--- title: Fish Lost After Southwest Airlines Bans It From Flight description: A student has lost her pet fish after it was banned from being allowed on the Southwest Airlines flight she was on. canonical: https://time.com/5482709/fish-banned-southwest-flight/ author: Cady Lang article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-12-18T16:43:15.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:56:30.022Z og:title: Pet Fish Lost After Airline Bans It From Flight og:description: Here's what you need to know og:url: https://time.com/5482709/fish-banned-southwest-flight/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Pet Fish Lost After Airline Bans It From Flight twitter:description: Here's what you need to know twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # 'I Don't Know Where My Fish Is At.' 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Dec 18, 2018 4:43 PM UTC  by [Cady Lang](https://time.com/author/cady-lang/)  ## Cady Lang Dec 18, 2018 4:43 PM UTC A student has lost her [pet fish](http://time.com/4639412/boy-mourns-fish/) after it was banned from the [Southwest Airlines](http://time.com/5246539/southwest-airlines-tammie-jo-shults-pilot-statement/) flight she booked on. According to [_USA Today_](https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/news/2018/12/17/southwest-accused-making-student-leave-her-pet-fish-airport/2336025002/), University of Colorado, Colorado Springs student Lanice Powless was traveling from the Denver airport to her home in California when she said a Southwest employee told her she could not bring her pink pet Betta fish, Cassie, on the flight. Powless had researched [TSA policy](https://www.tsa.gov/travel/security-screening/whatcanibring/items/live-fish) about bringing fish on flights ahead of getting Cassie and was pleased to note that live fish are allowed on flights if they’re in a carry-on bag. However, what she hadn’t anticipated was that some airlines have separate rules for animals and pets from TSA; Southwest is one of them — travelers are only allowed to bring small dogs and cats in crates that can be stored under a customer’s seat and never in the cargo bins. Powless said that she’s flown with her fish on Southwest in the past, but in the confusion of the moment, gave her fish to the woman behind her. “I ended up turning around and giving it to a lady behind me,” she said. “I crossed through and then TSA stops her, and said, we’re not allowing this fish to go through.” Powless was unable to get the woman’s contact information after the security stop. “I don’t know where my fish is at. I don’t know if they allowed her to take it.” Southwest gave a statement on the incident on Monday. “A Customer attempted to bring a pet fish onboard their flight from Denver to San Diego. Our Customer Service Agents informed the Customer about Southwest’s pets policy which does not allow for live fish to travel in the passenger cabin. Our Team offered to re-book the Customer for a later flight to allow them to make arrangements for their pet but the Customer refused that option. The Customer eventually traveled on their originally scheduled flight.” Powless disputed the statement, saying that she was not offered the option to re-book the flight. Southwest maintains that the offer was made but the customer declined. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5482709/fish-banned-southwest-flight/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5482709/fish-banned-southwest-flight/"},"headline":"'I Don't Know Where My Fish Is At.' 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