need help

Old Jul 20th 2015, 2:51 pm
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Default need help

Hi Guys I'm back to the drawing board with how to get my cat home .

I need help !!
I have 2 options it seems .

I can not afford cat transport from Paris to Hull , and flight to England mean Romeo has to go in Cargo to London 14 hours in a kennel , with wait time and $1700, so looking at option .
1) one I fly from Montreal to Paris, find a place to stay that is not to far from CDG airport and easy to get to as will have my cat and luggage, needs to be close to chunnel or ferry so I can try to find a lift from there, to somewhere in UK were I can get train to Hull maybe bla bla car .

or fly to Amsterdam find a place to stay and a ride to Rotterdam for P&O over night ferry to Hull
trying to find less streess for my cat that doesn't cost a FORTUNE.

any help would be much appreciated
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Old Jul 20th 2015, 4:25 pm
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I am not sure of your timeframe but perhaps...... You could fly to NY and catch QM2. If you go in the winter months you might be able to find a place and boarding your cat would be $500. Others have done this but i'm not expert. Also boarding animals on QM2 is very popular thing to do.. Probably daft idea..
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Old Jul 21st 2015, 11:59 am
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Default Re: need help

I did look into this a while ago , but as im single occupancy, it was very expensive, plus you have no choice but to rent 2 kennels $500 each.

I am planning on leaving in the next month.
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Old Jul 21st 2015, 12:19 pm
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Have you tried icelandair, it costs less than half that from alberta
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Old Jul 22nd 2015, 1:56 pm
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Default Re: need help

I suggest trying to find a cheaper carrier. $1700 for one cat sounds high to me. I can't remember how much we paid for 2 cats from Alberta last year, but I don't think it was that much. We used Air Transat.
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Old Jul 22nd 2015, 2:52 pm
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Default Re: need help

Originally Posted by Editha
I suggest trying to find a cheaper carrier. $1700 for one cat sounds high to me. I can't remember how much we paid for 2 cats from Alberta last year, but I don't think it was that much. We used Air Transat.
Air trans at to France is excellent $275
but to the UK $1700 via external cargo ,with mandatory vet check at Uk airport
of 300 pounds .
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Old Jul 22nd 2015, 2:53 pm
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Default Re: need help

we all need to be contacting DEFRA , its become a scam to bring our animals home .
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Old Jul 22nd 2015, 4:45 pm
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Default Re: need help

We paid $1,222 through Petsaway using Air Transat, for two cats Edmo to Gatwick. Having said that, our amazingly inefficient vets managed to screw nearly $1,000 more from us for doing the vaccinations and the paperwork (which they repeatedly made a mess of). But that's Edmo vets for you.
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Old Jul 22nd 2015, 4:51 pm
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Default Re: need help

You could try contacting Petsaway to see if they can give you a cheaper quote.
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Old Jul 23rd 2015, 8:04 am
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Default Re: need help

Will you be on the same flight as your cat? Are you travelling alone?

Really, there are only ever 4 options for getting your cats into the UK:

a) the more economical but stressful one (fly into Europe, transport independently to UK)
b) the expensive direct route (fly into UK)
c) the even more expensive direct route (pay a pet transporting service)
d) QMII (and, for many reasons, this doesn't suit most circumstances)

So it looks like c) and d) are off the cards. Your airline quote for flying into the UK does seem even higher than usual -- we paid $1500 for 2 cats, LAX-LHR. Have you been able to get several quotes? I'd even call the same airline again, because usually the price is just an estimate. Check whether it includes the processing fee at LHR.

I think a) is more difficult if you've got a cat, because at least people with dogs can chuck their crates at the European airport and proceed with them on the leash, whereas cat owners are still going to be lugging around a big cargo box. Could you take a lightweight soft-sided carrier in your luggage, and switch the cat to this when you arrive -- much easier on the train or ferry? Will you have an extra set of hands with you? Will you have tons of luggage? If you go this route, personally I'd try to avoid dragging it out any longer than necessary by spending the night in Europe. I'm sure I've read here of people taking taxis from the European airport, right through to England...?

Last edited by MoshiMoshi; Jul 23rd 2015 at 8:07 am.
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Old Jul 23rd 2015, 8:30 am
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Default Re: need help

And, FWIW, I think the costs are mind-boggling, but I don't think it's a scam. In the age of international travel it would be easy for DEFRA just to throw its hand up and say, okay: we give up, let rabies and other communicable animal ailments come into the country, we're not really an island any more. But they are making every effort to prevent this happening, whilst also considerably relaxing animal travel regulations a few years ago (at least you're not dealing with months of quarantine).

The airline thing -- paying around 4x the European ticket price for your pet to fly cargo into the UK, even though there's no material difference in their transportation -- is, indeed, a kick in the teeth. Like many others here, my first response to the quote was: I'm sorry, you seem to have given me the price for flying them on private learjets with roast chicken dinners; how much do the regular tickets cost? BUT, if if makes you feel any better, I'm not sure if the airlines are even profiting that much. The UK price reflects the added burden of administration it takes for them to transport animals into the highly-regulated British airports (highly regulated, for reasons above), and, since they only have a few animals per flight, there's no volume business. Quite a lot of airlines just flat-out refuse to accept animals on UK-bound flights; it's just not worth the hassle. So I'm glad that a few do, or we would've had to wait a year for a QMII booking.

^ not supposed to be a lecture, but just don't get too angry about it! I occasionally raged about it when I was trying to get our cats home, and now I just wish I'd saved the energy. I don't think DEFRA can do much about the cost without compromising protection for British pets and wildlife.
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Old Jul 23rd 2015, 9:03 am
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Default Re: need help

I agree with Moshi about DEFRA. When we took our cats to Canada, they were treated appallingly.

We arrived in Edmo when the temperature was in the nineties. It took over an hour to complete the paperwork to collect the cats and then we found they'd been left in an warehouse which wasn't air conditioned and without water. The gormless Canuck who delivered them to us was carrying his own bottle of water, which I grabbed from him to give to the cats. One of them was elderly and had kidney problems. We had to have her put down a few months later; her demise undoubtedly hastened by Edmo airport.

I'd rather pay the £300 and have a guarantee my pets are going to be treated properly.
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Old Jul 24th 2015, 11:43 am
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Default Re: need help

If I were you (and I'm glad I'm not, it sounds awfully complicated and stressful ), I'd do YUL -> AMS with KLM (cat can fly with you in the cabin, I think), train directly from airport to Rotterdam then the ferry.
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Old Jul 24th 2015, 1:03 pm
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Default Re: need help

Originally Posted by Editha
I agree with Moshi about DEFRA. When we took our cats to Canada, they were treated appallingly.

We arrived in Edmo when the temperature was in the nineties. It took over an hour to complete the paperwork to collect the cats and then we found they'd been left in an warehouse which wasn't air conditioned and without water. The gormless Canuck who delivered them to us was carrying his own bottle of water, which I grabbed from him to give to the cats. One of them was elderly and had kidney problems. We had to have her put down a few months later; her demise undoubtedly hastened by Edmo airport.

I'd rather pay the £300 and have a guarantee my pets are going to be treated properly.
its $1500 for the cat ,the $300 vet fees at UK entry are so the vet can clean up the cat before its given to owner ,having defecated on its self due to 15 hours in a cage and subjected to all other animals in cargo etc etc .From the horses mouth.

Funny France , Amsterdam, Germany dont have these rules or expenses and they seem to treat there animals very well .
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Old Jul 24th 2015, 4:36 pm
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Default Re: need help

Originally Posted by maddie1959
its $1500 for the cat ,the $300 vet fees at UK entry are so the vet can clean up the cat before its given to owner ,having defecated on its self due to 15 hours in a cage and subjected to all other animals in cargo etc etc .From the horses mouth.

Funny France , Amsterdam, Germany dont have these rules or expenses and they seem to treat there animals very well .
France, Holland and Germany also have tons of land borders; they're not an island, trying to maintain and protect its own ecosystem.

I'm sure every airport is different, but when we flew out of Dusseldorf airport with our cats, they didn't even have a dedicated area for animal check-in; we had to leave our cats at the outsize baggage counter. We also had to take them out of their crates so the containers could be x-rayed: holding two furious cats in the middle of queue of people with skis and buggies was really fun. No dedicated animal personnel.

When the cats arrived at LAX, they were left by the side of the baggage carrousel with a pile of outsize baggage. No supervision, let alone animal personnel.

In contrast, I can't say enough about how professional and helpful the Animal Reception Centre at Heathrow are. It's an entire facility and they take amazing care of the animals. The import paperwork and procedures are extensive. Google the documentary series about them if you think they're just taking $300 to 'clean up cages'. What rubbish. (And, for one thing, our cats have flown long-haul two times and never once soiled their cages like that -- I've heard cats hardly ever poop in their containers.)

Last edited by MoshiMoshi; Jul 24th 2015 at 5:14 pm. Reason: 2, not 4 times... feels like 10
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