Flying pets as checked baggage from Ireland airport (possible?)

blowinuk

Hi All, planning on taking our pet dog a large malamute from Ireland to the USA, and keep getting conflicting info. If you search online it says it's possible to fly your pet as checked baggage on airlingus (direct flight Shannon to Boston give or take 6 hours), but then we check with them and they say (not the most helpful person) that it's not possible, you need to use a cargo agent. If it wasn't stressful enough for our pooch we are faced not only with extortionate fees of 2k euro (our flight is 250 and we get a meal ffs!) we have to hand her over to some cargo handling agent where she can sit wondering if we will ever see her again for I don't know how long.

Surely it must be possible to just go to an airport as long as you have all necessary paperwork, which for the usa, is microchip/health cert and rabies vac. and armed with an airline approved travel crate just check them in as oversized baggage?

Apparently you can do this from any other country into Ireland and the cost is give or take about 150 euro. And a lot less stressful for the dog. As it will only be separated from you for about 8 hours.

Has anybody done it, can offer any advice?

munchkin_utd

would the problem with importing a dog from ireland direct be that Ireland has preclearance so you do NOT arrive into international arrivals and therefore are not dealt with in the normal way for dog imports ?

Theres some restriction due to rabies and this seems to making things stricter for now

Would you not go via London, Amsterdam, Paris , Frankfurt, Munich or Zurich with a full service airline like KLM/ air France group or Lufthansa/ Swiss group. Of that list, Munich or Zurich seems to be the airport which is least chaotic at the moment.

A medium size pet is 170 euro with Lufthansa, plus 150 surcharge for travelling via Frankfurt or Zurich, but none via Munich . Klm charges something up to 400Euro but wont give an exact price till booking.

SweetSand

If you are only going on holidays - it’s really not worth a hassle unfortunately. I did not fly with the dog to or from US but our friends did, flew from Ireland in 2016 and back to Ireland last July. You absolutely can’t just show up and expect the dog to be put in in the oversize luggage area. AL agent was correct saying that the whole process is handled by a 3rd party. It used to be possible to do it in Shannon, last year it was only Dublin, not sure if it’s still the case. The quoted price sounds correct. The biggest hassle is flying back though, you have to have 24h before departure paperwork done, not just by the vet but by official body, can’t remember the name. Our friend’s paperwork had incorrect date and it was too late to change as has to be original. Multiple phone calls and loads of nerves and stress as they were already looking into changing flights but they were able to go.

blowinuk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121105451#Comment_121105451

Paperwork aside, which we have covered, yeah maybe drive to London and fly from there, or maybe Manchester or Liverpool not sure if either cater for dogs to be checked baggage. Since covid it seems Dublin do not allow animals as checked baggage, hence why we thought Shannon might as it's just been designated a pet entry point, I guess they forgot to add pet exit :)

Our main concern isn't the price although even 400e to 2.5k seems like robbery (which I do object to on principle) it's when you fly your dog cargo, they generally aren't on the same flight as you, so you drop the dog off at the handler where it sits in a cage for potentially a few days before getting shoved on a flight and ending up 'maybe' at your destination, where after another day or so you can go fetch them. And they say they want to limit the stress to the animal.

blowinuk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121106725#Comment_121106725

Emigrating so absolutely worth it, I brought that dog into this world, so I will see it out.

It's all online...

https://www.aerlingus.com/prepare/bags/travelling-with-pets/

SweetSand

Although AL outsources IAG cargo services for pet traveling, your dog will actually be on the same flight as you (if you manage to book it on the same flight as limited spaces available). You will have to drop and pick up not at the terminal but different airport facility few extra hours before the flight and few extra hours after the flight. There are still a lot of rules to follow and there is a very short window to book your pet on the same flight you are going on. Like the crate has to be fully compliant with requirements and etc.

You are emigrating and you have much much higher expenses already and that price is totally worth it to have your pet over the other side of Atlantic. I would not personally consider trying to fly from another EU destination, you will only be putting your pet through more stress, imho.

I would contact IAG for all the details. I do know that it was hard enough for our friends to make sure they were able to book same flight for their pets (3) and themselves but they did it.