Seattle Airport’s indoor pet relief area
We returned to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) late last night and on our way to baggage claim I noticed a sign for a pet relief area inside the terminal. Not too long ago, I completely panned SEA’s outdoor pet relief area, and now I have to change my tune. SEA has had the brilliant idea of setting aside a room in the terminal for pets to relieve themselves on wee-wee pads, and it’s beyond security, so you don’t have to exit the secured area and then reenter with your relieved dog.
It’s in the marketplace in the Central Terminal, directly across from the Hudson Booksellers bookstore. Look for this sign:
Go down the hallway to a double set of doors and you’ll see this sign:
The room beyond looks like this:
As you can (barely) see, wee wee pads and a trash can are provided. The fencing is not cages — it just blocks access to the area on the right. The room is stark, but it smelled fine, and for a pet owner in a rush it will seem like paradise.
[6/12/11 Jill's comment, below, reminded me to update this post. On recent visits -- say, over the last several months -- this room hasn't been so pleasant. Quite often, there are no pee pads available, and now there are a couple of big litter boxes for traveling cats (perhaps they're for litter-trained dogs, if there are such creatures -- none of the many cats we've owned would ever consider using a strange litter box). Perhaps as a result, the room is now pretty whiffy. Also, one of the doors is now propped open, and from what I can tell, if I close it, I'll lock myself in -- so the noise in the marketplace and hallway outside can't be cut off, and distracts Chloe from the task at hand. Now that I've experienced the excellence of Dulles' air-side pet relief area, this pet relief area seems pretty lame.]
This post is part of an ongoing series of reviews of airport pet relief areas we’ve visited. To see others, visit Dog Jaunt’s handy guide to airport pet relief areas.
Related posts:
- Seattle airport pet relief area I thought it wasn’t possible for an airport pet relief area to be any nastier than Denver’s, but I was...
- Dulles International Airport’s indoor pet relief areas Washington, D.C.’s Dulles International Airport (IAD) is the second airport I’ve been in with a pet relief area on the...
- Pet relief area at Port Columbus airport (CMH) CMH kindly provides a map of its arrivals level, showing the location of the airport’s pet relief area, but it’s...
- Reader’s report: Pet relief area at Indianapolis International Airport Reader Karen, returning to Indianapolis from a visit to Long Beach with Ezra, her Papillon, wrote to tell me about...
- Pet relief area at Tampa International Airport (TPA) According to the TPA website, “animals preparing for travel may be taken outside at the baggage claim level (Level 1).”...
We fly from Anchorage to Phoenix and layover in Seattle. Is the indoor relief area on the same level as concourse C and D? Or do you have to go to another level? We usually fly from C or D gates and have never seen the sign. It would really help since we take our little dog in the cabin every time. Thanks for any info you could give me.
Hi, Kim! The air-side pet relief area at SEA is just to the side of the restaurant and shop area in the Central Terminal. It’s directly across from the Borders bookstore. However, given what it offers (a patch of concrete, a pile of pee pads and a trash can), you might do just as well to bring a couple of pee pads with you and take your pup into a family stall in a Concourse C or D restroom, and save yourself the tram trip in to the central terminal.
I travel with a medium size SAR dog regularly and find this pet relief area totally disgusting. A well trained dog would never be willing to pee inside and when I saw the room there weren’t even any pads – not that a dog not trained for those things would know to use them. There was no chance my dog would be able to relieve himself in this revolting place so we were forced out of the security zone to walk several hundred yards to find a realistic place for my dog to go. The outside pet area was filled with feces and cigarette butts. I went up the stairs to the media area to find a vegetated spot for my dog.
It wouldn’t be so hard for airports to put decent pet areas inside the security terminals. They’re not even trying to make this feasible for pet owners.
Jill, thanks so much for your comment — it reminded me to update this post, and you’ll see that I’ve lost the love for this pet relief area over the last few months. It still gets points for being air-side, but not many.