New policy by United Airlines, no more emotional support animals on planes

Monday, January 7, 2019

Emotional support kittens and puppies will be banned along with the prohibition of emotional support on longer routes by the United Airlines.

Following the footsteps of rival Delta which banned puppies and kittens in last year December and the American airline will be the latest to clamp down on its rules around animals on board.

The accepted emotional support animals to cats and dogs will be permitted to fly with the passengers on flights of under eight hours which was earlier limited by Southwest will also be followed by United.

On any flight puppies and kittens under four months old will no longer be eligible to travel in the cabin.However, miniature horses along with cats and dogs as service animals will still be acceptable.

Under the 1986 Air Carrier Access Act in the US support and service animals can fly free of charge and without a carrier in the cabin.

There has been a rise in incidents involving allergies, attacks and soiled cabins which led airlines to tighten rules because of the increasing number of passengers taking emotional support animals on planes.

United mentioned in a statement that there was an increase in onboard incidents on longer flights involving these animals where many are not used to spending an extended amount of time in the cabin of an aircraft.

From January 7, the new rules will come into effect even though the airline mentioned that it will honour bookings made before January 3 allowing passengers to travel with animals considering the previous guidelines.

After a spike in the number of unusual animals brought onboard flights in the US the rule has changed.Around 700 animals were carried daily by Delta where passengers flew with animals from comfort turkeys and gliding possums to snakes and spiders.

Emotional support animals are not recognized outside the US but passengers can take assistance or service animals  trained to assist disabled person-this remains free of charge.

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