stepowell

guys

Anyone taken a pet from the Uk to the U.S ? Cheapest fair I can find so far is nearly £500 flying with britiania. Anyone have any advice ?

I would be flying from manchester

thanks

Ray

Kill it ..stuff it and then mount it ... save a fortune ...

AmerLisa

Ray....

Anyway, it used to be fairly cheap to put them on certain airlines, perhaps the prices have increased for pets as well. It would probably be cheaper flying from London, depending on where you are flying to. But of course then you'd have to get the cat down there. Keep calling around.....I've heard Continental is pretty reasonable. Also, do a search on this website, you may come up with better information that way.

Philgr

You don't say where you want it to go to - US is a big place you know.

The price varies a lot on most airlines on whether you are flying with it or not - no idea why but if you are on the same flight they get charged as extra baggage (LHR-SFO cost us about $100 per cat I think). If they are unaccompanied then they get charged as livestock and the price is much higher.

It also depends on the size of the box you put the cat in.

ScyLarc

We flew our 2 cats out last October. I think the overall costs, including two special travel crates, micro chipping, rabies jabs, vets travel certification and then flights came to just over 700 pounds. This is the site we used for the travel crates but they offer all kinds of other related services and may have information about flying from Manchester:

http://www.airpets.co.uk/

We travelled with Virgin from Heathrow to New York (NWK) and i can highly recommend them. We travelled on the same flight to avoid any boarding fees and to try to achieve the minimum amount of upset. The staff at the Virgin collection centre made us very welcome and explained what was going to happen in great detail. They even found a place for me to sit after i became rather upset over the whole process (silly me ).
Anyway, they arrived safe and sound and probably had a better flight in their air conditioned section of the hold than i did in economy class!

IanandHolly

We flew our dog Toby from Manchester to NYC through British Air. We then drove the rest of the way home 8 hrs. The only reason we had to go by this method was due to Toby's size (170+ lbs English Mastiff) He couldn't fit on smaller connecting flights.

I can't remember completely (it was less than a year ago too my memory is horrid) But I belive it cost us £350 for him to go as excess baggage. I know that BA was by far the cheapest method. We even checked w/specialist pet cargo companies and we were quoted up to £5,000!!!

You will need to have a special crate according to the animal's size, and you will also need to make sure that the animal has all the needed vaccinations and a final checkup by a vet a day before the flight.

I will sa that BA was EXCELLENT. Toby was able to walk around all through check-in and he didn't have to be crated until 15 minutes before the flight took off. The staff were wonderful and I couldn't recommend them enough.

I will say that depending on when and where you plan to fly you may find a ban on pets due to heath. You don't want the animals over-heating up there.

Hope this helps a bit,
Holly

IanandHolly

Oh,
One last thing, when you fly w/the pet and it goes as excess baggage. The price is the same regardless if its a 8 pound cat or a 100 pound dog.

Philgr

That may be the case for BA (though I doubt it - if it's charged as excess baggage then that is done on weight) but it certainly isn't true for all airlines - Virgin charge by size of crate and you can get an 8lb cat in a smaller crate than a 100lb dog.

IanandHolly

Well...when we used BA last november Toby definately did go as excess baggage. The price was per crate, size and weight did not matter. That was my experience with them. I seriously doubt that they cut us some sort of break or bent the rules so we would choose them instead of some other airline.

Perhaps things have changed since then. It would be a good idea to call around regardless of what people's past experiences are as airlines change charges quite frequently.

Either way...Good luck in finding a reasonable price for your cat stepowell.

Philgr

IanandHolly - see my PM. My reply wasn't meant to be read the way you took it.

Maybe I should have just said "call around - all the airlines seem to do it differently and prices/policies vary a lot"

stepowell

me is off to florida . thanks for all your help. £400 is looking reasonable, I suppose

Ray

Now it get worses ... my way is best.. your coming to my territory... the cat will get snake bit..pretty quick ...

Lynne

In 1995 we flew our cat from Gatwick to Atlanta. All I did was contact Delta and told them I would be shipping a cat. We didn't have to pre-buy a ticket, just went up to check in produced the "certificate of fitness to travel" and paid up sixty quid for her ticket. It was totally hassle free.

Lesley1020

I flew my cats out to Memphis last year with KLM/Northwest. They were charging as excess baggage. You MUST have a crate that is IATA approved and they have to be able to stand up and turn around in it. You can get these on various websites, and the prices vary so shop around.

I had to confirm with both airlines 24 hours prior to departure that they could definitely fly, they check temperatures at destinations and such, and when I got them to check-in, they didn't end up charging me a penny for them! Although, it would normally have been around 100 pounds each animal is what they told me on the phone.

You must have an international health certificate within 48 hours of the flight from a registered vet too. Also check ahead about the State's requirements on vaccinations etc. I didn't have to get rabies etc., as they wanted that to be done once they arrived since the types of vaccines were different.

All in all, it wasn't too stressful, so long as you make sure you have dealt with all the requirements beforehand.

As for taking them the opposite way back to the UK - that is a much more complex procedure and they need a pet passport which takes 6 months of preparation to get!!!