apfairhurst

Hello

Has anyone used Air Transat or any other airline to fly dogs to Canada. We have had a quote from Air Pets to fly our 2 dog to Calgary and its more than flying a family of 5. Many thanks.

Alberta_Rose

Yes. Air Transat to Calgary last October. No major problems, except they nearly refused the dog as we were boarding, as they'd discovered the Air conditioning/heating was not working in the hold the animals were to be carried in. They eventually managed to find another place to transport them safely.

Looked sticky for a while, but was all sorted and we got here safely. 65 quid!! (but I hear it has gone up a bit since)

Butch Cassidy

Yes,
we found them excellent. Fast tracked to front of check-in, didnt have to hand him over till the last minute. They watered him at this end. (we flew gatwick-toronto)

nipperdog

Again this is only what I heard from a friend who did it, she ordered her crates and took her dogs (a border collie and a greyhound) on as excess baggage, costing her around £60 a dog for the flight and the same again for crates. Bargain!!

Novocastrian

^^ OK for dogs, but not so good for people.

h_henry

We are flying air transat gatwick to halifax in early July. Will do a post when we get to other side (and have bought a computer) and let you know how it went!

The Escapea

You can also try Air Canada & British Airways if you want to travel in a bit more comfort, but not pay exhorbitant fees for pet shippers! AC & BA both let your pets travel on your flight as excess baggage (BA is about £270 per pet, AC is more like £120 but they have a weight limit of 32kg max including carrier). We're using BA for the pets in about 10 days, and so far they've been helpful (more than AC were).

creamcrackered

this is interesting as i have had a quote from jetz4petz at £800 for our cocker spaniel, so does anyone have a web address for the others ones

The Escapea

Hi creamcrackered,

Info for BA is here (simply call them to make a reservation and say you want your dog to fly too, and they contact the pets dept. to check if there's space on the flight you want to travel on; they then call you within 48hrs to confirm); AC is here (same booking process as BA, but you get to speak to a (usually unhelpful) offshore call centre person to sort the pets out) - as you're dog is a cocker spaniel I'd think you'd be within their weight limit of 32kg (our boxer was just over with his crate, so we're using BA); and Air Transat is here. Good luck!

creamcrackered

Many thanks for those links

Rock God

You may find that BA and AC have an embargo an shipping pets at cetain times of the year> I made enquiries into both airlines and as well as being stupidly expensive they both stated that they wouldn't take pets after June 20th until September sometime (i forget when exactly). There were two reasons I believe, one to do with temperature (they have embargos around christmas/January time too) and the other, more believable reason, that they need the designated space for more profitable reasons. Call them though as this all may have changed recently. If it's any help we booked Transat Gatwick to Vancouver for June 17 and got our cat on the same flight. The cats ticket was $250 - more than ours but still cheap compared to other methods. Oh, some airlines will ship pets as cargo. I called Air Canada cargo a few months ago, again enquiring about the cat, and they quoted me £700+.
Transat, as far as i know, do not have any of these embargos either so they win hands down for me!

suede

Hi
We arrived in Toronto From Gatwick with Air Transat with two Golden Retrievers on 19th May 2006. We were told by Jets4pets (who we paid to fly our dogs) to get the dogs to the Cargo departure 3/4 hours before their flight and that the crates were there waiting for them. When we arrived at the Cargo departure (7.30am) we were told that we were late and that the dogs should have bee there by 5am. We showed them our paper work and they sorted it out. Next problem they had to hunt the warehouse for our crates. Once found my husband and daughter placed our beloved dogs into their carriers. The Take off, flight and landing was excellent. Once at Toronto airport and after going through Customs/Immigration etc (1 1/2 hrs), we were ready to collect our pets. We collected rental car and toured the airport looking for them (2hrs). You have to take paperwork one end of airport to get their landing papers, go to the other end of airport to get them stamped and payment and a vet to check them (another 1hr wait), then take papers back to where you started. (We did ask at Air Transat desk for help to locate dogs, but they told me that it had nothing to do with them, very unhelpful). When we finally saw our pets they had not been taken out of their crates since landing and had been laying in their excretion for sometime. We took them out of their crates. They were very dazed not like our pets at all. It took us 2 days to settle them down and get them back to normal. My husband has e-mailed jets4pets and they are looking into this matter as we do not want anyone's pets going through what ours did. They have been very nice. Air Transat have not replied yet, but we will get and answer. Stay in touch and let us know how you get on. always check and double check arrangements and get everything in writing. Good Luck with your move. Jets4pets cost £926. We are living in Winnipeg now.

Butch Cassidy

Looks like you were well and truly ripped off and shafted!!! If you'd dealt with Transat direct shouldnt have cost more than £200!!!!

Higgy

Definately agree you should get everything in writing. We flew our two dogs last november with BA. We were quoted £90 each dog and we had to pay that at Glasgow airport. When we got to the airport we were told that it was £90 each dog from Glasgow to London then £90 each from London to Vancouver and also we had to pay £100 each dog for them to wait in the kennels at Heathrow between flights. All in all, we were told it would be £180 and it cost us £560 plus we had to pay U.S. tax. As we had nothing in writing (we booked on the phone) we just had to pay up. We still complained though!

apfairhurst

Hello. What a terrible story. I dare not let my Wife read it because our two dogs are more important to her than I am. We have looked into buying our own plastic containers and i have asked my Wife to contact Air Transat to arrange our flights and the transportation for the dogs. Wouldn't it be lovely if life was simple and moving to Canada could be stress free...oh well