mle35794

Who has moved to the US with a cat? My husband will be moving with our Monty from Newcastle to New Jersey within the next month or so. Just want to hear about your experiences re: fit to fly exams, airplane travel, etc? Thanks in advance!

mrken30

There was quite a detailed thread about this about a month or so ago. Might be worth a search

NatashaB

We used Pet Air UK, we were very happy with them. We did the cheaper package and did the paperwork ourselves for the FTF certificate, it was simple enough. If you are going in a month you probably need to get something booked quickly, it takes a few weeks to get everything organized. We decided that I would stay behind while my husband flew out, then the cat would fly a week later - gave husband some time to get a litterbox/food/bed sorted. I stayed behind in the UK and dealt with putting the cat on the plane at that end, while he was waiting at the other end.

H Bomb

We also used PetAir UK for our 2 cats from London to NYC. Not the cheapest way of doing it but they were excellent.
I would def start looking into things asap - as Monty will need to ensure he is fully vaccinated (including rabies) and chipped before he is allowed to fly!

mrken30

Here is the link for the most recent cat move thread

http://britishexpats.com/forum/usa-5...thansa-873305/

rpjs

Another vote for PetAir UK here. The service isn't cheap but it's good. One thing to be aware is that there will probably be a (possibly cash-only) fee (I think it was $40 for us five years ago at JFK) to get the cat released from the cargo handlers and unless it's become streamlined from when we did it, it might require some to-ing and fro-ing between the cargo handlers and customs. Customs will only talk to whoever's named on the bill as the importer so make sure you're both on it if need be.

mrken30

I took my cat in the cabin with me, was very easy and very little paperwork.

H Bomb

It was definitely not streamlined 2 years ago! There was a lot of waiting and going from building to building before we received two angry jet lagged cats!

H Bomb

You can't do that on international flights from the UK. Did you fly from mainland Europe?

mrken30

i flew LHR to ORD to PDX, Heathrow to Chicago to Portland. Someone else also recently did this, read the link I posted earlier for useful tips.

rpjs

I was being facetious of course. I mean the very idea of anything in the US becoming less bureaucratic!

Unless it involves buying guns...

PeachUK

I used passportforpets.co.uk (A lady called Sarah answered many of my emails with little questions).

My 2 cats flew 2 weeks after me. They had to fly on KLM and went from Manchester to Amsterdam (spent the night at the Pet Hotel) and then flew Amsterdam to Atlanta where we picked them up and drove them to Alabama. They supplied wooden travel cages for them to travel in and did all paperwork. They were already microchipped. I got them the 'rabies' vaccine after confirming with a vet in USA that I would need that for Georgia/Alabama to clear customs. They also needed a 'Fit to Fly' certificate for the airline.

My Mum & Brother dropped them off in Manchester. The paperwork was already there. They just left the vet certificate and vet records with them. I got this done at my local vet. When we picked them up in Atlanta we had to wait for the flight to land and the lady in the office there finally brought around the papers which we had to take to customs. This involved driving to a different part of the airport with the papers. He checked they'd had their rabies vaccine and then stamped the papers to release them. We then drove back to pick them up. (We weren't allowed to see them until they'd cleared customs). The lady immediately wheeled them round. They both meowed constantly - hopefully in recognition of me! Once we got them in the car we let them out for some hugs and they seemed fine. Their cages had a sticker on saying they'd enjoyed their stay at the Pet Hotel. Also the date/time they were last offered food. There was also evidence of Dutch newspaper lining the bottom of the cages where they had presumably cleaned out their cage. It was a pretty traumatic 36 hours for me waiting for them to arrive but totally worth it in the end. They are very happy here and I am very happy to have them here.

RainyDays

Thanks for sharing that. I'm planning my 3 cats' journey. How was the price?

PeachUK

It was £739.71 total to the company so not cheap but I took it to be about the cost of a plane ticket as that's about what it costs me to take a flight They did have a 'lowest price' guarantee if you were quoted cheaper from another company. I didn't look around too much as I'd read reviews and recommendations from other people using the company so that meant more to me at the time. There was also a fee at the customs when they arrived. It wasn't a huge amount. Less than $50 I think. I'll post again if I remember how much that fee was.

RainyDays

That seems pretty good for two cats. I know it's not cheap!