United Airlines Killed Our Golden Retriever, Bea
beamakesthree.com
beamakesthree.com
Unless something has changed, my understanding is that small animals (cats, dogs under something like 10 lbs) are allowed to fly with you in an approved carrier.
Any other creature must go in the belly of the plane with the baggage. You will be charged the price of a seat, and in return the airline does not guarantee any particular temperature range for the baggage hold nor even that it will remain pressurized. This is for domestic flights in America - I cannot speak for other air travel situations.
As a proud owner of a 60lb dog, I have sometimes been in the position of having to arrange alternate transportation (usually driving a car) or altering plans to accommodate my pooch. I simply cannot take the chance that something were to happen similar to this story. It is tragic, no doubt, but the provisions airlines make are very clear and most of this risk could've been avoided.
Edit: I've thought about this issue a lot. I think it would be in everyone's mutual interest for airlines to offer a safe way to transport pets or other small animals. Assuming that's a non-starter with existing carriers, some other business could serve this niche effectively. I suspect it could be done profitably.
I walk past their office everyday on the way to mine in Austin. Used the article as an excuse to see what they do... looks like this couple should have used a service like this since the airline does not guarantee safety.
It sounds like the owners did everything reasonable to prepare for the flight.
When it comes to finding United responsible, maybe travel crate companies should equip the crates with temperature sensors, so that an owner could see the conditions the pets underwent through a flight.
Owners of other pets on the flight could have seen how hot it got in the compartment, and realized what kind of peril their animals were in as well.
As an analogy, crates with delicate instruments have shock and orientation indicators, sometimes outside, and color-coded so they will be apparent on a handoff or on delivery, and sometimes inside.
When we moved cross country to California, my wife and I were so scared of this happening to our pup that we opted to drive for 4 days rather than risk it. Me, and a lot of people I know would be willing to pay at least as much as a ticket for a person costs to have our pets transported safely by air, preferably in the cabin instead of as luggage. It doesn't have to be with us, although I would love it if that was possible. A company called petairways used to do this, but has recently gone bankrupt. I wonder if there is a viable way to make this work.
I've seen posts with 3 or 4 up votes in an hour make it to the front page.
(if (eq username "mcantor") set-no-frontpage)Me, and a lot of people I know would be willing to pay at least as much as a ticket for a person costs to have our pets transported safely by air, preferably in the cabin instead of as luggage. It doesn't have to be with us, although I would love it if that was possible.
A company called petairways used to do this, but has recently gone bankrupt. I wonder if there is a viable way to make this work.
I'm sure that most of the time pets are flown, everything is fine, but I don't trust the TSA and airline workers to my bags, much less a life that I care about.
Has anyone made anything like this?
Good luck getting a Federal prosecutor to pursue such a case (unless you have personal connections). However, I would suspect that per United's own internal policy, the people making and authorizing that call must be terminated. If it happened to include one of their fancy legal staff, that in itself could be a significant threat when combined with the proper publicity.