Seven guides to getting where you are going with a service dog: by air, by train, by bus, by rideshare, by cruise ship, at a hotel, and across a border where the ADA does not follow you, plus one map that shows which rule covers each. Each one names the regulation that governs that mode — 14 CFR 382 in the air, the ADA on the ground — and the seat, the form or the phone call that settles an argument before it starts. Written by a handler whose dog is a hundred and five pounds.
Mr. Big and I have been to all of the lower 48 states, seven Canadian provinces and the Northwest Territories, by semi truck, plane, ferry, bus and Uber. Traveling with a service dog is not one set of rules. It is six, and the building or vehicle you are standing in decides which one applies. What a plane, hotel, bus or train, rideshare, ship and border can each ask, and how I pack for all of them.
A hotel may ask you to remove a service dog on exactly two grounds: the dog is out of control and you are not controlling it, or the dog is not housebroken. Breed is not on the list, and neither is a no-pets policy or another guest’s allergies. What the front desk may ask, the fees it cannot charge, and how I got one refusal reversed.
A service dog can sail on every major cruise line from a U.S. port, and the federal rule says the line must take your word for it. What the rule says, what nine cruise lines actually ask for, where the dog relieves himself, which ports turn dogs away, and the CDC form for getting home.
A service dog can ride Amtrak, Greyhound and any city bus, free, and nobody may demand paperwork for it. But buses and trains run on a different rulebook from shops and planes. Here is what a driver may ask, the card they cannot demand, how relief works on a train, and where a complaint goes.
An Uber or Lyft driver can refuse you, and around eight in ten guide dog handlers say one has. Both companies say in writing that allergies, fear and religious objection are not exceptions, and neither may ask you for paperwork. Here is what to say at the curb, the one thing never to do, and the three places a report actually goes.
It does not. Your rights stop at the border, and every country handles assistance dogs differently. What to check before you book anything.
The paperwork, the timelines, and the vaccinations that have to start months ahead. What airlines and border officials actually require, and where teams get caught out.
If your dog is too big for the foot space under the seat, the airline cannot simply refuse you. It has to offer you another seat in the same cabin first, and free carriage or a later flight after that. Here is the rule that says so, plus the one thing on the old version of this page that has been wrong since January 2021.
