Before my husband and I repatriated we read and heard conflicting information on whether or not our cat could fly from the UK to the US in the cabin. Just wanted to let everyone know that with Delta you CAN do this.
We flew from Gatwick to Atlanta and then Atlanta to Houston (our final destination) just 3 weeks ago. We encountered a lot of uninformed people at Delta (on the phone) but FINALLY were able to confirm that you can in fact do this and we were able to make the reservation.
I advise anyone wanting to do this who calls Delta and is told they cannot to tell the person that yes, actually you can and request to speak with their supervisor. I had to get passed to two supervisors before I found someone who said, yes you are right, you CAN take a cat out of the UK in the cabin.
After we were finally able to make our booking everything was easy as pie! When we checked in at the Delta counter at Gatwick, they were expecting our cat and knew just what to do. He was taken from us to go through customs on his own and we were told they would bring him to the gate before we boarded. When we got to the gate, they informed us that the cat had been put on our seat (in his carrier) on the plane and then we were told that we would board before everyone else. That was a nice perk! It ended up costing us less than £200 to fly him back. Customs in Atlanta was a breeze, they didn't even want to see his paperwork. They just asked us if we had any cat food (we didn't-we knew to leave it on the plane.)
Anyway, just wanted to share this in case anyone was wondering if you can do this or like me had read conflicting information.
BTW, if anyone tells you that you have to have a pet agent to leave the UK they are DEAD WRONG (some airlines require it but it is NOT a UK requirement). We were told this by a pet agent and thank god we didn't take them at face value. Feel free to PM me if anyone has any questions. Cheers!
