When you have to travel with pets, things can be a bit stressful – and expensive! No one wants to put their pet through the stress of it all, but sometimes – it just has to be done. It’s even more anxiety-inducing when you have to put your beloved pet in a kennel and in the cargo hold – how scary!
Most pet owners who have to travel will do anything they can to avoid having to put their precious animal in the cargo hold – even if it means deceiving the airlines.
A Russian man named Mikhail Galin has recently gained viral attention for the ‘hoax’ he pulled on an airline recently – he smuggled his “fat” cat onto the plane even though it didn’t meet the airlines’ weight requirement for pets in the cabin. However, his mischievous plans didn’t come without consequences.
Galin’s funny story all started when he was traveling back to his home town of Vladivostok after a brief holiday in Riga, Latvia. When Galin went to go check-in for his flight, the airport employees refused to let him bring his cat, Viktor, into the cabin.
You see – Viktor the cat weighed in at 22 pounds – five pounds over the allowed animal weight limit for the cabin.
The airline, Aeroflot, insisted that Galin put his cat in a kennel so he could be placed in the cargo hold. Galin, however, was never going to let that happen. So? He came up with a plan.
This isn’t the first time 4-year-old Viktor has flown on a plane. Galin has traveled with his kitty a few times and knows that his cat becomes very anxious on the plane. The changing air pressure and strange surroundings put Viktor into a bad state, so Galin wanted to make sure he was with him at all times to comfort him.
Galin decided that he has to come up with a way to trick the airline employees into thinking Viktor really wasn’t that fat.
How would Galin do this, you might ask. Well – quite simply, really! Galin took to social media and asked his friends and family if they had a cat that looked somewhat like Viktor. As it turns out, he found a cat that looked incredibly similar to Viktor – but much lighter.
Galin then went back to the airport with the decoy cat in hand and checked in for his flight. When it was time to go through security, Galin swapped the skinnier cat for his actual cat! The two ended up boarding the flight without a hitch – or so they thought.
Surveillance footage caught Galin during the cat swap and the airline wasn’t exactly thrilled about it.
The airline wasn’t going to let Galin go unpunished, so after reviewing the footage and witnessing the blatant deception first-hand, Aeroflot made the decision to kick Galin out of the frequent flyer program and also revoked the 400,000 miles in his account.
Of course, Galin had to share his story on Facebook and the comments began pouring in. Many people in support of Galin’s trickery.
“Wonderful Mikhail, I congratulate you,” said one Facebook user.
“Well done, that’s what a real person can do. Respect from all my heart” said another.
“I don’t understand the difference between the baggage compartment and the airline cabin? These PLUS 2 kilos will be on board the plane. And if i weigh with my cat less than someone very large without a cat, maybe that big one should be identified in the luggage compartment too?” questioned another person.
Do you think Galin’s decision was a good one? Let us know! See his full Facebook post below.
Please SHARE this with your friends and family.
https://www.facebook.com/mikhail.galin.7/posts/2401063050110732?__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARDHY86PvreeAYXrV0JKLYHw4eA87gV_irAjMGSUfCVv5PtIf3TpxbELVOR3TdQGBd4Y9KDeIi4IOceAHQ_kD1V8pe7lsG-X1wpl54yU1FHiaPUQLssLAmqK9xDvvYHjul9DU8qs-do61qXsClDfoFOQC3-1sB-37W5gFZl_ZU36uvneFDISoNanH9jg6JcP-egYdrWDXklhd35kTQnJHXZTqyVsWNEF-XvjXzhzWCYjSvbGfaFssj-TGOz0RXlcmQ6Gc9PekjZUgMXn3kIk6i-fhKb0LWyo8tr5&__tn__=-R
