Flying with dog

[dogtraveller]

We’ll be going to New York City for year in 2027 and I’m looking for advice about transporting our dog. I understand all the technical requirements, but am hoping some of you might have experience of flying with pets. I’ve looked into going with Queen Mary 2, but that takes 7 days and he’d be much better off if we did it in one day.

I have well travelled dogs, the main thing is to get the crate well, well in advance of the first flight and make sure its a really safe and happy space. Most trauma is from the crate rather than the noise. Also, once they see you the other end, they generally calm down and in future flights, tale it more in their stride. That's been my experience. And I think if you asked them, they would prefer to fly than be left behind (if they could talk, but you know what i mean)

I don’t know what your budget is but I saw an instagram post with K9 jets. You fly in a private plane with your dog in the cabin with you. But $9k one way!

Thank you. Do you need a particular crate? He was crate trained as a puppy, but never really liked it and hasn’t had one for years.

Don’t know if it’s still the same but when my son bought his dog from New York to the UK a few years ago he flew with her in the cabin with him into Paris and then got the Eurostar to London (in a hired car I believe).
France let’s you fly in with dogs in the cabin, the UK don’t.
I think it depends on the size of the dog though, they have to be small enough to fit in a carrier.

The crate has to be very specific, IPATA approved and the dimensions carefully measured. I think its 10cm above the head and 10cm longer than the nose to tail length front and back. It might have changed. The Skudo crates come in two halves so you can use the lower half as a bed and build it up. Depends on the airline and destination country. If you fly from Europe, smaller dogs can go in a soft bag in the cabin, from the UK its always Cargo in the hold unless support or working dog.

Thanks so much @Salvadoridory I thought the airline would supply the crate. He’s a largish poodle so isn’t eligible for a cabin.

The airlines have very specific requirements for crates so check with the one you fly with

There are companies that specialise in helping you relocate pets, they give you all the correct advise and help you with all the logistics. One is PetAir UK but there’s a few around. Personally, if I were flying with my dog, I would start saving now to go private with K9Jets.

We flew our dogs to Ireland ( one way for us as we were returning permanently.) We did this during Covid so flying with our dogs wasn't possible, though they were about standard poodle size so too big to be in the cabin. We got a quote from a pet transport company but again Covid nixed that. They really only added a few hundred dollars to our eventual costs so are probably worth it if your gping to London to New York for peace of mind.

Follow the guidelines to the letter - our vet was certified in the US to do all.required paoerwork and guided us through the process. I'm sure there's the same in the UK. The right vet will really help.

Crate train starting now. The size of crate is specified by the airline. Our dogs were totally fine when we picked them up, but they had had months to get used to the crates. The airline accepted dogs in smaller than specified crayes but I wouldn't do that to the poor dog.

We flew them over in late spring 2020.one has since passed away, but the other is still happily here with is. Within hours, it was like they'd always lived here.

My info may well be out of date but when i had to book myself and my (large) dog onto a flight from Greece, I had got the correct size travel cage and done all the vet stuff but was limited in choice of airlineas the only airline flying direct into UK from Athens that took animals was British Airways. They told me they only take one dog/animal per flight so if another animal was booked already, I would have to book us another day. Also, they only flew animals on one particular flight a day. You do have to fly into Heathrow, as that is where the Animal Reception Centre is (on the perimeter road - hard to find in the dark). You have to hope they don't have a lot of animals flying in around the same time or you will have to wait a long time for your dog to clear (they wash down the crate for you though!).