Which airlines take pets?
 

Hi Everyone,

Which airlines take pets, ie. dogs & cats?

We plan to arrange taking them ourselves rather than use a 'pet travel' agency.

Cheers,

Arris

Re: Which airlines take pets?
 

Air Transat, BA, Air Canada, Zoom to name but a few. We are taking our 2 dogs on Sunday via Zoom. If you are taking a dog it is very unlikely that you will be able to "do it yourself" as most airlines have now stopped the Excess baggage thingy. Air Transat might still do it, but they only fly to Toronto over the winter and we need to go to Calgary.

Air Canada has a weight limit of 32kg (pet and crate).

From what I can gather most airlines now force you to use the "cargo" route which means getting a pet travel agency involved. I might be wrong but, as our 2 dogs are costing us in the region of £2200 to fly over, I have done my research as every penny counts at this stage.

We also looked into flying them to Toronto with Air Transat and then taking them by train or car to Calgary. The hassle factor involved made us decide against it.

HTH

Re: Which airlines take pets?
 

Cheers for the info.

Didn't know that some of the airlines had stopped the excess baggage re. pets, so in a way now forced to use a pet travel agency.

Had a quote for 1 doberman & 3 cats - £2500:eek: , so hence looking into arranging ourselves! We also will be flying into Calgary.

By looking at your avatar, I guess your taking a couple of Rotties with you:). I wish you all the best with your journey & also your dogs journey - i'd be really interested to hear how they get on.

All the best,

Arris

Re: Which airlines take pets?
 

Yep we are taking 2 rotties.

BA stopped excess baggage in October last year - I have also heard that Air Transat are doing so but I haven't seen anything to this effect on their website.

Your cats will be OK on Air Canada but the Doberman is likely to be too heavy (once the weight of the crate is added as well).

Best of luck :D

Re: Which airlines take pets?
 

Hi not sure if this will help much, we were hoping to get to Vancouver by end of feb and needed to get 4 cats their, the only flights we could find heading that way at time was Zoom. They only take pets as cargo and had us a quote sent from Jet Set Pets, and for 4 cats including carriers was quoted £725.15 which i didn't think was too bad, but having said that dont know anything about them and haven't heard anyone mention them on forum. Haven't done anything about it as getting their by end of feb turned out to be wishful thinking:eek: Sans

Re: Which airlines take pets?
 

Hi guys,

Excuse my ignorance but can you explain to me the procedure for bringing a pet into Canada.....how do you go about it?

Dave

Re: Which airlines take pets?
 

You put in on a plane and take it to Canada. There is no real procedure to speak of.

Until recently a number of the airlines allowed you to take the pet as "excess baggage" for fixed fees irrespective of the weight/size of the pet. They travelled in the same space in the plane as one going as "cargo" but cost approx 1/10 of the price. Most airlines have now stopped this and pets have to go as "cargo".

Most airlines do not allow you to book them on as cargo yourself, hence the reason why most people now have to use a "pet transport company".

There is no quarantine like there is in the UK and provided your pet has had the relevant vaccinations, they will be let in. If they haven't had such vaccinations, they can be given them by a vet in Canada (they have to be inspected by a vet in Canada before they clear customs anyway.

HTH

Re: Which airlines take pets?
 

You do have to take them to your vets and get them checked out, to make sure they are fit to fly, you can also get them pet passports but not abligitory , but if once in Canada and you wish to return with pets they will have to go through qaurantine if they have not got pet passport. They also need to have rabies injection but you can choose whether to have that done here or in Canada. And according to the infomation i have been given you need a Defra export health certificate. Best talk to your vet and also if you go on the Defra web site it will explain better. Sans

Re: Which airlines take pets?
 

They don't need a rabies vaccination if they have paperwork to show they've been in the UK for >6mths, and there isn't any vet involved when they get to the airport, just a customs officer.

Re: Which airlines take pets?
 

And they certainly DONT need anything fron defra just to enter Canada

Re: Which airlines take pets?
 

It doesn't look like AC have changed their rules at all since when we moved out (with cat & dog) in June. (Although we actually ended up using BA as they had a more generous excess baggage limit, which accomodated our boxer).

AC states that "Pets and their kennels, whose combined weight is LESS than 70 lbs(32.5 kg), are accepted for travel in the baggage compartment provided they are accompanied by the owner on the same flight."

And on their Cargo site, they have some helpful FAQs:http://www.aircanada.com/cargo/en/services/faq.html.

So it looks like you can still either use excess baggage (upto 32.5kg) or just reserve your pet on the same flight OR a different flight for them to travel independantly through AC Cargo - no need to use a travel firm ;) .

Re: Which airlines take pets?
 

Thanks very much for the info, really helpful.

Cheers, Arris

Re: Which airlines take pets?
 

Good luck with it! It is a worrying thing (travelling with pets) - think I spent more time arranging, checking and double checking that than anything else!

Before we flew we bought crates (from http://www.zooplus.com/shop/dogs/dog...carriers/13607 and a couple of metal (so they couldn't be chewed) water bowls, like this http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/birds/...od_water/30495 which bolted to their crates, a funnel for each crate, and also some vetbed to line each crate.

I also did a checklist for the big day of departure: a schedule for both the pets to make sure they ate far enough in advance, and that we had all the paperwork (rabies cert., pet passport, letter from vet etc.) before we left the house, and what to do at the airport (e.g. make sure they both had their collars removed, and water bottles and funnels taped to their crates); I also stuck little notices on their crates saying 'hi, I'm Charlie, I'm friendly' etc. just so the airline staff could talk to them. :)

Okay - so maybe I was a bit anal about the whole thing, :o , but they both arrived okay!

Re: Which airlines take pets?
 

They now need export health certificates from defra to fly, apparently .

Re: Which airlines take pets?
 

I will take your word for it. ;)
BUT we were told the same thing around this time last year and it wasnt true when we checked with the airlines (and vet and the Brother-in-Law who works for Defra).
Having said that the rules may have changed since.