Travel with Pets - Can't get confirmation from United for dogs

We're taking our 2 Bichon-Spaniel mixes in the cabin from PHL to SFO in December. We've taken one of them to CA a few times on US Airways and she's done okay. So I looked up the flight online, called United's Premier line, and just had them book the flight and the space for the dogs at the same time.

Is it normal with United to not be able to get anything in writing that the pets will be flying with you? They won't send me anything in an email and it's not showing up in my reservation online. But when I call they swear it's in my reservation...

Yes, it's normal. I've flown with my dogs many times on United, and there is never anything visible to me in my reservation... but it's in their system, and I've never had the reservation "drop off" except in a few cases where they switched airplanes midway, etc., and I got those corrected quickly. It's unfortunate that there's no way to see that the pet is on there (like you can with a lap infant), but that's normal for them.

If you see any schedule changes, aircraft swaps, etc. - anything that United notifies you about - call them to make sure the pets are still on the reservation. Otherwise, if you're nervous about it, call once a month or so just to assuage your doubts... but I'd say you probably shouldn't worry, in general. I can't promise anything, but as I said, I've never had catastrophic problems.

I have never received written confirmation from any airline when traveling with my cats. It is in my record, but nothing that they e-mail to me. If you are concerned you can always call them and verify that it is in your record.

I might be wrong but doesn't CO give you a written confirmation? I remember booking a trip with them and was taking my dog and there was a box to check if you intended to fly with a carryon pet as part of the reservation process. I could swear that there was also something in writing confirming this on the email I received after booking. @:-)

Yes, it's normal. I've flown with my dogs many times on United, and there is never anything visible to me in my reservation... but it's in their system, and I've never had the reservation "drop off" except in a few cases where they switched airplanes midway, etc., and I got those corrected quickly. It's unfortunate that there's no way to see that the pet is on there (like you can with a lap infant), but that's normal for them.

If you see any schedule changes, aircraft swaps, etc. - anything that United notifies you about - call them to make sure the pets are still on the reservation. Otherwise, if you're nervous about it, call once a month or so just to assuage your doubts... but I'd say you probably shouldn't worry, in general. I can't promise anything, but as I said, I've never had catastrophic problems.


BTW, cepheid is our in house expert for traveling with a pet on UA! ^