Almost 11 years ago we bought our Pomeranian, Meko, from a breeder in Oregon. Therefore, she had to travel to us by air and we picked her up at the airport. She also had to change planes! Now, I remember being concerned about her well-being since I heard a lot of stories about it getting so hot in the baggage area that dogs or cats shipped by plane were dying. Fortunately, she arrived safe and sound with no apparent trauma due to an unsafe flying situation.
Recently, an article in Psychology Today told a story about a woman who had her dogs shipped on United Airlines. When the couple went to pick up the dogs, one of the dogs was dead. They were given a run around and the couple had a difficult time retrieving their animal. There was also a lack of any emotion from the airline personnel over the traumatic event. When the couple was finally able to get their dog back and have their vet perform an autopsy to determine cause of death, the findings suggested that death was from heatstroke.
When our Meko was shipped to us, there was a lot of good publicity about Delta airlines saying that they were more considerate of pets being flown across the country than the other airlines. The author of the article in PT did a study based on number of passengers flying. US Air came out first with the lowest incidence of pet deaths with United the second safest.
But the good news is, with over 600,000 pets flying each year, the chance of your pet dying, getting lost, or suffering any injury is 0.009 percent. You have to decide if that percentage is more of a risk than you are willing to take.