81-year-old woman stranded in Puerto Rico after airline won’t allow her to fly with pet parrot

An 81-year-old woman went through a travel nightmare after she went to visit her family in Puerto Rico.

Maria Fraterrigo took her pet parrot in a cage to Puerto Rico with her. But now that she wants to come back to New York City on the same airline that flew her there, won’t let the parrot fly home with her.

She said her service animal, Plucky, have been inseparable for more than two decades since the parrot was born.

But now the 81-year-old grandmother from the Bronx and her service animal are stranded in Puerto Rico because of what an airline did but refuses to fix.

“I got no more tears my mind is blank, just want to go home. That’s all, I don’t ask for much,” Fraterrigo said.

Fraterrigo got really close to her African Grey Parrot in 2019.

That’s when her husband Richard, a court officer who also worked for the NYPD, passed away from cancer related to 9/11.

“He kept me going, talking to me, making me laugh when I was down,” Fraterrigo said.

The couple loved traveling to Puerto Rico with Plucky, and did so for years, before Richard’s death.

“I’m ready to fly in a plane and get over there,” Robert Fraterrigo, her son, said.

Her son Robert called a long list of airlines and entered an online chat with Frontier asking about bringing his mom’s 10-ounce bird on the flight, offering proof that it’s a service animal.