Reader’s report: Using a large SturdiBag carrier on three Delta planes (MD-90, 767-300, and 737-800)
Reader Tahoe, a Vizsla of undisclosed age, sent me a message with useful information about his people’s recent (well, frankly, not that recent) trips on three different Delta planes with his new sister Moxie (then an 11 lb. Vizsla puppy).
Moxie, fitting just fine in her large SturdiBag (11 lbs. at 8 weeks old)
She traveled in a large SturdiBag carrier, the same size that Chloe uses. Here is Tahoe’s report about how the bag worked on those flights, along with a picture of the carrier under their seat.
On all three aircraft, it worked best for them to “sit in the aisle seat since you have to slide the SturdiBag from aisle floor into position. The seats in front are so close to your seat (back). The SturdiBag is too wide to fit through the space from the top (unless you turn it sideways and flatten — dog probably will not appreciate it).”
They sat in Seat 34E on the Delta MD-90 and found “No bar between seats for under seat storage. If you are traveling with someone, the SturdiBag will fit under 2 seats horizontally and allow for more foot room.” The situation was the same (“No bar also”) on the 767-300 they flew on (Seat 45F). No particular report from their last flight, on a 737-800, other than that they sat in Seat 31C, and it apparently worked fine for them.
Moxie's carrier in place on one of their Delta flights
And one last picture, to show you how beautiful Moxie is — and to demonstrate that although this is officially forbidden, some flight crews will turn a blind eye to a head poke.
Thank you so much, Tahoe and team, for sharing the information and pictures! It helps so much to see other dogs besides Chloe traveling, and I hardly ever fly on Delta, so that’s info I can’t collect myself. I’m tagging this post to add it to Dog Jaunt’s growing collection of pictures of carriers under plane seats, which will help people prepare for travel — and address gate- or ticketing agents’ concerns about the workability of a carrier. I’m also adding it to Dog Jaunt’s ongoing series recording under-seat plane measurements.