New United Pet Policy affects those stationed in Asia
Ilumine
member
Basically, due to the Continental Merger, United will be chaning its pet shipping policy. Pets are no longer checked baggage, but cargo. They WILL be adding a couple special sundries, like a petsitter and a/c van to bring the pets to&from the plane as well as a third party"
Oh and this is all due to some new Japanese law.
What concerns me, is that before, most pets cost $250 to put on the plane. Now, its going to range from $1,000 - $4,000 (depending on the size of the pet). That is a HUGE cost increase for a van, a dog walker and this "new need" for a third party....oh and some law that did not bother United until the merger.
I have no problem paying for a new processing fee (the van and pet sitter) if this was a flat fee that actually covered the true cost of said benefit. But this sliding scale based on weight is wrong. My 30lb corgi (you know, the old british lady dog) would cost $1000 more than my 15lb dog (terrier), but the expense for the van and walker is no different and that 15lbs should not cost $1000...not when my luggage weighs the same amount.
More importantly, this announcement came out less than a month than its implementation date. Please tell me how ANY SERVICEMEMBER (no matter the rank) is going ot be able to come up with $1000 - $4000 in a manner of weeks DURING their PCS?
Oki is going to be overrun with animals....what a shame.
Please contact your congressman.
Re: New United Pet Policy affects those stationed in Asia
I saw this on the OkiMar yesterday. I am disappointed that they didn't reveal what the "alternatives" with the actual announcement. We will be here a couple more years so it won't be a problem for awhile, but we were planning on adopting a dog before we left since there are so many abandoned pets on the island...not now. I don't think we could afford taking two pets with us.
A few of us are writing letters, but planning on writing after they reveal what the alternate plan is. When we came here, we had no other option aside from commercial due to the lack of funding and no money to give tickets until 2 weeks before we came...we were unable to get on AMC, so no other options for us!
I see where you're coming from, but a lot of people have already had to ship their pets as cargo. When we moved OCONUS we had to ship our dog cargo because of weather restrictions. You can't ship a pet as baggage when the temperature on the runway at either take off or landing is more than 70 degrees. Well, we were moving to Egypt. It's never not more than 70 degrees there.
As responsible pet parents, we made it happen. Hopefully most people will follow suit. Though, I know a lot won't and that's sad.
Also, there are other airlines that do things differently. No one says you MUST fly United/ Continental. We've flown Delta for all of our PCSes and their policy is different. You could also choose AA. The military only says that you must use an American company unless there truly isn't one available to the place you're going.
Actually, given there is a contract with United, this is the carrier of choice for many PCS's. I am not sure about your DH, but when my DH was in Korea, he was not given a choice as to which airline he had to fly on.
And this does not help those families who already have tickets. Even though their tickets were purchased under the old policy, they will be foreced to pay the new prices. They WOULD HAVE gone some place else (if they could). I know three people who are now scrambling because they do not have the extra THOUSANDS of dollars (for one, its going to cost her $5,300 for her two dogs) just lying around.
Finally, it is not just the fact that the pets are now considered cargo...it is the new COSTS of cargo. Under the old plan, the cap on pet cargo was NO MORE THAN $800-$900 (for a lab). Now that lab is going to cost $3000 for cargo.
THAT is the egregious part.
I agree that something should be done to ensure the safety of the pets as they fly, but the cost seems exorbitant and the announcement is mere weeks ahead of implementation. IMO, United is handling this poorly. And, IMO, there is a difference of knowing, in advance of an OCONUS PCS, that taking your pet will cost thousands of dollars to transport, and already being OCONUS with your pet. Hopefully, if a family knew that they could not afford the fees, they would have more resources at home, in the States, to re-home permanently or for the duration of the orders. None of the options are ideal, but knowing in advance allows for more informed decisions.
FWIW, I'm not going to storm United's corporate office, but I will let them know that I do not like this new policy. I'm not going to post on United's wall that they are scum of the earth and work for Satan, but I can let them know what my personal feelings are.
I have no clue what kind of lizard Damien is. He belongs to my cousin Hannah. Hannah saved him from her skeevey boyfriend's skeevey friend...who did not keep Damien wet enough...so his two front paws/claws fell off.
Damien can still climb and run...
Monkey loves him and is very very very excited to move back to FL so she can have tree frogs and geckos in her backyard (this is the only thing helping her get over leaving the sheep and cows in our current back yard)