chartreuse

As far as I know, Delta and United are the only US carriers that will let you take a pet in the cabin from the UK to the USA. Delta will let you go in Business or Economy, but United will only let you go in Economy.

scrubbedexpat099

Somebody I know used to be able to take her small dog in the cabin on United, some years back.

chartreuse

Sounds right. My info is only current as of early 2009, though, so things might have changed since we did it.

HarryTheSpider

We took our 3 dogs recently (5 weeks ago) from Heathrow to Phoenix with BA.

We used Petair - brilliant is all I can say.

Our 3 dogs weigh around 5Kg each.

Petair picked them up from us near Bristol where we were staying, 3 day before the flight. They came with a transit van and 3 well-constructed, custom crates so we could see what they would travel in, and our dogs could get used to them. These were the same crates we picked them up in at Phoenix some 48 hrs later.

We had all the shots etc done ourselves. Cost about £200 ish for all 3 of them...

4 hrs or so after pick up we had a call from the guy who had pciked them up to say they'd arrived at the holding place, had been fed, watered and exercised - we appreciated this.

We had a text that night saying the dogs had been moved up to their facility near the airport and were OK.

We had a text the following morning at Heathrow to say they were OK and had just been loaded.

After a delayed and long flight to Phoenix we arrived around 8pm ish, met the cargo handler who had just taken our 3 dogs off the plane, that they were fine, and handed us the customs paperwork. We took care of the clearance - very quick, and eventually, after finding a Circle K to get a $40 money order we went to the cargo shed, paid the handling & clearance fees and got our very excited dogs.

We were utterly amazed at how well our dogs were - physically in very good condition, very excited.

What we weren't prepared for was that they too, were jet lagged - they decided around 2am that it was time to get up as it was now, by their clocks, 9am - so they were pretty noisy - we had that for about a week tops.

They're fine now and enjoying life in the sun!

The cost was £1800 for the 3 - we took the 'gold' option for peace of mind and were very impressed with Pet Air.

Our 3 dogs are really a part of our family though I don;t think they'd have enjoyed being in the cabin and we'd have fretted about them too much - in the cargo hold they had space, somewhere to lie down, plenty of water and a reasonable temperature.

Cheers

Harry

athlonfx

so do I!!

CandK

From experience, how much does it cost in the UK to have the cat vaccinated for Rabies?

Thanks

avanutria

A quick call to your vet should be able to settle this. It may vary by practice.

Paul S

more expensive in the UK or so I was told. At work currently and can't remember who we used to ship when we came over to Ohio just over 5 years ago. Not sure about PA but I spoke to the agriculture department people in Ohio and asked them about rabies. They said no rabies jab needed, to get into the US but get it done anyway once you get here. All of ours are outdoors/indoors so it wasn't that bad price wise. Latest just had her yearly checkup with rabies, flu and FIV jabs. Cost about $90

rpjs

You may find the airline or the port authorities in the state you're importing to may require a rabies jab. We needed to provide evidence of a rabies jab for importing our cat into NYS using Pet Air and British Airways.

Not sure how much it was (my wife organised it) - I want to say about GBP100 but might be wrong.

MoshiMoshi

We flew with our 2 cats from mainland Europe to LAX. It cost 120 Euros per cat to have them in the cargo hold (Air Berlin) -- I really wasn't sure which to do, cabin or cargo hold, but in the end our cats were borderline too big to fit under the seat in the cabin for 11 hours.

Technically, it wasn't difficult to get the cats into California; I think the regulation was that they had to appear healthy on arrival. Double check all pet import requirements with the airline, with the departure and arrival airports, and at the US state and federal levels so you can be totally sure what's acceptable in terms of health, carriers etc.

Our cats were already microchipped (albeit with a European microchip that I don't think scans in America) and vaccinated, and had EU pet passports. We got them a rabies vaccination in good time too, and then 3 days before travel the vet clipped their claws and gave them a certificate of health. Our airline looked over the certificates and passports when we checked in.

We transported the cats in 'Gulliver 4' pet carriers, which are 52x51x72cm and cost about 60 pounds each. A smaller cat would be fine in the Gulliver 3 (in fact I think the Gulliver 4 is mainly for dogs). It was a real pain getting around the airport with the carriers plus suitcases, even with trolleys. We put dried food and copies of the cats' paperwork and a photo of each cat (!) in a compartment on top, and lined the carriers with towels and old bedding, and wrote our details and LIVE ANIMAL all over the outside. I attached cheesecloth screens to the front doors to avoid the cats seeing too much airport madness. We froze a little water in dishes, but the cats didn't seem to eat, drink or go to the toilet throughout the journey.

After check-in we had to take our cats to the Outsize Baggage counter. The carriers have to be x-rayed, so you have to take the animals out; I'd read a lot about requesting a small private room in which to do this, but there wasn't one at our airport so I just had to stand there, in a queue of people with skis and surfboards, holding onto each cat in turn. Luckily, each x-ray took under a minute, and the cats were pretty damn keen to get back into their carriers.

On arrival at LAX, we were expecting to pick the cats up from a similar desk, but actually their carriers were just left on the floor at baggage claim. I wasn't happy about this, but even though one cat was yowling and the other completely hidden by blankets, they were both essentially ok. We queued up with everyone else to get out, but were diverted into a line of people with crazy baggage; here, with no apparent logic, the staff x-rayed our suitcases again and completely ignored the cats. That's a lie: someone asked me "Are those cats, then?" and I said yes. Then we were through.

16 hours after our journey started, we got to our new apartment and let the cats out, and they were fine. After half an hour of sniffing the new furniture they both ate a full meal and went to sleep; along with food bowls, I'd also brought a new litter tray and some kitchen roll in my suitcase (who needs clothes, right?), and they used this overnight. Some cats react badly and go off their food or won't use the toilet for a while, so we had some local vets' numbers just in case, but we have laid-back cats and they were back to normal pretty much right away.

I hope any of this is helpful to you when you make your plans -- cabin, cargo or full-service Petair-type thing. If we'd had an indirect flight I think I'd have preferred cabin or Petair, but for a direct flight DIY cargo booking was doable, if stressful at times. Good luck with it all!

HampshireUK

Cost for rabies for our 2 cats was just under £150 each last year (we lived in Hampshire at the time). They were already microchipped, but needed 2 rabies injections 2 weeks apart, followed by a blood test to check the antibody levels were OK. If antibody level was not high enough then they'd have needed another injection! Our vet said that the reason they give 2 injections was to reduce the liklihood of the animals failing the blood test.

Hope this helps.

Prof_Yaffel

We flew our cat with Virgin last year Heathrow to LAX as carry on but in the hold.I think it was about 300 pounds all in. All that was required was a certificate from the vet that she was fit to fly. To clear the cat when it had landed we had to go to the virgin cargo building, then to the customs building for clearing ( small fee and declaration ) and then back to the virgin building to pick her up. Buildings were about 1.5 miles apart
I don't think a cat coming into California has to have any jabs but its different state to state

meauxna

That's a big cat.

keaki80

Good luck to you CandK. I left my cat with my sister when I moved here, and it was one of the saddest moments, saying goodbye. She was going to a great home, I knew all that; but it makes me cry even now to remember how she came running into the room when my sister was playing a video I had sent, and she heard my voice.
A couple of years later she got run over and had to be put to sleep - again something I can't forget, or forgive myself for. What seems worse is she would have had a wonderful home here if I had been "brave enough" to bring her with me.

All very silly to non-cat lovers; but it still upsets me to this day. So all the best to you and your cat. I hope it all goes smoothly for you.

rpjs

Shipping our cat was expensive, and we hated making her have to go through being flown across the Atlantic (she hates just going in a car) but it was worth it, and she seems to really like it here in the US, or at least our little temporary apartment! But we coul;dn't leave her behind: she adopted us the week before we got married - our "wedding present from God" my wife likes to say