My cousin moved to Latvia a couple of years ago. She found a home for one of her cats before she left, but the other one was twelve years old and not very social with anyone but her. She decided to leave him with her mom (who didn’t want him permanently) while she found herself a place and got settled. I was the one who did the health and USDA certifications for him, then took him to the airport. He had to change planes in Iceland, but he made it to Latvia fine, although mightily ticked off. He’s still doing fine at 16 years old.
Be sure to check what kind of health certificates they might need. I think you’re supposed to have a vet certificate even going from state-to-state here in the 48. Other than that, I’d be stressed, too, but the likelihood is they’ll be just fine.
We took our cat from WDC to Lisbon. Then we took her from Lisbon back to WDC two years later. Then we took her from WDC to Bamako, Mali via Paris. Two years later did the reverse. Then from WDC to Kampala, Uganda and from there to Anchorage, AK a year later. Then, ten years later, she flew from Anchorage to Portland, OR, where she finally died of old age and cancer. Some of those flights were in the cabin and some were in the hold. She survived just fine.
Thanks for the happy travel stories @Helena and @ChefGuy , Smokey and I love hearing them!
@Helena, yes, we will be taking both cats to the vet soon to get their health certificates.
@ChefGuy, wow, you and your kitty are world travelers! Mine have never left Hawaii before. The furthest they’ve ever been to was to the vet 15 minutes away.
The cats are yours if you adopted them, you’re the one who cares for them, and they’re in your possession. Period.
You’re spending way too much time and worry on way too remote a possibility. The odds of your pets arriving safely are, for all essential purposes,100%. And you’re wrong about airlines not caring. An airline cares about their reputation. If even 1% of United Airline’s planes crashed, you can bet few people would book flights with United. If Airlines X develops a reputation for 1% of the pets transported dying, you can bet most people transporting pets would book with an airline with a better safety record.
Also, airlines are staffed by people, people who often own pets.
Take a deep breath and relax. Your kitties will be OK.
Sorry to add to the paranoia, but at the cargo company I worked for, there was a worker who purposely kicked the carrier that a dog was in several time because the dog was howling, something most of them do. Somebody finally caught him in the act and he was fired immediately. Yes, there are a-holes everywhere, but at least in the airline industry, they don’t stick around long. BTW, there were cameras watching every inch of the warehouse, so there was absolute proof.
I’m still not entirely convinced about airlines caring, but maybe some of them do sometimes. It just depends on the particular people in charge at that moment, I suppose. And maybe I’m too cynical.
@lingyi I’m glad to know the dog kicker got fired. Did he hurt any of the dogs too badly or kill any of them? I’d like to think that someone gets fired every time a pet gets hurt, but I don’t know since the airlines don’t like to publicly admit fault when these things happen. So you never know what’s happening behind the scenes.
I’m a pilot for an airline that regularly carries pets in the cargo hold. I’ve never heard of any coming to any harm. Because our domestic sectors (in New Zealand) are relatively short, our domestic jets (A320) do not have a control for the cargo hold temperature, basically we aren’t in the air long enough for the temperature to drop to a dangerous level. Our international jets (A320, B787, B777) have a cargo heat control. When we have pets in the hold we set the temperature to a comfortable level. We have a page on one of the flight deck systems displays that shows the temperature in the hold.
As well as this, I have personally sent four cats on a journey that involved one domestic sector in Australia, a night with a vet for a final checkup, an international sector to New Zealand, another night with a vet, then two more domestic sectors. The cats were fine, pissed off, but fine.
Your cat’s will be fine. Try not to worry too much about them.
Awe, I bet New Zealand airlines are nice. They probably don’t drag people screaming down the aisle so they can throw them off the plane like some airlines do. To be fair, I only know of one that did that but the event kind of scarred me and makes me fear airlines from the US. Even if it doesn’t happen very often, just the knowledge that it could, and nothing bad will happen to the airline still fills me with rage.
So I have to try and forget about that because everyone here is telling me my cats will be safe and the bad things happen very rarely, and **the rational part of me believes everyone and is thankful for all of the help and support! **
The irrational part of me thinks my parents hide spy cameras to watch me when they’re not here, even after tons of evidence to the contrary, that part of my brain is still scared. Can’t turn it off. But I know it’s irrational so I can just shut it behind a door. Acknowledge its existence, but don’t give in to it. I’ll try and do that with airlines now.
The times I have transported cats via the cargo hold:
Boston-Los Angeles-Hawaii-Pohnpei (Micronesia) - two cats, both fine
Pohnpei-Hawaii-Los Angeles-Boston - same two cats, both fine
Boston-LA-Tokyo-Jakarta - same two cats, both fine
Jakarta-Singapore-Dubai-Johannesburg-Maputo (Mozambique) - same two cats, both fine
(One cat died peacefully of old age in Maputo)
Maputo-Johannesburg-Dubai-Tokyo-Jakarta - one cat, a little stressed at first (she was pretty old) but fine after a day or two
(That cat died peacefully of old age in Jakarta)
Jakarta-Singapore-Dubai-Cairo - one cat, she was fine
(Acquired a second cat in Cairo)
Cairo-Dubai-Singapore-Jakarta - two cats, extremely complicated bureaucratic requirements, but both cats absolutely fine
If I can count, that adds up to TWELVE international cat-moves, or 38 cat-flights in the cargo hold if you count each leg for each cat.
Sure, things can go wrong, and every now and then you do hear some horrific story about a mix-up related to pets traveling in cargo (though even then, many stories have a happy ending after the pet accidentally sent to New Jersey instead of Indianapolis is eventually reunited with its owner). But take it from me - most of the time, it is the pet OWNER whose stress reverberates. The animal may hate the trip, but 10 minutes after being reunited with a beloved owner they start to forget the scary parts.
Wow! I admire your bravery with all the traveling. How soon after arrival did those cats die, who died? Were you living in those places, so it was years later, or just visiting and they died during the trip? It sounds like it all went really well, so long as there was quite a bit of time in between flight and death.
Yes, I lived in all those places, for anywhere from 3 to 11 years at a time. None of my cats died of anything but natural causes completely unrelated to air travel.
Richard, thank you. As you can see from the above posts, I have flown my cats before, but I never knew how the cargo heat control worked, nor whether the pilots knew there were animals in the cargo hold. Now, I do; and should I have to fly my cats again, I won’t worry.
We do have long domestic hops here in Canada (Toronto to Vancouver is five hours, for example), so I would hope that the the flight crew knows that there are animals on board, and they must be kept comfortable. Your post assures me that the crew do, and that they will do what they can to make the flight as comfortable for the pets, as for the humans. Thanks again!
Which reminds me, and this is likely more of a question for the veterinarians among us: how do pets deal with the change in air pressure?
I don’t deal well with my ears and flying; I eat breath mints on takeoff and landing, and still cannot hear people after I’ve landed. Or I hear them too loudly. Or I hear my own words too loudly. How do cats, with their sensitive ears, and unable to eat breath mints like I can, deal with hearing, given the pressure changes in flight?
Yeah, she was a real trooper. Actually, that last trip was a mis-remembrance. We drove from Alaska in our RV when we retired and spent six months on the road. In case anybody wonders, the cat died at the ripe old age of 19 or so.
I don’t think that checking your cats to the cargo hold is free. Airlines will charge you regardless if you are checking them are bringing them into the cabin with you. I don’t know the cost for checking , but I assume it’s more than a checked bag. Carrying them into the cabin in a carrier under the seat in front of you is normally $125 one way.
You should look into the cost differential, to fully understand what the incremental cost to bring them into the cabin with you really is.
To add to that–this is the chance across all animals in all circumstances, including the sickest animals shipped by the most negligent animals under the worst possible conditions. If you’re moving healthy animals under good conditions and are paying attention, no doubt their risk drops even further.
That said, MysteryWriter, maybe read that article? It mentions that the end of May is a tricky time for pets to fly, since it gets into warmer weather. If it’s possible to send your cats ahead and board them somewhere on the mainland, that might be wise.
We get a “NOTOC” which lists any dangerous goods and/or special load. Animals are classified as a special load and will be listed along with any heating requirements.
I think I’ve convinced them to keep the cats with us. You never know for sure with them they change their minds often, but for now it looks like they’re going along with keeping them with us on the plane!
But if they change their minds it’s good to know that they would likely be fine.
As long as you understand that having the cats on the plane with you may make you feel better but will probably make no difference to the cats. They will be stressed out regardless of where they’re sitting.
Good luck with it all. Travelling with pets is stressful for everyone.
He’s still doing fine at 16 years old.
takes deep breath