Best Pet Moving Companies and Airlines from ORD-LHR

My husband and I are moving over to the UK from the states early 2021. We have 2 domestic shorthair cats who both just turned 8.  They are both extremely skittish and afraid of all people - I am so nervous about moving our babies. We are trying to figure out where to start with pet moving companies. We unfortunately have to drive 5 hours to Chicago, because we live in Des Moines, Iowa, and there are no direct flights at any airport closer to us than Chicago.  We want a direct flight without any connections. We will be transporting our own cats and dropping them off at O'Hare and picking them up from London Heathrow ourselves.

1. What pet moving companies have you all had success with?

2. What airlines are the best for moving pets to the UK? We are currently looking at British Airways. Does anyone have experience with them?

My anxiety about picking a good pet moving company and airline are through the roof! These are our babies!

My husband and I are moving over to the UK from the states early 2021. We have 2 domestic shorthair cats who both just turned 8.  They are both extremely skittish and afraid of all people - I am so nervous about moving our babies. We are trying to figure out where to start with pet moving companies. We unfortunately have to drive 5 hours to Chicago, because we live in Des Moines, Iowa, and there are no direct flights at any airport closer to us than Chicago.  We want a direct flight without any connections. We will be transporting our own cats and dropping them off at O'Hare and picking them up from London Heathrow ourselves.

1. What pet moving companies have you all had success with?

2. What airlines are the best for moving pets to the UK? We are currently looking at British Airways. Does anyone have experience with them?

My anxiety about picking a good pet moving company and airline are through the roof! These are our babies!

Welcome! 

It's been several years since we moved our two domestic short hairs.  It's a very scary time I absolutely agree. We did it ourselves so can't recommend a mover but luckily everything went smoothly and the cats were none the worse for wear at the end of it.

What I would recommend is getting in contact with the animal reception centre at your destination airport. They should be happy to help you and will definitely know who's good currently both in terms of airlines and movers.

I did use a pet mover, as my company was paying.     I moved my kitties who were 9 and 10 at the time with no issues.  Only my Siamese had issues with the food in the UK so took some trial and error to find a food that agreed wtih his very sensitive tummy.  I *thought* I had the same food, but I guess there are differences between UK and US formulas.  So we found a new food.

I used Air Animal and was very happy with their service.  They also helped when my Siamese was so sick a week after landing and helped me determine it was the food!  New food, new cat.  He's literally sitting on my lap purring at the ripe old age of 20 as I type this.   

And yes, moving your pets is the worst part!  Air Animal talked me off the ledge though and said it's actually really nice for the kitties.  Warm and dark, and just the hum of the engines to allow a good nights sleep. 

I used Animal Land Pet Movers in 2017 to move my dog and cat direct from Washington Dulles to London Heathrow. They were great! Beth, who moved my boys, was part psychotherapist and expertly arranged all of the logistics. It is a lot of paperwork and timing stuff, so it was worth it to have them do it. The boys flew British Airways the day before my flight (United). A courier came to the house to take them to Dulles and, once cleared from the Animal Reception Centre at Heathrow, a courier brought them to our house here in London. They will work with you on all of the logistics and what you want.

Neither of my boys are great travellers. My cat loathes the carrier and drools, poos and yowls on a ten minute car ride, so I was really worried about the flight! And my dog had never been crated in his life. But they did it, they are here and napping as I type this. Beth was very understanding and worked with the airlines, the couriers, the vets, the USDA and the Animal Reception Centre. As I recall, I think they prefer to use BA whenever possible and I had also heard elsewhere that BA was very good with animals. (I had loads of United miles so that's why I was on United). I believe they can only book the pets' flights no more than 15 days out for some reason (don't hold me to this). So that was another factor.

KF Dancer is right--moving the boys was the most stressful part of it all! And she is also right about the pet food formulas. My dog was eating Wellness Core at the time. I brought some with me from America and we also bought it over here. Even though the packaging was identical, the British version smelled different from the American formulation. We mixed the two together and he was fine. My cat was more stressed about the process after the fact. He groomed excessively for a while and tried to climb up the chimney (he never did that at my old house). But he is fine now.

Good luck with it all! 

Welcome! 

It's been several years since we moved our two domestic short hairs.  It's a very scary time I absolutely agree. We did it ourselves so can't recommend a mover but luckily everything went smoothly and the cats were none the worse for wear at the end of it.

What I would recommend is getting in contact with the animal reception centre at your destination airport. They should be happy to help you and will definitely know who's good currently both in terms of airlines and movers.

Hi there,

We are planning our move back to the UK from New York in June with our two cats. We already begun the process for the cat passports in Feb.

I was wondering how you did it all yourself. We'd rather not spend $1000's on cat transportation with a company but we're also a bit confused with the process of doing it yourself. 

Would love to hear how you went about it all.

Thanks,

Chris

Hi there,

We are planning our move back to the UK from New York in June with our two cats. We already begun the process for the cat passports in Feb.

I was wondering how you did it all yourself. We'd rather not spend $1000's on cat transportation with a company but we're also a bit confused with the process of doing it yourself. 

Would love to hear how you went about it all.

Thanks,

Chris

I imagine there will have been some changes to the system since we moved but basically, I did the following.

Studied the import regulations for the UK.
Studied the export regulations for my state in the US and spoke to the USDA for hints on the process.
Studied the specific requirements of my chosen airline and visited their cargo depot to make sure cages were regulation and for a general reconnoitre.
Contacted the animal reception centre at my arrival airport for further clarification on the process and the paperwork required.
Found a suitable vet and made sure all the required steps were taken in the correct order.

Then tried to put all that information together!  It wasn't easy but it all went smoothly thank goodness.

Thanks for the info. We checked the import regulations and export regulations and contacted the animal reception center at Heathrow.

One thing we are struggling with is booking a flight that our cats can be on with us. BA just refers you to IAG and they quoted us $1500.

Were you able to book a flight that you and your pets were both on without having to pay that amount?

Thanks for the info. We checked the import regulations and export regulations and contacted the animal reception center at Heathrow.

One thing we are struggling with is booking a flight that our cats can be on with us. BA just refers you to IAG and they quoted us $1500.

Were you able to book a flight that you and your pets were both on without having to pay that amount?

I honestly don't remember the exact amount I paid for our two but I think it was actually more than that for both, the cats' tickets were  expensive. We were on the same flight but were able to use air miles for our tickets so it brought the average down!

This may or may not help, but I was trying to figure out how to move some tropical fish and a hamster back to the USA last year. I phoned/emailed a very large number of airlines and the bottom line was that only Air Canada would allow me to take the pets to a cargo terminal and have them shipped to the USA without a middle-man pet shipping company involved. Unfortunately, there was no Air Canada facility in Scotland and no way to get to one from there. There was a Spanish airline that would carry them (in the cabin, I think), but we'd have to have traveled overland to Spain to connect up with the transatlantic flight, since they couldn't fly from a UK airport due to UK regulations. It was primarily the UK regulations on flying animals in/out that were throwing a wrench in things.  I will try to find the list of carriers I contacted and the outcome - I think I posted it somewhere on a fish hobby board - and will post it here if I do. 

I also think I remember finding that if I was trying to do the reverse, the UK had extremely strict requirements for mammals from the USA to go into a special facility, and that flying into the EU and then taking ground transportation was much easier. But that was back when the UK was part of the EU. God only knows now.

EDIT: Here was the final list, if it's of any use -

American - codeshare with BA. Requires a pet-shipper.
Air France - dogs and cats only. Pet Shipper.
Aer Lingus - As cargo, only to major international destinations where they fly their largest aircraft (no puddle-jumpers). Not sure about having to use a pet-shipper or not for dogs/cats.
Aeroflot - no
AeroMexico - only pets on flights of six hours or less
Agean - fish ok as pets in hold, don't do cargo to the USA.
Air China - cats and dogs only, pet-shipper.
AIr New Zealand - pet shipper.
Alitalia - dogs and cats only. Don't know about pet-shipper or not.
ANA - no fish
Brussels Air - cargo. pet shipper
Delta - cargo. Requires a pet shipper.
El Al - They allow birds in the cabin. Not sure about cats/dogs.
Finnair -  They allow rodents in the cabin.... Have to go cargo and require a shipper for international.
Iceland Air - no
Japan Airlines - pet shipper
KLM  -  only cats and dogs, codeshare Delta. Pet Shipper
Korean air - no
LOT -  website unclear
Lufthansa - pet shipper
Norwegian Air - no pets.
Quantas - pet shipper
Swiss AIr - pet shipper
Transat - dogs and cats only
TUI - dogs and cats only.
SAS - no
Singapore Airline (flys out of Manchester or London) - they take fish as "cargo pets" - that translates to "cargo" requiring a pet shipper.
United - cargo. Requires a pet shipper.
West Jet - no

The cost to ship a betta fish and some $1 corys, plus the hamster, across the Atlantic was closing on £2,000.