Everyone, thanks for all of your help!

The flight was alright. I had a layover, so technically there were two.

I flew United. Ironically, they didn't make me show them my letter from my therapist (which I thought was weird because Delta gate agents are dog Nazis, even when you're a paying customer!).

On the first flight, the crew was a dream. They asked, "who is this??" I thought I was about to be interrogated so I began to pull my letter out. The two of them said, "OH! We believe you, don't worry about it!" So I put the letter back, totally puzzled. My dog was allowed to fly on my lap through the entire flight.

The second flight was a little different... while they still didn't ask for the letter while I was boarding, the flight attendant didn't allow me to hold her on my lap. I had to keep her in the crate under the seat (I know I didn't HAVE to have this, but I brought it just in case). I was sitting in the aisle and everyone was staring. I was feeling embarrassed so instead of explaining (which I had a feeling wouldn't work anyway), I just put her in her bag. The problem was that my dog wasn't incredibly thrilled, since she was on my lap the flight before.

The dog, herself, was a dream. She was very quiet and sat calmly the entire time (while on my lap).

The nerve racking thing is that for some reason, I feel like I "got lucky" and won't enjoy this type of service again. I used to just pay to take her ($175 one-way, to control my emotions!) with me because I couldn't stand to be in that kind of situation without her... Delta gave me such a horrible problem one time. The gate agent stopped me, made a HUGE scene, and embarrassed me to death. It caused me to miss my flight and ended up taking me 24 hours being in airports and on planes to reach my destination. This is especially stressful because I had to keep my dog in her bag for the full 24 hours, with the exception of taking her to the bathroom during layovers. Ever since then, my anxiety about being accepted in public has been worse!! Furthermore, I'm a 26-year-old female with a small dog. People probably look at me and say, "Yeah, right!"

Why must people judge?