Heat Embargo??!!

I am about to just keel over from the stress of this PETS scheme.

I was previously informed that BA has a heat embargo on flying pets through Dallas before Sept 15th. We rescheduled our tickets to Sept 27th....which puts us both in a bind because we start school Sept 26th and Oct 6th. We've both emailed our depts and they've said its ok to be late. However, it is 105 degrees here everyday and it shows no signs of stopping. We are extremely worried that it won't be 20 degrees cooler in time to fly by Sept 27th.

Has anyone else had to deal with anything like this? We are considering changing our tickets to Denver. But then we'd have to give our cats their flea/tick treatments 48 hrs before, drive up to Denver, spend the night then rush on the flight. Its all such a huge mess and I'm about to lose my mind. Either that, or send my fiance ahead of me to Newcastle. We wanted to go on this adventure together, not to mention I'm going to be worried about the kitties on the flight and it would be nice to be comforted while on the plane.

I just want this to be over with already! Gah!!

We are considering changing our tickets to Denver. But then we'd have to give our cats their flea/tick treatments 48 hrs before, drive up to Denver, spend the night then rush on the flight.

You may want to contact DEFRA about the timing. They might want the tick/tapeworm treatment done before the Denver->UK leg, if you're going to be staying overnight somewhere. (I think it can carry-over if it was a short layover, i.e. not leaving the airport, but not sure about such a long one.)

Good luck! I flew my guys in April to avoid the heat.

I just moved from Dallas to London and my advice would be to see about flying out of Denver.  I know it is a long drive as I have made it several times to see in-laws, but Dallas tends to still be sweltering in late September.  We ended up re-homing our dogs (which was very hard on the entire family) due to the fact that we knew we wouldn't be able to fly them out of Dallas in July, the rental issues on this end, and the advanced age of one of our pups.

The good news is that the weather here is fantastic compared to the hellish heat of Dallas.  We are loving the fact that we can get out and explore without practically catching on fire!

I struggled with this last year, being from Florida.

We moved July 2010 - and we ended up driving 14hrs overnight from north central Florida to Washington-Dulles airport. I don't know how long it is from Texas to Denver but making the trip all in one go worked for us - we did the Tick-Tapeworm treatment just over 24hrs mark, then left around 10pm and arrived in Washington-Dulles around 12 noon the next day just in time for the 1 pm check in for our cats. That way we didn't have to stop anywhere overnight to try and keep the cat's stress to a minimum.

I don't have any suggestions for the heat embargo, but I totally understand the stress with the PETS scheme.    I wish you lots of luck! 

Thanks...we just spoke with BA and they said they won't charge us for the cats tickets if the flights are delayed due to heat...but they WILL charge us for our tickets at $70 a pop if its delayed..per day! Doesn't seem fair does it.

We just looked at flights out of Denver and the earliest is Oct 4th. So either way we are going to be late.

The drive is about 12 hours so we will get our cats treated at the vet then leave right after that, spend the night to give them a rest then take them to the airport for the flight. I believe it leaves at night. I am worried about them freaking out on the flight though. They are young cats, about 3 and 1, so I know physically they will be ok but I worry about them not dealing too well with the stress. The youngest one especially, he is a Ragdoll and very attached to us. Poor thing. Oh well, gotta do it I guess!

Any chances Dallas will be cool enough by first week of October?? Thoughts on this? We are mulling this over before changing our tickets...

By the way we live in west texas, so the drive is only 12 hours for us...we were going to drive 5 hours to dallas...so the drive to denver wouldn't be so bad for us if we were driving all the way from dallas to denver!

Oh I had a Ragdoll kitty!  I just loved her so much.

I am moving a dog from Georgia to the UK and definitely keeping the heat in mind.  I am trying to make sure we move early enough in the Spring that it won't be a problem.  He is a mutt, but mostly Tibetan Spaniel which is considered to be slightly snub nosed so I also have to consider that when picking an airline.  Moving him is definitely more complicated than moving myself!

They are young cats, about 3 and 1, so I know physically they will be ok but I worry about them not dealing too well with the stress. The youngest one especially, he is a Ragdoll and very attached to us. Poor thing. Oh well, gotta do it I guess!

My cat was 4 when he moved over, and is generally pretty relaxed (though he hates being in his carrier, so that wasn't so good!). He handled the flight pretty well (not as well as my dog, but my dog is happy the minute someone pets him, so not really a fair comparison). He was uncharacteristically mute on the way home from Heathrow (usually any time in his carrier is accompanied by near-constant meowing), but seemed fine when we got home. I think it took him about a week before he was fully back to "normal" (eating his normal amount, using his litterbox like normal), but he ate/drank right away, and never seemed too stressed (once he wasn't stuck in his carrier anymore).

The drive is about 12 hours so we will get our cats treated at the vet then leave right after that, spend the night to give them a rest then take them to the airport for the flight. I believe it leaves at night. I am worried about them freaking out on the flight though.

Echoing equestrianerd -  my four kitties hate being in the car, but seemed to find the plane much less stressful, for some reason (the motion is different presumably) and they were all 100% fine when we picked them up at the ARC (not cowering or subdued in their crates at all - when I walked up to them they were like "hello!"). If you have until October, and you haven't already, try leaving the big airplane crate things out 24/7 with blankets and treats and toys - that way they have some time to get used to them.

I did that with my kitties, and they were happy as larry inside the crates...until the car started moving :-/

I feel your pain OP. I worry about the heat with our kitties too, and Louisville, KY isn't anywhere near as far south as you. Our two Siamese babies absolutely HATE the car, so I hope they can handle the plane ok. But then, there's the 4hr car ride from Manchester to Glasgow to deal with afterwards. Our male cat is definitely high strung, and at 7y/o I hope he'll be ok.

I feel your pain OP. I worry about the heat with our kitties too, and Louisville, KY isn't anywhere near as far south as you. Our two Siamese babies absolutely HATE the car, so I hope they can handle the plane ok. But then, there's the 4hr car ride from Manchester to Glasgow to deal with afterwards. Our male cat is definitely high strung, and at 7y/o I hope he'll be ok.

When my cats flew over to the UK in March 2005 we have a male Siamese he was nearly 7y/o at the time he doesn't do well in the car either he is very vocal to say the least lol. our female cat is a Tabby she doesn't like the car either but our Siamese is more vocal than her lol. both our cats handled the plane just fine a little nervous but for the most part they were good we were told.  

This might be a bit late, but we flew our cats out of Dallas in May 2008. We had them booked on BA, and were aware of the heat embargo. About a week before the flights we realized the chances of it being too hot for them to fly where high. We decided to make a provisional booking with Delta as well, which at the time was on the list of approved routes. They didn't have an embargo, as they took the cats to the plane in air conditioned vehicles and loaded them onto the plane right before take off. They told me BA was just too "lazy" to take these precautions. On the day of, it ended up being too hot for BA to fly the cats so we used our Delta booking.

I noticed KLM is an approved route from Dallas, have you contacted them to see if they have the same heat embargo?

I know Delta now has a heat embargo (May 15- sept 15) which is one of the many reasons we aren't able to fly until the first week in October. And I live in the south (Georgia to be pacific) so believe me, the heat thing is def a worry.

Well, we've decided to fly out of Dulles, because we could'nt get a flight out of Denver at the time we needed. Dulles seemed ok to us because a lot of folks on the forum seemed to have good experience taking their animals out of that airport.

But we did have issues with the Hazardous Cargo. I will do another post so others can be aware of it! Please check there if you are interested.

Thanks for the help!