Those who flew BA--how long before the flight did you check the animals in?

   Hi all,

      So, just when I thought everything was going off without a hitch   I get a message from BA world cargo in Philly saying that they need the dogs checked in by 12:30pm at the latest (for a 6:15pm flight) because "it takes a long time to check them in" , whatever that means--and could I call back to confirm I can do this... (Meanwhile, all the BA people I've spoken to and the reservation paperwork have said 4hrs beforehand which I already thought was a bit much.)
    So I call back to find out why they need soo much time, and they then tell me that the dogs will, in fact, have to be there no later than 10:30am to check them in--but the girl let slip that it was because there is only 1 person trained to do the crate sealing, etc. and that she leaves work at 12pm on Tuesdays...hello? You want me to bring my dog in 8 HOURS before the flight even takes off for your sake? How much money am I paying for this again?!    I said I wasn't comfortable with that, that it is a long time to have my dogs unnecessarily crated up and that it would only add to the stress of travel. The woman said I should call back Monday AM to speak with this woman who is trained to do it...I mean, WTF   I can't even believe they're asking me to do this, the increased liability on their part--if nothing else--you think would stop them.
    So, this is my personal drama right now  and I have fingers crossed that this woman can see the light and agree to stay late on Tuesday (which I don't even get, buy the way, since BA only have two evening flights out of PHL--why she would leave before either flight went off, I don't know). It's what I was hoping wasn't going to happen--I'm from Philly, and as such, have a severe distrust of PHL airport...it's just that nobody seems to really care...very annoying.
    Anyway, sorry for the rant, but I was wondering for those that have flown pets on BA, how long before you checked them in. I know this woman is trying to convince me that this is totally normal and necessary, but I can smell the bullsh*t from a mile away. I'm just looking for further ammunition to argue my case.
   I'm also going to call BA Pet Transport desk when they open on Monday and see if I can't put some internal pressure on her to stay--everyone else at BA has been very helpful up to this point, so here's hoping they are interested in maintaining that reputation 

I flew my cats via BA World Cargo from Atlanta to Gatwick in October 2006.  We were told to arrive by 2:30pm for a 6:30 flight, but due to car trouble (like we needed ANOTHER stressor on the day of departure!!) we didn't get to the Cargo office until 4:15!! 

Granted, I did ring the office at 2:30 and let them know what was going on - they said "please please please try to be here by 4:30, that's really the latest we can push it!"- but when I showed up at 4:15 they were completely friendly and professional and didn't make me feel bad at all about the rush.

IMHO, if there's only one person who's trained to seal the crates for shipping, and they only run evening flights, that person should not have a schedule that gives them afternoons/evenings off.  If nothing else, they should have trained staff from another BA World Cargo office covering the day you depart - after all, this is why you book travel in advance, and not the day of departure!  It's not as if they didn't have your dogs scheduled to fly that night!

I'd be boiling mad if I were you - good luck with keeping your cool and I hope you get a good result.

Wow, that's crazy.  Like you, BA has always told me 4hrs before, so if that's what they're going to tell you for weeks/months in advance, it seems really unprofessional/rude/[other nasty word here] to change their mind at the last minute.  (The fact that it's to accommodate a staff member just adds an extra touch of class!  She gets to go home 2hrs after you arrive, your pups get to hang out in a crate for 6 more hours before the stressful part of being on the plane even begins!)

I hope BA decides to not be evil, for your pets' sake.  BA can choose to pay their one trained person overtime to stay late or something (or, y'know, maybe train another person, too?), but your dogs didn't choose to go on the plane ride, so it doesn't seem fair to make them uncomfortable for longer, especially when you're already paying crazy prices for their airfare to begin with!

Anyway, good luck.

  Phew--so I'm just back from taking the dogs to the vet for their Flea/Tick/Tapeworm treatment 24-48hrs out, and I called BA to try and sort out what was happening and the woman I spoke to was very friendly and helpful and just basically said to come in as early as I could--I told her that the soonest I could come in was @ 45min before the original 4hrs that I was initially told...So, the dogs are going to be there 4h45min before the flight--it's not ideal, but they seemed to be understanding and I thought I could compromise a bit to keep goodwill going I'm sure the dogs won't love it, but they also don't know about the potential 8hrs that was on the table previous to this!   
   Thanks for all the help here guys, if I get the computer going when I get over I'll let you know how the final stages of the process went. Fingers crossed, things seem to be heading in the right direction
    By the way, my vet was suggesting to put an old t-shirt of mine in the crate to comfort the dogs on the way over, I thought it was a good idea. Oh, and I went to Petsmart to get bowls for their crates because the tiny flimsy ones that come with the 'Live Animal' stickers, etc. would hold about a drop of water for my big Lab mix--he's all slobbery and so I found these containers--brand name "Lixit" I think, and they fasten onto the crate door--hold 20oz. which means that my guy might get 1/4 of that actually in his belly--the rest will be all over the place, but at least it's deep enough to contain the water. The BA people have told me it's a good idea to fill the dog bowls up and freeze them before you check them into fly--that way it melts slowly and gives the dogs a bit at a time and doesn't get sloshed around everywhere when the dogs are being transported. Ok, it's off to do the last of the packing! 

regarding the bottles for water, I have always attached a bowl to the crate door and then above it, so it would drip into the bowl is a water bottle with a bearing that falls down to the tip of the spout. The dogs lick it, it moves the bearing and they get water. This avoids it splashing around. I don't think you'll be very successful with a plain bowl of water but I could be wrong. Mostly I've seen what I'm describing used for those reasons.

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2754655 (this is lixit brand so maybe this is already what you're talking about, I just couldn't tell for sure! if it is what you already got then just ignore me!)

I flew BA and had very positive experiences both ways (ATL - LGA and back). On the ATL-LGA leg they actually scheduled someone to come in special for me on a weekend. I gave them Atlanta Braves ticket vouchers as a thank you.

Just to warn, even though this is a BA thread, not all airlines or airport staff will allow the same things -- staff refused and asked me to remove my "lixit" type water nozzle bottle for my cat when I was there checking him into his flight at the Houston Intercontinental animal cargo center, for a flight on Continental.

The reason they gave was that the metal nozzle that protrudes through the wire door and into the cat's crate could cause injury to his face if there were to be a bad case of turbulence and my cat fell against the nozzle.

Hopefully one's flight would never have such a massive jolt of turbulence that this would even happen hard enough to badly hurt an animal, but I guess they were covering all risk factors, for the benefit if the animal and also to cover their own rears in the event that something like this could happen on their plane and someone could sue them for a pet blinded by a nozzle to the eye for example, theoretically.

I know others here have had their pet travel with these nozzle feeders without refusal, so that's why I bought one too as it seemed like a great idea -- but just to let you know, my particular set of check-in staff told me to nix it.

For water, they filled one of his dishes with crunched ice. For food they put nothing in his other dish even though it was going to be about a nine hour flight.

I had attached a plastic Ziplock bag of his dry food to the top of his crate, as I'd been told that during check-in or check-out at the other end, staff found it useful to have the pet's familiar food to feed to him in the recepetion center after the flight. They let this remain taped to the top, although after the journey I found it hadn't seemed to have been used.