To think I heard a dog barking on a KLM flight?

The poster was purely factual, not at all rude. This is the kind of specialist knowledge my dad would have come out with. 😢

Thanks!
It would be easier and cheaper to fly ten kids than single dog back to UK!

You are right, I erased the memory of very high quote to get dog shipped with company
It was significantly cheaper to get a man with a van and cross sea.

I had to fly them to Schipol...then hand them to a pet handling service, they then put them on a KLM flight to the UK. When we all arrived at Heathrow, they got picked up by the Quarantine centre, all the paper work checked and I picked them up that evening. They did not have to do quarantine as I had all their rabies titres done before flying. BA do not fly pets directly in to the UK
I last flew pets back to the UK in 2017. It's easier moving with kids around the world than with pets 😁

@ReadthemAndWeep you said you like to trust the KLM webpage, please look on their aircraft list for A320

www.klm.co.uk/information/travel-class-extra-options/aircraft-types

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/KLM_fleet#:~:text=Dutch%20flag%2Dcarrier%20airline%20KLM,primarily%20on%20long%2Dhaul%20flights.

Deliveries for the A320 are from July 2024. As we're still in June, @RealOliveTraybake is very much correct.

The ones you tried to show earlier were for a sister airline, not KLM but one of the branches of Air France-KLM: Transavia France

www.airfranceklm.com/en/newsroom/air-france-klm-takes-delivery-its-first-airbus-a320neo-be-operated-transavia-france

Please trust the genuine subject matter expert. As all who have praised @RealOliveTraybake today have really enjoyed their posting!

I have read all of @RealOliveTraybake’s post, and can’t see anything rude in them!

Can you just point out exactly where @realolivetraybake was rude? Nobody else on the thread has been able to see it and you've just been embarrassing yourself since. It's a real shame you've taken this position because you both seemed well informed and could have a really interesting discussion together, that we all could have learnt from, including you. You ruined it by taking offence at nothing.

I was looking for an answer of "Oh, I used to know this one. It's always coming up at pub quizzes, now is it 3 hours and 28 seconds or is that a weasel in the submarine?"

They didn't warn me when booking, but when I got on the flight crew let me know my neighbour was a cat and asked if that was ok, or if they needed to reshuffle seating.

No. And I doubt you'd be able to check in advance either. The best you can do is to find if the flight/airline allows pets to be carried in the cabin, and take your chances.

A few years ago coming homie from a work trip I flew KLM business class from Houston to Amsterdam and the woman behind me had a Shih Tzu with her. Which I wouldn't have minded normally but this thing farted (at least I told myself it was fart) the whole flight and it was disgusting. God knows what they'd been feeding it to make it stink like that.

Do they warn you that there will be cats on board when booking?

Hold got air and temperature checks.
If you fly with a dog in a hold you can ask flight attendant and they will provide info.
Also, pilots are informed if they have dog in hold. Mines went to plane multiole times.

I was about to ask about this.
We always had to get fogs in by car bcs we were told no one operates return flights to UK with animals

As @Roryhon and others have said they usually go in the rear hold (on Longhaul aircraft such as the 777).

The Flight crew (pilots) get paperwork detailing what animals are on board, which acts as reminder to them to make sure that the appropriate hold is set to run at the correct temperature for the creatures involved.

When I was working it wasn’t uncommon to carry several cats and dogs (and other livestock such as tropical fish and some types of chicks) on an individual flight, and they’d be fine even on the really long flights like Singapore-> UK.

FWIW there are all sorts of rules about the exact way animals are carried and loaded in the holds, including factors like ensuring the loading team didn’t put natural “foes” in their individual containers in close proximity/line of sight to each other.

Both Air Canada and Westjet allow small cats/dogs in the cabin - they have to fit in a soft sided kennel bag.

There are also rules about certain routes in summer (too hot), in winter (very cold!) and about snub-nosed dog breeds.

Yes I have flown pets with KLM. They go into the heated hold, so you might very well have heard barking.
Some owners give tranquillisers to the pets, but it is actually advised not to.

Was just thinking the same 😮 bad enough when they are in their own familiar car on a ferry on their own. No way could I put my dog in the hold of a plane.

Yes, cats can go on planes, typically in the hold though.

You can check if a flight/airline allows small pets in carriers under the seats - if they do, a cat is possible. If not, then no cat (but dog is still a possibility as assistance dogs can travel on any plane).

Can cats go on planes ??? I’m severely allergic and have severe asthma would I need to let someone know now when booking as I would be in danger I didn’t even realise this was something I’d need to worry about !

I think I'll choose to believe the official klm website over a random anonymous "expert" on a chat form.

But your Google search was incorrect. That poster explained the planes you mentioned have been ordered but aren’t operational 🤷‍♀️

I’m pretty sure they heat the hold if animals are flying. Though I did read of a case once where they forgot to turn the heating on and the lets didn’t survive.

I was cabin crew at Heathrow for many years. We often had animals in the hold. I was long haul and they were always in the rear hold as it’s heated, so we could occasionally hear them on a 777 in our galley. We’d usually only hear them on the ground when the holds were open, so either they settled down in flight or the aircraft noise drowned them out. There was an occasion when a dog got out of its cage and wouldn’t let the baggage loaders unload the hold! I don’t know that I’d like my dog travelling in an aircraft. If I had a short haul trip I’d take them by land.

Ive only ever had three dogs in total in the cabin on my flights, but I loved it! They were so good.

Yikes. More bitter than Italian amaro.

How long can a dog survive, in an unheated hold at thirty-four thousand feet?