On November 1st 2005, if you had been lucky enough to be out at sea off the New England coast you might have caught a glimpse of the rainbow shining about the 'Stavros S Niarchos' Tall Ship.

Better yet, if you had been really lucky, you would have been one of the kids sailing that ship.

Last Tuesday, after traveling from the north of Sweden to Stockholm, to New Jersey, to Maine, the King Fredel clan was only looking forward to our final two flights from New Hampshire to Oakland because it meant we were on our way home to San Francisco, California. From our property in Southern Maine, it took us an hour-and-a-half to get to Manchester, New Hampshire's airport. With golf clubs, two bags a piece, a kennel and a Golden Retriever to check, needless to say, we were not happy when we learned that United Airlines had changed the type of plane in which we would be flying. As a result, their smaller plane would not be able to accommodate our seventy-pound pup and kennel.

This story, however, does have a happy ending.

But first ...

An Even Worse Nightmare

Last summer, the four of us flew from Oakland to Boston on JetBlue for $109 a piece, each way. Our dog, Dakota, on the other hand, cost $587 one-way via USAir. Upon her return home, separate from us, USAir literally lost our dog. There was no record of her in the computer. They simply could not find her. And when I called Philadelphia to find out if she for sure made her connection, I got the following response:

Lady, we ship hundreds of packages and pieces of cargo a day from here. We can't expect to be able to keep track of every one.

This was not an important document I was looking for. This was my Golden Retriever puppy, a dog we love so much we're willing to pay beaucoup bucks to get her across country, so she can enjoy every summer in Maine with us.

Never mind that Federal Express and DHL can successfully get a package from one end of the country 99.9% of the time without losing it.

Why then was USAir Cargo not able to provide the same kind of service shipping a live animal? We will never know.

After Tim spent three hours at the airport waiting for flight upon flight to come in, hoping Dakota would be on it, we finally got our pup home safe and sound. Given our extremely frustrating experience, we did not hesitate to be interviewed live by Animals Aloud radio show host Deirdre Kennedy last fall. Deirdre wanted to share our frustrating story with her listeners, and we were happy to tell it.

The good news is that there is another carrier in the country that provides better service than USAir did last summer. And that is United Airlines.

Last Tuesday, sitting from my economy seat, both my family of four and our five year-old pup below received first class service - thanks to the agent in Manchester, Ronnie Kerr and the "Captain of our Ship".