CHICAGO _ United Airlines is suspending new reservations for pets traveling in the cargo compartment after three dogs were loaded onto wrong planes last week and a fourth died in an overhead bin.
United will honor reservations that have already been confirmed for PetSafe, its program for pets traveling in cargo, the airline said Tuesday. The suspension does not affect pets traveling with their owners in the cabin.
"We are conducting a thorough and systematic review of our program for pets that travel in the cargo compartment to make improvements that will ensure the best possible experience for our customers and their pets," United spokeswoman Maggie Schmerin said in an emailed statement.
The airline said it would complete the review by May 1.
Chicago-based United diverted a plane to Akron, Ohio, on Thursday after discovering it had mistakenly loaded a dog aboard the flight from Newark, N.J., to St. Louis. Two days earlier, the airline sent a Kansas City, Mo.-bound German shepherd to Japan after switching it with a Great Dane.
All three pets have since been reunited with their owners, and all 33 people aboard the diverted flight were compensated, Schmerin said. The airline declined to estimate the cost of the compensation or the chartered flight that brought the dog home from Japan.
Those mistakes followed the death of a French bulldog that appeared to have suffocated after a flight attendant placed it in an overhead compartment on a three-hour flight from Houston to New York City earlier in the week.
United said it took full responsibility for the bulldog's death. The airline said the flight attendant "did not hear or understand" the dog's owner when she said there was a dog in the carrier.
The bulldog was traveling in the cabin, not with the PetSafe program the airline is suspending, but United said it is also reviewing its service for in-cabin pets. The airline has already said it plans to issue brightly colored bag tags to better identify pets in carriers in the cabin starting in April.
United carried about 42 percent more animals in the cargo hold in 2017 than in 2015, and it accounted for about 27 percent of all animals U.S. airlines transported last year, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation.
It also reported an above-average number of animals that were injured, died or lost while in its custody. In 2017, 1.3 out of every 10,000 animals the carrier transported in cargo holds died, according to the Transportation Department, compared with 0.47 out of every 10,000 across all airlines that reported data.
United did not identify specific aspects of the PetSafe program it's targeting for review but said it plans to work with independent experts in pet safety, comfort and travel.
The airline also said it will work with customers who want to cancel existing PetSafe reservations.
