Military Pets Cost More

From The Stars and Stripes:
"Shipping pets during PCS could cost nearly $4,000 under new rule"

Many servicemembers flying internationally on official orders could face steep fare increases for pets beginning next month, when a top military-contracted air carrier changes its baggage policies. As part of its merger with Continental Airlines, United Airlines has announced that on March 3 it will drop its current flat rate for pets that are checked as excess baggage and instead require all animals to be shipped as cargo. For those changing duty stations in the Pacific, the change could mean paying about $1,440 to $3,869 to fly with an animal back to the United States, depending on its size. Currently, United charges $283 for most pets, according to estimates provided Tuesday by Continental customer service. United and Continental are both federal contract carriers, so servicemembers traveling on official duty are often booked to fly on the airlines at a reduced cost to the military, but the cost to transport pets must be paid by the servicemember. “This is just going to be devastating and pets are going to be left behind,” predicted Mary Seward-Yamada, owner of Camp Canine Okinawa, a company that specializes in assisting military families with transporting pets between Japan and the U.S. Seward-Yamada said the price increases are going to put the cost of transporting a pet out of reach for lower-ranking servicemembers who do not have the income to spend thousands of dollars on airline tickets for the family pet. The impact in Europe is likely to be minimal, as starting this month, soldiers and their families began using the Defense Department-chartered Patriot Express for flights between Baltimore and Ramstein Air Base, instead of flying into or out of Frankfurt Airport. Patriot Express charges $110 to ship a pet, according to U.S. Army Europe. The Air Force also uses Patriot Express to move airmen relocating to and from Germany, and commercial carriers only when seats are not available on Patriot Express flights, according to officials.

^ If this price increase goes through it will only hurt the soldiers and their families. If the military is forcing them to move overseas on official orders than the government should pay to also ship their pets to their new duty station. ^

http://www.stripes.com/news/shipping-pets-during-pcs-could-cost-nearly-4-000-under-new-rule-1.168509