AC

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...