Moving our furry friend to USA
 

Hello All

We are looking at moving our family back to USA in Oct/November and hopefully will be bringing our dog as accompanied baggage.

Looking around at the US carriers, it looks challenging. Delta will do it but they won't accept the dog if the temperature is above or below limits anywhere along the journey. We're moving to Minneapolis so it is quite likely it will be colder than the limit if it is late in the year. United looks more flexible but it will involve multiple stops and probably we will have the same issue anyway to fly into Minneapolis

Any suggestions how to get our dog to the US with us if it is cold? We have thought about flying to Dallas and driving (15 hours).

What about European carriers?

Thanks

Re: Moving our furry friend to USA
 

I have moved your thread into the US forum. :)

Re: Moving our furry friend to USA
 

Well, our dog died on the Lufthansa Frankfurt to Houston flight, so I don't recommend them.

Re: Moving our furry friend to USA
 

:welcome:

The wiki guide to moving pets can be found here:
http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Bringing_Pets

There are a few other threads recently about moving pets.

Re: Moving our furry friend to USA
 

If you limit yourself to air travel, yes. There are other, better methods.

Ian

Re: Moving our furry friend to USA
 

As a dog lover I am sorry to hear about the loss of your dog. :( How old was your dog...what breed and do you know the cause of death? Is there anything the airline did that contributed to what happened?

Although we have had a couple of similar stories in the MBTTUK forum....many, many people have transported their dogs back and to...many to and from Australia or NZ...without problems.

Re: Moving our furry friend to USA
 

Delta are highly restrictive, don't carry pets in the cabin ever and will only carry animals if the temperatures at departure and arrival airports are within a very strict temperature band.

I would not even consider multiple sectors when moving a pet, it adds another dimension to getting the animal from one aircraft to another and there's too much room for error. You could be in a and the dog in B, very easily.

Re: Moving our furry friend to USA
 

I believe she wrote about it on BE. A search of her prior posts will likely pull up the thread. :)

Ian

Re: Moving our furry friend to USA
 

She did indeed...thanks. Here is the thread if anyone is interested.

Re: Moving our furry friend to USA
 

Hi,
To that thread I'll add that we figured out her extra-large sized crate had been loaded into the unpressurized, unheated baggage hold during the Geneva-Frankfurt (short) leg of the flight. Apparently, the pilot can heat and pressurize the regular baggage hold - presume the pilot couldn't be bothered, decided it was too expensive or something. She undoubtedly died during that flight (though Lufthansa refuse to admit this). I contacted a journalist the Deerhound Club put me in contact with. Lufthansa must have switched to a smaller plane on the short flight, a plane too small to accommodate her crate (about which they were warned when I booked our flights 3 months ahead of time) and our other dog's crate. She was probably loaded - dead - into the unheated baggage hold for hygiene reasons for the flight to Houston which explains why her body was icy. Lufthansa naturally refuse to admit any of this but they did reimburse the cost of her transport.

The journalist said we couldn't do anything really, Lufthansa has all the witnesses sewn up and I shouldn't have allowed them to have her body incinerated. The Lufthansa agent also lied to me because there was no 'official veterinary' service at the airport and she wasn't seen by a vet. I contacted CDC and they said the saw she had died, it was obvious she hadn't died of rabies so they didn't examine her. The journalist did say to let as many people as possible know what happened - which I am doing.

Re: Moving our furry friend to USA
 

I would only my transport my small dog by air if I could take her in the cabin. Failing that I would travel on the QM2.

Re: Moving our furry friend to USA
 

That's OK for very tiny dogs and small to medium-sized dogs (on the QM2), but any dogs bigger than a cat can't travel in the cabin and the QM2 won't take dogs taller than a Labrador. For months I tried to find freighters that would allow passengers to take their pets (including large dogs) - nothing. Years ago a friend had travelled from Italy to Galveston with 2 Irish Wolfhounds and a cat and she had raved about how well everything went - the crew were great, etc. Unfortunately, none of the freighters that currently take passengers will also take pets.

Re: Moving our furry friend to USA
 

We flew our dog with BA from LHR to BOS as it was the shortest route, then drove to our destination. We organised the flight ourselves and got a plastic crate (IATA approved) from an online pet store - we found it incredibly useful in the hotel rooms ;)

Re: Moving our furry friend to USA
 

Thanks so much for all who have responded and I am so sorry for Ailidh. Moving is so incredibly stressful in any case and losing a member of your family in such a horrible way is devastating.

I should add that we actually brought our dog here from the US 6 years ago - from Minneapolis to Milan via Amsterdam with NorthWest (now Delta) and KLM. We did a lot of research beforehand and although it was stressful actually she arrived with us and it was relatively smooth. Worst moment was in the transfer at Amsterdam as we didn't want to board the plane until she was loaded and just before the doors closed we saw her come on board. The gate agent said that they try to load at the last moment which makes some sense.

Something we never thought of was that we didn't pack dog food and it isn't the kind of thing that is easily available in an Italian hotel at 10 pm.

The cage was pretty smelly after the trip and we left it outside for a couple of weeks after arriving. When I did come to clear it out I was extremely surprised to find that all the newspapers lining the floor were in Dutch! They obviously took her out, toileted her and changed the newspapers in Amsterdam, which is pretty impressive.

So KLM and NorthWest were very good for us all those years ago from US to Europe. The temperature limits are a pain in the neck, but they are in place for the protection of the pet.

This time, we may have to go to a more Southern US airport in order to avoid the temperature limits and then rent a car and drive. If we use Delta/KLM, Dallas is a good bet temperature wise in late autumn.

I will avoid Lufthansa, thanks for the information, and I always try to avoid Air France/CDG even without animals.

Thanks again for all the advice. I'll make sure that I post my experiences.

Re: Moving our furry friend to USA
 

I couldn't find any airline to take my dog from the US to UK although it may work the other way due to the different quarantine laws. Good luck. I can see why airlines won't do it thought, it'd be a little unfair to flyers with pet allergies to be next to a dog for the trip.

My dog, a yorkie, flew in the hold in the usual manner without any issue. Things can go wrong but I think that's very rare, I wouldn't worry unduly.