Flying Dogs out of Philly or Newark--any experiences?

Hi guys,

    It's getting closer to the travel time, and I'm starting to call around to get more accurate quotes for our two dogs we're flying. I'm about 1hr from Philadelphia airport, and about 1h45 to Newark Airport. I was wondering if any of you guys have experience flying pets out of either of these airports and can offer any advice or suggestions that would help making this decision.
   I love Philly, and it's easier, but I'm not sure how much experience they have with flying pets to the UK--I was thinking Newark might have more pet traffic, so they might be a little better to deal with--but I could have it all wrong Any thoughts?

I flew my cats out of Newark and they were great. You could tell they really cared about the pets. Get there in plenty of time because they are quite busy. One guy thought he could just drop his dog off and go, but it takes quite a while to fill out the paperwork and such. 

I don't have any direct experience flying pets out of either airport, but don't forget to look at the list of Defra-approved routes to fly your dogs into the UK. (http://www.defra.gov.uk/animalh/quarantine/pets/pdf/noneu-air.pdf)

It looks like there's only one approved flight out of Philly, but there are multiple options from Newark.  When I was calling around, it seemed like most airlines gave me a standard quote regardless of the date of the flight, but if it works out better/more cheaply for you to be on a specific flight, maybe that would help with the decision? 

Good luck!

 Thanks for the responses--what I've found out so far with some research calls is:

Virgin (only Newark, no Philly) wants you to book your pet first, then make your pet's reservation AT LEAST two weeks in advance--can be months in advance.

British Airways (Philly and Newark) wants the opposite--you book yourself and then NO MORE than 10-14 days before your flight, you call and book your pets in. 

Right now BA out of Philly seems to be running @ $200 cheaper for the dogs, as well as me...so it's looking like I might go that way...even though anyone who flies out of PHL knows that you don't always get service with a smile Gotta love Philly!

I called Continental for flights out of Newark and it runs about $100 cheaper than the other flights--they charge by your pet's weight + crate weight, not volume like BA and Virgin seem to. It just seems like a bit of hassle, as you have to book the animal handlers in the UK that then take them through the procedure on the other side of the pond. 

    Any more experiences welcome!

I used Continental out of Newark and I don't remember it being a hassle on the UK end. I think I had to fax something to the ARC at Gatwick ahead of time, but it was no big deal. When I got to Newark they weighed each crate and I wrote a big fat check. That was it. I just picked the cats up in Newark and went on my way.

Which flight would be the cheapest for you? I would take that into account too! Also, how long would your dogs be in the car? I'd try and keep total travel time down to a minimum.

    I've booked my flight out of Philly for three weeks from now    Thanks for all the helpful info. It's a litte scary that BA won't book the dogs until 14 days or less from date of travel...but I'm just trying to make sure I have all my ducks in a row beforehand!
    I'll let you guys know how it goes and how my PHL experience is. Hopefully it'll be less stressful on me, because I know PHL airport and have picked up my sister'd dog from PHL Cargo area before...and less stressful on the dogs because they only have a 40min drive to the airport, not 2hrs. Fingers Crossed