Airline apologizes after denying flight to veteran, service dog

American Airlines has issued an apology to a Marine Corps veteran after accusing him of traveling with a fake service dog and denying them a flight home.

Jason Haag tours the U.S. explaining how service dogs can help wounded veterans like him. Haag was wounded while serving his country and later received Axel, his service dog to help him manage post-traumatic stress disorder and a traumatic brain injury.

"Axel has saved my life there's no doubt about that."

Without any issue, the two boarded an American Airlines flight last week from Virginia to Los Angeles where Axel was named Service Dog of the Year at the 2015 Association Hero Dog Awards.

But when they tried to board a flight home an American Airlines gate agent said no.

"The first question the guy asked me was very combative. He asked me if my dog was real, and if he was a real service dog. I started to list off his tasks and he just cut me off and said, 'You are non-compliant and I'm not going to let you fly.'"

The two were able to catch a different flight home the next day and the airline issued an apology but Haag says it's not enough.

He wants to work with the airline to come up with a better process for people traveling with service dogs to make it easier to fly.

According to ServiceDogCentral.org there are more than 380,000 service dogs across the country.

Related: See dogs at work with the police and military:

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