United Halts Pet Transportation Program

Image: First United Boeing 787 Production Flight. (photo courtesy of United Airlines)

by Donald Wood
Last updated: 4:38 PM ET, Tue March 20, 2018

As a result of several negative incidents involving the transportation of animals on flights, United Airlines announced it will stop accepting new reservations for the shipment of pets in airplane cargo holds while officials conduct a full investigation.

United has not released a date for when it expects the PetSafe transport program to return, but officials expect the full review to be completed by May 1. Passengers traveling with their pets inside the cabin will not be impacted by the decision.

The temporary change comes after the airline sent two dogs to incorrect destinations, including a German Shepherd sent to Tokyo instead of Kansas City and a Great Dane sent to Missouri instead of Japan.

In addition, United is also dealing with the backlash from the death of a French bulldog puppy last week after a flight attendant told the dog's owner to stow the animal in an overhead bin, where it died.

United released an official statement about the decision:

We are deeply committed to the safety and comfort of the animals and pets in our care. We are conducting a thorough and systematic review of our program for pets that travel in the cargo compartment to make improvements that will ensure the best possible experience for our customers and their pets. To achieve this outcome, we will partner with independent experts in pet safety, comfort and travel.

While we are doing this review, effective immediately we will not accept any new reservations for PetSafe, our program for pets that travel in the cargo compartment. We expect to complete our review by May 1, 2018.

We will honor any existing PetSafe reservations confirmed as of March 20, 2018, although we will assist any customer that wishes to cancel their reservation. In the meantime, we are proactively reaching out to customers with confirmed reservations between today and May 1 to inform them of this announcement and explain what this means for their travel.

This suspension does not affect pets that travel with us in the aircraft's cabin. We are also reviewing this service and have already announced that beginning in April we will issue bright colored bag tags to help better identify pets who are traveling in-cabin.

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