I have 2 large dogs that need to relocate from SEA to MSP (direct) on either Northwest or Alaska. There is a *huge* difference in price -- $275 ea for NW and $100 ea for AS. AS seems like a slam dunk, but I see many more incident reports, and every one of them has (IMO) a pathetic write-up: "xxx entered the baggage hold and noticed yyy was not moving. Appears to be natural causes. No action required." In contrast the NW reports dive into follow-ups to determine cause and usually have some findings to reduce the risk.

Am I reading too much into this? I want lowest risk and lowest cost!

If you have comments about how it went for you on either of these two carriers, it is appreciated.