So where do I start when it comes to choosing a shipping option for my pet?

I've started the process of vaccinating my pet in preparation for her journey from the States to her new home in the UK.

Right now, though, I need to make a decision on how to actually GET her here.  Sadly I was under the impression I could bring her over as checked baggage, but, yeah, that's not gonna work it seems.

So where do I begin?  I called Delta Cargo's direct line and got told (by a rather rude lady) to go to newcomer link: http://www.ipata.com [nonactive] and (I guess) find a company that transports pets.  Does that sound right to you guys?  Do I find a company to handle transporting my pet or should I be arranging it with Delta directly?

EDIT: I guess I should start by saying it'd be from Eugene, OR to Manchester Airport.

You'll need to figure out the route your pet will take.

http://archive.defra.gov.uk/wildlife-pets/pets/travel/pets/documents/noneu-air-sea.pdf

Looks like the closest starting point to you is Seattle (or possibly San Francisco?). However, neither place goes directly to Manchester.

Your best bet is probably flying domestically (where you can likely do excess baggage cheaply) to one of the places that allows flights to Manchester (Vegas? New York? whatever works best for you), and then fly into the UK from there. You'll just need to clarify what the pre-flight requirements are when you go (right now you have to get tick/tapeworm treatments done 24-48 hours before checking in to the UK-bound flight, but that's changing in 2012).

Airline folks have ranged (in my experience) from knowledgeable and helpful to clueless and rude. On the other hand, every time I've called DEFRA itself, they've been helpful and cleared things up. So at least on the UK end there's hope!

We will be using Delta next year to ship my cat to London and we were just told direct questions from the Delta Cargo represensitive.

I don't know if you read my other thread, but flying Delta into Manchester isn't feasible for us. I am like you in that I don't live near a gateway city. The only gateway cities you can take into MAN with Delta is JFK or Atlanta. Here are the problems I have with them:

1) They require 4hr minimum between connecting flights. Because of this, and your distance from ATL or JFK, you will be unlikely to get all your traveling in one day. So you will have to spend the night in either JFK or ATL. This screws with your tick/flea/tapeworm treatment, so you will likely need to track down a vet in either of these cities.

2) If you could manage to get flights in the same day, into a gateway city, then you are responsible for picking your pet up at the domestic cargo terminal and then checking them into the international cargo terminal. I don't know about you, but I don't want to be dragging around my carry-on luggage, leaving the airport terminal to get taxis to the separate cargo terminals, and then heading back to the airport terminal and going back through security. The only way around this 'inconvenience' (the word the cargo rep used), is to hire an IPATA agent.

I had much better luck with Continental, going through EWR. If you can get to Vegas, it looks like you could use BMI. Use that link that the previous poster linked to determine which air routes are available to you, then call the airlines and find out their procedures, costs, and what routes into/out of what cities to get you to MAN..just make sure you are leaving from one of the gateway cities.