Starting March 3, United and Continental will be merging and adopting Continental’s pet transportation program, known as “PetSafe”.

These new regulations mean that pets will no longer be allowed to be checked as baggage. They will need to fly as cargo which will be a bit more expensive.

However, United claims that the cost differences won’t be much greater than checking them as baggage would be. For example, the cargo rate for an animal that weighs between 10 and 50 pounds coming to the U.S. from Micronesia would be $309. A smaller animal would cost $259, United spokeswoman Mary Ryan says.

United says that they are picking up this program because of the many resources available for handling the pets in their care. Several pet transportation professionals have praised about this new adoption of the PetSafe program.

“They’re fantastic with their animals,” says Gay O’Brien, former president of the International Pet and Animal Transportation Association. “We’re all so pleased that United is picking that up.”