SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — Thirty-three hours after flying from San Francisco to North Carolina, a woman was reunited with her dog after she says the airline lost him during a layover and sent him to the wrong city. 

Amber Dalton and her dog ‘Roast Beast’ were set to fly from San Francisco to Raleigh with a layover in Chicago on an American Airlines flight. 

Before taking off from SFO, Dalton was told her flight would be to be changed because it wasn’t safe for the dog on the Chicago-bound flight. The woman and her dog were then booked on a flight with a layover in Dallas. 

After landing in Raleigh, the woman tried to find her beloved pup, but was told he’d been put on the  woman’s original flight with the layover in Chicago. 

Dalton waited for the Chicago flight to land, but her dog wasn’t on that plane either and airline staff said they weren’t able to find him. 

“At this point, I’m getting really upset because this is twice that my dog should have landed and it’s been over an hour and he’s still not here,” Dalton told WFXR. 

Hours after the woman landed in North Carolina, the airline found ‘Roast Beast’ in Philadelphia — more than 400 miles away.

The pair were separated for a total of 33 hours. 

“You wouldn’t lose a child. I know people don’t want to think that. But these are our kids. These are our family members,” Dalton said. “I wouldn’t put a family member under the cargo and slap a luggage tag on him.”

Because of the unfortunate mixup, Dalton was given a flight voucher and refund for the travel costs for her pup. 

American Airlines addressed the ordeal by saying:

American Airlines takes the well-being of our four-legged passengers very seriously. As a result, we weren’t able to reunite a checked pet with their owner yesterday on a trip from San Francisco (SFO) to Raleigh-Durham (RDU). To ensure the safety and health of animals we transport, our policies regulate the types of aircraft, weather conditions and locations that can be used. A conflict in our customer’s routing and policies caused us to keep their pet overnight in Philadelphia at a local pet hotel.

Our customer care team has been in regular communication with Ms. Dalton and safely transported her pet to RDU this morning. We know it’s frustrating when our customers’ travel doesn’t go as planned and apologize for the inconvenience. Safety of all our customers is our top priority. More information on our pet travel policies can be found online.

“All of the money doesn’t fix the next incident that could possibly be deadly,” Dalton said.

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