Via Government Executive | Diplomats demand pet parity

“We have a strong relationship with the military and it was not our intention to put a financial burden on them,” United spokeswoman Mary Ryan told Government Executive. “But the exception for military families is a ‘one-off.’ ”
[…]
United spokeswoman Ryan said the carrier’s pet-shipping rates seem high because they include the third-party fee for the freight forwarder. United’s own pet fees are competitive, she said. The emailed letters from the Foreign Service Association, she added, “are not being ignored, but we have no intention of extending” the waiver beyond the military.

Read  in full here.

If you tweet about United Airlines, do use the new Twitter handle @United – this is the new handle used after the merger with Continental.  @UnitedAirlines is still up but no longer current.

In any case, like I said before, the Foreign Service, even with AFSA’s full membership just does not have the number. The airlines recognize that and is not at all shaking in its boots.  The only way this issue will probably get the appropriate attention is if some real smart and witty social media user can create a video of pets mocking this policy and it goes viral.  No corporate entity wants to be laugh at by millions of folks, but it can tolerate a few hundreds unhappy clients as part of doing business.

Related articles

• AFSA Appeals to United Airlines on New Pet Travel Policy (diplopundit.net)
• #United Deeply Offends Diplomatic Tails – It Sucks, Really! Woof! Woof! (diplopundit.net)
• United says pets not in cabin to fly as cargo (travel.usatoday.com)
• United: No to ‘Danger’ Dogs (foxnews.com)