ribblerider

Has anyone here flown their dog with Airtransat from the UK to Canada? Me and the dog are flying from Glasgow into Toronto next month. Did a bit of reading on this and chose Airtransat as they dont require you to use any pet travel companies which seem extortionate. But I can see why, they take all the risk from the client and do all the bits and pieces that need done.

So far what I have done:

Vaccination record up to date ✅
Rabies vaccination done in May ✅
Microchipped ✅
IATA Approved air crate bought ✅ (within the dimensions so as not to go cargo)
Weighed dog and crate at the vet... 44.8kg combined (cutting it fine) ✅
Flights booked and added dog on for oversized baggage ✅

Still to do:
Export health certificate. Appointment now booked with an OV Vet within 72 hours of flight out. ❓

As far as I believe there is nothing else I need to do, bar the above between now and my dog's flight out. But if I have missed something, I am all ears.

Thanks in advance.

Lichisadave

Hi looks like you’re good to go we came over with our Lab 5 years ago think it was more stress full for me than him. We attached a dish on the inside so that he could be given water and didn’t feed him before the flight. The one thing we did do was zip tie the crate door shut before we got to check in not realising they swab inside before they take them away. So just hold off doing that until they’ve swabbed the crate. He was in his crate for 11 hours 😢all in (hold up in immigration) and I was a complete mess when we finally got him but he was fine once he was out of the crate. Good luck

ribblerider

Thanks for that. Yes he has a plastic dish attached to the wire door. It's a skykennel crate we have. Went for the XXXL one as it was right on the limit for the dimensions but means our dog has plenty space to move around. I land at about 11am in the morning and got a hire car for 15:00... Well it's more like a people carrier to fit everything in, including the dog crate for a shift up to Montreal.

Blondscot

Sounds like you’ve done almost everything. Get your vet check booked asap- worth trying to do with your own personal vet. Also your hire car at 3pm is possibly a bit late, can you make it earlier? There can sometimes be situations where you are sent away as there are not enough cars ready so you have to wait further. You don’t want to be late picking up your dog from cargo.
There is also the issue of the dog not flying if air temperature on landing being over 28 degrees I believe. Hopefully not the case for September but was one of the reasons I chose to fly my car behind me and with an agency plus the connecting flight made it more expensive than going with a pet travel company.
Good luck with your pet move, hope all goes smoothly.

Blondscot

Also just a point and might be worth phoning air transat to clarify but I tried to add my cat ( obviously much smaller than a dog) and he would have had to go cargo. I was told all air transat flights flying from glasgow are done independently and booked with a separate cargo agent who process them separately from the airport terminal. I was in touch with an agent in glasgow to do this before I decided to go via pet air due to so many add on costs/ stress. Again it might be the agent I had on the phone that had messed up but just might be worth checking.

ribblerider

=Hi, thanks for the info, already got an OV vet booked up weeks ago for the export health cert and called airtransat to book the dog on as oversized baggage with the crate and weight within the limits. Avoided cargo just! I need to find out where the dog pick up area is, for the customs paperwork too. I land at 11 and have car booked from 15:00 onwards, purely to cater for getting out the airport in slow time with dog etc. From there, pick up wife and kids from the temp accomodation and head out the City stopping overnight before we go onto our next destination. 😁

scilly

Not really anything to do with your pet.

But what date are you flying into Canada?

jeremy brewer

Hi
a few years ago now, but we used air transat, very pleased with them
cheers J

ribblerider

Sorry for late reply. I'm here now with dog. 😬👌

ribblerider

Yes was pretty smooth and they gave him water also either when he came out or just before. When his crate came out at the baggage area his water bowl had water in it so that was good.

MrMrsT2023

Sorry to revive and old thread
I have had conflicting info from AT- been told I need to book my 6kg Boston x with a cargo company out of Glasgow- did you do this or how did you get your dog on your flight as checked baggage ?

ribblerider

I have sent you a DM with my number. Ping me a message and happy to have a phone call with you to talk you through it all.

I did the dog stuff all myself as described above. Sure once I checked me and my dog in, I went to oversized baggage with him and from there he went through the cargo section. He more or less sat in the cargo part of the plane on the same flight.


Cheers

ribblerider

Doggo when he arrived in Toronto! The hardest part of all this was probably getting the dog crate (no wheels) out of thr airport to the hire care place. On my back I had a backpacker's luggage carrier. Made things that little bit easier than an actual suitcase. I did ask the attendants if they had anything bigger to trolley him out, but nope! Got through customs, didn't pay a penny and onwards to the hire car which was a Chrysler Grand Caravan. Excellent pick! As I picked the family up, lugged all the suitcases in the back and everything else accumulated over the month, plis crate and trekked across in the car to Montreal with an overnight stop over. Did the job! £££££'s saved compared to using a pet travel service company.