Pets and Airlines
 

Hi there everyone,

My husband and I are getting ready to move back to the UK from USA (nebraska to be exact) We just got our "boys" chipped with the homeagain chip (which I hope will work perfectly, I also plan on getting a scanner for it just incase), shots up to date and I was wondering about some of the stories and experiences that some of you have had with your pets traveling abroad to the UK on diffrent airlines. We have been thinking and looking around of which airliner to use. We came across NWA or Britannia. I was wondering how well treated your pets were taken care of? Has anyone ever flown with them before? with dogs? As you can probably gather I am a big ball of nerves and am worried sick about how they will cope and are treated due to the long travel, tho I have read many of the forums dealing with this same subject and read of how well the pet's travel went I can not stop wondering/worring/stressing about all the bad stuff that might happen to them or weather they will arrive safely and sane. I am basiclly looking for some reassurances that my boys will be safe and will most likely have a better flight then me and all this worring is for nothing.

Re: Pets and Airlines
 

I know this has come up a few times, so you could probably find a few of the threads if you searched for them, especially in the US forum as well :)

Re: Pets and Airlines
 

I did read them, but I didnt really get what I was looking for I guess you could say. :)

Re: Pets and Airlines
 

I have heard really good things here about Virgin. We are flying out in a couple of weeks from Atlanta to Gatwick on BritishAir and so far they ahve been great in answering any of our questions.

Flying our dog Scout is the most stressing thing for me about this move. She's blind and diabetic but otherwise in good health. She's going to have to skip a dose of insulin enroute :( and I know it's going to be stressful for her.............not to mention coming to a new home where she isn't familiar with the layout of the house. :(

Re: Pets and Airlines
 

I have heard great things about British Airways and Virgin, they both have experienced teams to help with any queries etc. I know how you feel about being worried but I think it will be worse for you than for them. Just think it will be 10 hours and then over :D

Just some tips. Dont forget to update your dogs tags to include a cell phone number. Also one thing we will do when the time comes is put a photo of our dog on the top of the crate.

Re: Pets and Airlines
 

Thanks for those tips Ladylisa. I had thought of updating the dog & cat tag but not a photo on top of crate, brilliant idea. Bit worried about ours going back to UK as its such a long flight from Perth but I have been assured they will be ok and we will be at the other end to see them so will try not to worry TOO much (who am I kidding!)

Re: Pets and Airlines
 

PLEASE don't worry - my newfoundland dog and 3 cats flew to new zealand last year via los angeles with air new zealand - they flew back to the uk 12 weeks ago :scared: via singapore with singapore airlines. at the new zealand end i was lucky enough to be able to actually load them into their airline crates at christchurch airport and none of them seemed fazed at all - suppose they just thought here we go again :zzz:
we pick them up from quarantine in about 2 hours time. the last 12 weeks has been the longest of my life. but, they handled the flights well and the dog and one of the cats are elderly. look at it this way, it's a few hours out of their lives in flight and i'm convinced all they do is sleep anyway. it's the quarantine that's the killer FOR THE OWNERS. my pets have been ina great quarantine centre and we visited them every week. the best advice i can give is to make sure your pets are fully up to date with the rabies vaccine to avoid quarantine and the costs involved in that and not to worry at all about the flights. we've been there and done that and will probably do it again!
Fev
SCOTTISH are you there - just wanted to thank you again for the recommendation of GEORGE and DOGTAINERS in Auckland.

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Have to agree on the quarantine vs. PETs scheme. My dog did great in quarantine, but others at the center didn't. For me, the main inconvenience was driving to see her twice a week (couple of hours each time), and the whopping 3,000 GBP bill for 6 months in the doggy hotel (quarantine center).

A lot of people on here bemoan the difficulties of going through the PETs scheme regulations. Quite rightly in one sense (it is a confusing process), but in comparison to the realities of 6 mths quarantine, jumping through hoops for the PETs scheme is a luxurious alternative.

Re: Pets and Airlines
 

Hello
We have just brought our dog and cat the other way....UK to Pittsburgh. We used a company in the UK called Pets on the Move and they were absolutely fantastic.We left our pets with them for 10 days while we got settled here and then they flew them out. We had 24 hour contact with the company if we needed it and they tracked the animals all the wayand kept us informed.
I don't know if they could help you but you could try.

[email protected] Tel 01257 795606.

Re: Pets and Airlines
 

We flew from Houston Texas to London Gatwick last year and our 2 year old Welsh Springer flew with us. We went with Continental and were more than happy with the way he was treated.
Continental had a cargo area where you could deliver the dog in his crate. They let us stay with the dog and let us take him for his last 'comfort break' before finally locking him in his crate. The dog was then kept in an air-conitioned room till the plane was ready for pull away from the terminal. Animals are apparently put in the cargo hold at the very last minute to reduce stress. The dog has always travelled well in the car, even so we were anxious about how he coped with the motion and noise. We had a slight delay picking him up at Gatwick - took about 2 hours for clearance and papers. Nevertheless he was right as rain and we were probably more tired than he was! Bottom line is that Continental were excellent, for handling, attitude and courtesy. I'd most certainly use them again.

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Oh I have to ask you completely off topic I know but I see you have a Welsh Springer, so have I. Did you get yours out in the US? I live near Milwaukee but flew to Phoenix to get my bundle of joy. They are really rare out here I believe there are only about 2000 registered with the AKC. Last year we decided to get a dog and so I started doing tonnes of research about what breed would suit us. Well then I read about the Welshie and that was that. Of course then I realised how difficult they were to get here. I emailed every breeder in the US and finally managed to get one from Arizona...woman on a mission :D Anyway my little baby is just gorgeous and since I've owned her I've located 2 of her cousins who live about 5 miles away. We see them almost daily. Anyway sorry to ramble I just couldn't resist asking you about your Welshie. I'm glad he travelled well thats a relief we may be leaving next year :)

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Thanks for all the help everyone, I'm a bit more at ease about the whole thing now, but now I have another question heh...seems like when your okie with one thing something else comes up. Ok so we'll most likely be flying out of omaha which brings me to my question... :confused: is it still possible to travel under the pet scheme even though your taking two connection flights? For example: The approved pet scheme route is from Houston to Gatwick, what if I took a flight from Omaha to Houston to Gatwick would that still work under the pet scheme? Or would I have to take a direct flight from Houston to Gatwick? Sorry to trouble everyone...but I have a bad habit of over thinking things and then it just all becomes so confussing.


Thanks again for everyones advice and help...very muchly apprecitated :D

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I just called up Continental to see how much the tix for the pups would be...I was suprised :eek: of how much he said they were...one dog by himself is 1600 and the other is 800...was your tix as much as that? Maybe I misheard him or something lol but I swear that he said it would cost that much...btw thank you so much for your reply it helped me a quite a bit really. :)

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Maybe he misunderstood that you wanted them to fly cargo (i.e., unaccompanied). Both times I flew, Suzy flew as "excess baggage", about $100 and 100 GBP, I think). If you are on the flight, it's supposed to be cheaper (unless things have changed).

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Wells thats what I thought as well..I'll probably call them back up and make sure what he told me was right...it just seems a lil bit much. I will be flying with them so the cost should be cheaper. I just thought 1600 for one dog was a bit much concering my ticket isn't even half that. So -cross fingers- that things r cheaper the second time around asking about prices.

Ok so I found a cheaper tix for the pups on Northwest...but I called up continental again (btw things were a lil cheaper the 2nd time around) and they informed me that there was going to be a $125 charge per dog for the PBS when landed in Gatwick..is that true...does anyone know of any hidden charges that we might face when we land in Gatwick for the pups??