile so he could reapply.
He said Aeromexico had allowed him to bring Logan on his flight from Mexico City to Vancouver, and shared pictures from that flight. He couldn’t figure out why the airline’s staff was not similarly accommodating when he tried to travel in the other direction.
“They would tell us different stories on each phone call,” said Vynka Contreras, Rodriguez’s friend and translator.
She said one of Aeromexico call-takers they had spoken to previously recommended buying a business-class ticket to ensure there would be room for Logan. Out of desperation, they had spent about $3,000 to do so.
On Friday, after CTV News Vancouver had shared Rodriguez’s story, the pair received a call from an Aeromexico customer service supervisor.
“They were very, very helpful,” Contreras said. “They were trying to do their best to accommodate Matias and Logan.”
The supervisor offered a refund on the business-class ticket and a spot on a flight to Mexico City on Nov. 14.
“I said, ‘No,’” Contreras said. “He needs to leave. He needs to go back, you know, his medication was running out, his status—his work visa—was expired. He wants to do the right thing and go back.”
Instead of the Nov. 14 departure, Matias and Logan flew to Mexico City on the business-class ticket on Saturday, and the airline arranged for a hotel stay there and a free connecting flight to Chile on Sunday, Contreras said.
“Matias felt really, really happy that there was someone who was actually trying to help him with the entire process,” she said, recalling the Friday conversation.
At the same time, Contreras lamented that the airline hadn’t taken an accommodating approach from the start. She said she felt “hopeless” in the airport on the date of the initial flight.
“I was very disappointed with the airline (and) what they did on that day,” she said. “Today was totally different. It was like they were waiting for us with a red carpet. It was completely different today, which it should’ve been in the first place.”
With files from CTV News Vancouver’s St. John Alexander
