Travel with Pets - Increased fees for military to transfer pets

Received the following article from a relative who is full time military and very concerned about these proposed new fees.
http://www.stripes.com/news/shipping-pets-during-pcs-could-cost-nearly-4-000-under-new-rule-1.168509#dsq-comments

Yikes! Those fees are outrageous. I hope DoD can do something to convince UA/CO to lower their rates for pets for military.

If UA gets enough negative comments in the social media it will back off these ridiculous charges!

If UA gets enough negative comments in the social media it will back off these ridiculous charges!

This is not exactly a love letter.
http://overheadbin.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/16/10427629-uniteds-new-pet-travel-rule-set-to-give-soldiers-sticker-shock

I do take this personally, as my nephew and his family have been posted in Asia with their children and dogs. They are currently in the U.S. My niece first brought this issue to my attention.

This is not exactly a love letter.
http://overheadbin.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/16/10427629-uniteds-new-pet-travel-rule-set-to-give-soldiers-sticker-shock

I do take this personally, as my nephew and his family have been posted in Asia with their children and dogs. They are currently in the U.S. My niece first brought this issue to my attention.

I think that if they don't revise the fees, unfortunately, there will be a lot of family pets left behind.

This is not exactly a love letter.
http://overheadbin.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/16/10427629-uniteds-new-pet-travel-rule-set-to-give-soldiers-sticker-shock

I do take this personally, as my nephew and his family have been posted in Asia with their children and dogs. They are currently in the U.S. My niece first brought this issue to my attention.

http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/united-airlines-policy-change-could-cost-pet-owners-164309658--abc-news.html

This one isn't exactly a "love letter" either.

Sounds like United is about to get increasingly ripped in public for adopting what they are saying is CO's "PetSafe" approach of checked in pets being counted as special cargo instead of against the regulary checked baggage allowance with special fees for pet. It's a headline story in more and more media outlets, online and off.

Again classify the pets as checked baggage with a fee instead of as cargo, and the cost of transporting the pets drops tremendously?

Isn't this topic being discussed in the UA forum?

UA backtracked:^

http://overheadbin.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/24/10499776-united-bows-to-public-growling-alters-pet-travel-rule

UA backtracked:^

http://overheadbin.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/24/10499776-united-bows-to-public-growling-alters-pet-travel-rule

... for those who are part of military deployment, UA has granted an exemption indeed. That's an improvement.

In most other ways UA's decision on this matter stands and customers with pets to transport will be worse off, as UA is sticking to the decision of adopting CO's policy and charging for pet transport as per CO's policy -- something that is far more expensive for customers in terms of money and/or time than pre-merger UA's policy.

“After all the feedback we were getting, we realized the impact of the change in policy,” Ryan said, “specifically in Japan with the third-party freight forwarding fees. We’ve developed a special process for these families by which they can technically check pets as luggage.”

I love the part where UA says, We’ve developed a special process. Basically they are still ripping off anyone not traveling on military orders. :td: