Flying with cats..

Kitty_mom

hello everybody,

I am in need of some information.

We are planning to move to america and we want to take our 2 cats with us. Does anybody have any experiance in taking pets in plane? can you recommend which flight is the best?

I have talked to our vet but he doesn't know anything. So before hunting down all the flight companies, I thought why not ask in this forum.

any advice/recommendation is welcome

Dee_animallover

Hi

Sorry i cant help you re flight but just wanted to say fair play for wanting to bring your cats with you!

Best of luck with the move!

galah

I don't have personal experience, but am the fortunate 'owner' of two cats due to friends who tried to bring their cats to the states.

Let me just say that this was a nightmare. They had all the paperwork, everything sorted, all vaccinations and what not - arrived at Shannon for an Aerlingus flight, and were told that on that particular day, aerlingus could not transport pets because of some heating problem in the hold. This excuse then changed to some other excuse (the higher it went up the chain of command at the airport since our friends obviously escalated this), and on it went.

In the end, they were forced to leave the cats in Ireland (luckily, someone drove them down the the airport and could take the cats back again, dunno what they would have done otherwise).

A second attempt ended pretty much the same. This was 5 years ago, things may have changed, but somehow, I don't think so.

Just be prepared for a lot of hassle, and try and get everything in writing. Also, have a backup plan just in case.

I sincerely hope that there are people here who were successful and can tell you a positive story - I certainly can't (even though it meant that I got two lovely cats ;-))

Dixie Chick

Hello

I hope this poster will not minf but Forbairt recently brought his cat to spain with him so maybe a pm to him may help

Boomtastic

About five years ago we flew our cats over to Ireland from the UK. We used British Airways.

When we were checking them in, the bottom fell out of one of the cat boxes. The cat landed on the floor. She was so shocked about her surroundings that she just stood there looking around her. Trying to catch a cat in a packed departure lounge would have been fun! :rolleyes:

Aru

my housemate flew a cat back to america with her last year.
you need to check the regulations of the state your flying into over there some of them require a health cert or passport with proof of things like vaccinations,rabies vaccine in particular(they wouldnt normally have them in a vet practice over here though we were able to get them from UCD so yours should be able to order them if nessecary) etc even though your coming from a rabies free country...others didnt need any documentation.
the airlines also differed in what they wanted though most had set sizes on carriers etc,the easiest thing to do was usually to ring up or check their websites for information on traveling with pets.
my housemate ended up flying to new york with the cat in the cabin with her as hand luggage...she had a health cert from the vet hospital in ucd but was never asked for it.think it cost around 150 to bring cat on plane.il ask her what airline when shes home

Kitty_mom

Thank you everybody for the advices.

I won't leave my cats behind as I love them too much .

Aru.. please ask your friend about the airline as I would prefer them taken as a cabin luggage as well.

after hearing all the horror stories about the cargo people losing pets, I am scared about letting them travel in cargo.

I have the passport in my hand right now and the would do anything to take them with me.

Sammi503

I took my kitten home with me in Feb 2009. I flew in with Delta and it was grand. I had to pay $150 at the desk when I got to the airport. You're also better off letting them know beforehand. In the airport they made me take the cat (Dinky) out of her cage to put it through a big scanner before I checked my bags, then they let me go through the priority security but I had to take her out of her cage again so it could go through the security belt (again) and I carried her through the scanner. She sat in her cage under the seat in front of me (unfortunately the cage was a bit big and I had no leg room). Once we got into JFK I was told she'd have to be assessed by a vet...That was a lie. I threw my bags onto a cart, threw her cage on top and went to go through the mini immigration thing (where you given the guys the disembarkation form). They told me to go to another queue to see a different guy who asked if I had a chihuahua in the crate. I said nope a kitten and he told me to just leave it's grand. So waltzed right out!!! I'd advise taking the cat to the vet soon after getting there for a rabies shot and to just generally be checked over, but all in all it was relatively painless!!

Kitty_mom

hey sammi.. thank you for the recommendation. Did they specify the size of the carrier or something?? my cats are big and I have the 30 x 60 x 40 cm carrier bought in argos which says is the medium one. My cats weigh about 5.8 kgs each.

Did they have any specification mentioned? I would love for them to be with me rather than in the cargo.

Sammi503

http://www.delta.com/planning_reservations/special_travel_needs/pet_travel_information/pet_travel_options/index.jsp

here's the link to the Delta website about flying with pets. Unfortunately they specify only 1 pet allowed in the cabin with you. You might want to try to ring them and explain the situation and see. Perhaps if you have someone sitting with 1 cat in 1 row and then another person with the other cat in a different row they might make allowances. I know my cage didn't fit under the seat in front of me, but any time an air hostess came by I put my feet on top of the cage and made sure that they couldn't see it!!

Kitty_mom

thank you so much sammi for your help