flying with a (very) large dog

at some stage this year hopefully we will be moving out to Fla ,which means we have to move our rather large wolfhound Paddy. (all 13 stone of him). we are rather worried about him flying although the girls at VA in the pets dept have been great.

has anyone else transported a larger dog ? any problems or are we just worrying unnecesarily ?

he is having to have a custom made crate which he has to be measured up for ! and his fare is more than 2 UC combined !!!

[Scrooge]

I have never flown with a large dog, however friends looked at doing this, they ended up taking the QE2 across as it had kennels and a play area for the dog, I have no idea if the QM2 has a kennel, but it would probably be a cheaper option and a lot less stress on the dog.

My parents-in-law did take this option once - on the QM2 I think, not the QE2 - and if you are interested I believe that Cunard do "test cruises" from Southampton, where world + dog (sorry) get to spend an hour or two on board in a circular cruise.

Having said that, I suspect the kennels will be too small for you as I think they only take up to medium size dogs. But I hope I am wrong; and if I remember correctly, the kitchen bakes fresh dog biscuits every day for its canine passengers!

Cheers

Drew

The #1 and I have considered this, we keep bandying about spending half the year in Palm Springs but the animal transport question is a considerable one. The stress of flying and other accidents are a significant worry. We have looked at the QM2 (yes it does have kennels) and private jet hire as options - but only realistic if it's a permanent move. So all plans are off at the moment.

WRT to Virgin, I think the VS people probably are great, and I hope the airport handlers are as well. I was once on a 747 departing JFK when, as we taxied the PF tannoyed a heating problem in the hold which contained two chiwawas and we had to turn back and disembark them and their owners. So my view is that VS does take good care.

[HighFlyer]

Never had to do it myself though I did look into it when we considered moving to the US a few years ago. It might be worth asking over on FlyerTalk as they have a dedicated 'travelling with pets' forum?.

From what I recall, much of the advice centered on making sure the box for the pet is ample and to never drug the pet. I would also want to understand the whole procedure, from where the pet will be taken and boarded from to where I need to collect my pet at the other end. I am sure VS have had plenty of experience with traveling pets, if anything you will be the one worrying (more than Paddy I suspect).

I hope it all goes well.

My parents looked at taking their three dogs (2 labs and 1 border terrier) at Florida, where they live for six months of the year.

They rung VS and were quoted £700 one way per animal. This of course excludes all vet checks/injections and the buying of the container. In fact the staff at VS cargo refused to discuss the size of container saying that you had to liaise with a UK vet/animal reception centre for the exact size. I believe this was because VS would be fined or something if they attempted to fly an animal in too small a box so therefore didnt want the liability of having advised us the wrong size.

It is also important to note that VS will not fly any animals on any ex LGW flights during the summer months presumably because they need the cargo space for all the VH customers etc.

Needless to say the price for three animals twice a year was too much really and my parents made other arrangements (read: me looking after them).

This was three years ago and it is not cheap but if you are moving out there for good then certainly worth it. IIRC BA were actually cheaper.

My parents do have some UK friends who did have their dog move out with them on DL I believe and said that the whole process was fairly painless (even the transit in ATL before going down to SRQ.)

It is also important to note that VS will not fly any animals on any ex LGW flights during the summer months presumably because they need the cargo space for all the VH customers etc.

A lot of this has to do with airport temperatures and other operating conditions. When you have animals on long flights then hot tarmac conditions, the advice is not to dehydrate them further. Nothing to do with cargo. All to do with safety.