United gives military families a break on flying pets home

— -- Military families who were facing hundreds of dollars in extra fees to ship their pets back home have gotten a break from United Airlines and won't have to come up with the extra cash after all.

Pets that can't ride in the cabin will still be sent as cargo under the new policy that United is adopting as it merges with Continental Airlines. But pet owners who are moving because of military orders will not have to pay a third-party cargo handling fee that is imposed in Japan and some European countries.

"We realized the impact it had on our military families," says United spokeswoman Mary Ryan. "We value our relationship with the military very much and just wanted to see what we could do to help alleviate that burden."

Military families reacted with outrage, launched petitions and took their complaints to Facebook when they learned of the policy change set to start March 3 when United switches to Continental's "PetSafe" program.

Under the program, pets no longer can be checked as baggage. It generally cost $250 when animals flew as baggage from the U.S. to most foreign countries.

But some pet owners stationed overseas say they were told shipping their animals back home as cargo could cost hundreds of dollars more than that, and they feared some animals might have to be left behind because of the high cost.

Now a special process will allow their pets to be shipped without their owners having to pay those extra fees, Ryan says.

Kate Hanni of the consumer-advocacy group FlyersRights.org, which had received many complaints from military families, says she's glad to hear of the airline's change of heart.

"FlyersRights.org is so grateful that United Airlines heard the pleas of thousands of military families who did not want to abandon their pets," she says.

United is making the switch to PetSafe, it says, because of the program's many resources for handling those in its care.

The program has been lauded by pet-transport professionals, such as Gay O'Brien, former president of the International Pet and Animal Transportation Association, who says the program is "fantastic" with animals.