timeline at the airport with pets

Please tell me about your airport experiences with pets! I've got some preliminary info over the phone with BA Cargo atlanta about timelines, etc.  I think it will be pretty tight. My flight is at 6:25pm and we have to be at the hanger to drop off the pets at 1:45. They said it takes an hour - hour and a half to process the pets. Then you go back to the airport (and drop off the rental car) and do our check-in stuff.

I know with BA you can do online check-in but for some reason their website never likes Daniel's greencard number (for the advance passenger info you have to give).

At any rate, please let me know detailed accounts of your day at the airport with pets. Especially Meg or anyone else flying BA from ATL to LGW.

(I'm also curious to know about what its like at the ARC at LGW.)

Don't worry - we planned to be at the cargo dock by 2:30pm (for the same 6:25pm flight) and due to horrible traffic in Conyers we didn't make it until nearly 4pm!  I called the cargo folks from the road and explained what had happened, and they said "as long as you're here by 4:30pm you'll be fine."  We rolled in right around 4pm, the paperwork was all taken care of by 4:45pm, and I headed over to the North Terminal to check in - easy peasy.

We piddled around at bit at Gatwick to kill time (as we'd heard it would take a couple of hours before we'd get to pick the boys up from the ARC) and showed up at the ARC around 10am only to find out that the vet had screwed up the tick and tapeworm treatment and they'd have to stay an extra 24 hours.  If we'd gone straight over there, we'd have been able to sign off on the paperwork and get the process started that much earlier - as it was, it was 2:30pm the next day before they were actually released (and then we had a 6-hour drive north!).

Meg, what went wrong with the tick/tapeworm bit?

Thanks for your timeline! They told me to be there at 2:25 or there wouldn't be enough time. I will play it safe but its good to know that if the worst happens and we're late that there might be hope.

What went on while you were there? What did you need to do/provide/etc? I'd just like to have a sense of what will happen when I'm there.

The vet used Cestex, after being specifically instructed *not* to, as per the DEFRA site.   The boys just had to see another vet at Gatwick, get the right meds, and spend 24 hours under observation.

They told me 2:25 as well, but were definitely very understanding when we turned up so late (probably because I called, panicking and worried).  I wasn't so calm, though!

Basically, when we got there, we gave the guys a chance to use the box, separated them into their own carriers, filled up their water bottles and carted them inside.  Once inside, I filled out a bunch of forms and showed the rep a bunch of paperwork (can't remember exactly which paperwork - but I'm hoping to scan in examples of the forms I filled out tomorrow, so watch this space!), then the rep came out and took photos of the boys for their records, and weighed their carriers with them inside.  I gave them my credit card, panicked when it was rejected, used their phone to call them up and say NO THIS ISN'T IDENTITY THEFT YOU MORONS, and got everything straightened out, and saw the guys off as they were loaded into the van.  It took about 45 minutes - an hour, tops, but I'm pretty sure I was at the terminal by 5pm.

Hopefully I'll get that paperwork scanned in tomorrow - if not, early next week (we're going out of town for the HP book release this weekend!). That should help ease your mind a bit.

The tick/tapeworm meds DEFRA wants aren't recommended for housepets in Japan, and aren't effective in the timeframe DEFRA requires.. or so my vet said.  He really didn't want to use them.  Maybe your vet didn't understand that, even if useless, the drugs had to be given?  I had to fight a bit to get them ordered.

They are pretty much only used on wild foxes there. 

i hadn't thought to look into the right meds so i'll have to do that now. Meg, what was the cost for you kids to stay at gatwick for the proper treatment?

The tick/tapeworm meds DEFRA wants aren't recommended for housepets in Japan, and aren't effective in the timeframe DEFRA requires.. or so my vet said.  He really didn't want to use them.  Maybe your vet didn't understand that, even if useless, the drugs had to be given?  I had to fight a bit to get them ordered.

I'm pretty sure it was just my vet that was useless.    But I see your point.

i hadn't thought to look into the right meds so i'll have to do that now. Meg, what was the cost for you kids to stay at gatwick for the proper treatment?

I want to say £307?  That covered the cost of the vet, the meds, and the "kenneling" (though I don't think they ever left the ARC).  We were just so glad they weren't telling us they had to go back to the US that we just handed over the debit card.

I called and it looks like my vet has the proper meds: http://www.bayeranimal.com.au/default.aspx?Page=50&ItemId=20
it has the praziquantel in it that's required. Woohoo! no ordering for me.

Also, for the tick bit, I think front line would work, according to the defra site.

Now just to make that appt for the right time.

Yeah, it was actually the tapeworm bit that they screwed up - the boys have been on Frontline for ages, so they just dosed them with that.

Just a possible tip here.  I brought the empty packages for the treatments with me, just in case there was any problem.  (Different names, for ex.)  The ARC people did take a look at them.

I did the treatments myself, though... and I see that that's not allowed anymore.

I flew ATL to LGW in Dec 2006 with my kitty.  I have to leave work now, but I'll happy to report the basic timeline and other important stuff this weekend.

I don't know if you have your place reserved on the flight for your pet but I'd do that the day that places open if you can.  I believe it's 13 days ahead of time.  I still have the email with the information if you haven't booked your place yet and wanted to look over it - it'll be sent to you once you book your place as well.

We went to the airport about 5 hours before the flight.  We just had one of her towels in the bottom although apparently there is something that you can buy at the petstore for the purpose of transporting pets.  The only other couple who had booked their pets on the flight arrived before us so we had to wait about 1 hour before we were even taken care of.  I was quite nervous because the whole thing on the ATL side seemed pretty unprofessional.  It took about an hour for them to check her in once we got started and then she was carried off and we just went to the airport for our flight.  I had copies of *everything* because the airport people had to keep some stuff. 

On the LGW side we landed and went through immigration and immediately called the pet people - she hadn't been unloaded yet or checked in.  We didn't have the number for the pet people and had to get it from airport information...it's still programmed in our phone so I can look it up if you need it, it was worth having.

They recommended that we come to the LGW pet thing about 2 hours later (so about 9:30am).  We got a cab there because you can't walk.  I believe the cost was about £7-10 (can't remember) and I still have the number for the cab in our phone as well   Don't ask the cab to wait for you, it'll take forever!!

We sat in the main pet office for about another 45-60 minutes.  We just had to give the receptionist all of our information and she confirmed that the animals had landed, been unloaded, and were being checked out by the vet.  At about 10:30-11am we went about two building over to this warehouse/hangar looking place where we waited in a glass box for the vets or pet handlers to bring them out.  That took about 15-20 minutes.  Once the people delivered our kitty we could take her out of the box and feed and water her. 

We called the cab and headed back to the airport to catch transportation links into London. 

The ATL side seemed much less waiting than the LGW side.  BA was great, as always, and their instructions were very straight-forward in the email and on the phone.

I'm not sure that's the great timeline you were after, but hopefully it helps.  I didn't find the timeline tight at all.  We were still in ATL about 3 hours ahead of time and checked in with about 2.5 hours left to go.  I'm also guessing that you could get there a bit earlier, the couple in front of us must have been quite early considering where in the process they were.

Thanks for this! Especially the timeline at LGW too... we are being asked to make appt times for getting our keys etc in Kingston and I needed to get an idea of how long it would take at LGW.

13 days ahead will be Monday. I am calling at 9am. ATL wants the confirmation number asap because they are staffing someone on Sunday especially for us. (This also means there probably won't be anyone else there with pets.)

Julie, how'd the trip go?  I'd love to hear how you made it!

everything went really smoothly with the dogs with the exception that it cost more than the quote. I was told gas prices had gone up on the 1st of aug.

I'll try to type up something more detailed when i am not holding my baby and can use both hands...