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Delta’s Adorable New Mini Supermax for Pets

I think it’s fair to start this off by saying that Delta, like many airlines, is just trying to do the best for passengers’ pets. The cargo hold isn’t exactly a hospitable place for animals to fly. They’re scared, things happen and no one wants to be responsible for something bad happening to someone’s pet whether or not that story ends up in the news.

And, for those reasons, airlines all over have been updating their policy on pets in the cargo hold. British Airways even–for reasons they haven’t made clear–temporarily banned pets from the cargo hold. It’s all to avoid deaths, missing animals and other tragedies that airlines and passengers want to avoid.

Which, it should be said, is the reasoning behind Delta’s new “innovative solution for pet travel” which looks a lot like a small, pink, supermax for dogs.

 

Delta's New Pet Carrier

How It Works

While this very secure hot pink CarePod (which, if we’re honest, sounds like it was named by Veridian Dynamics) is a lot to take in, it’s a pretty significant upgrade in pet safety. Sure, it does look like a supermax prison for pets but, supermax prisons keep their wards inside with no chance of escape which is also what you want for your pets.

It’s “weather insulated” because pets can easily overheat or get too cold in the hold (sometimes with fatal consequences), the slatted windows that give it that prison feel are actually there for your pet’s protection and blocks out all of the visual stress from an unfamiliar environment. It also has a feeding tray and (spill-proof) water dispenser to make it easier to administer those without risking your pet’s escape.

Digital Monitoring

And it has another cool feature: a “powerful, enterprise level GPS tracking and monitoring system that connects your pet’s journey directly to the specialized Delta Cargo Control Center” to make sure that a) your pet never gets lost and b) that, if it appears that your pet is in distress, a Delta employee will be alerted and they’ll send out the “right staff on the ground” to check on them if needed.

The Future of Pet Travel?

All in all, this looks like a great airline-initiated first step toward keeping pets safer in the hold. And, all things being equal, this attention to safety makes Delta the airline I’d fly my pet on. But, the future isn’t here just yet. Delta will begin a two-month trial of CarePods at eight U.S. locations–Atlanta, Boston, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York (JFK and LaGuardia), San Francisco and West Palm Beach. After that trial, they’ll roll out these CarePods to the rest of Delta’s network.

And, until then, we’ll just be re-watching Garland Greene’s scenes in Con Air for no particular reason:

 

 

To read more about Delta’s new CarePods, visit their News Hub. You can rent Con Air on Amazon Prime.

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