Flying Pets WITHIN the UK

Hi All,

I'm bringing my 3 pets to the UK and am in the process of sorting out how to get them from either Southampton or London to Glasgow.

Currently, I understand  from talking to the folks at BA World Cargo that I can fly them on BA and count them as excess baggage, though they'll be flying in cargo (as they are still considered 'unaccompanied pets', even if I am flying on the same flight as them).  They told me that this is cheaper than flying them cargo.

BA World Cargo has recommended to me that I contact the service that they use - James Cargo Services - to make these arrangements (the ones for inside the UK)

Has anyone flown within the UK with their pets?  If so, any recommendations?  What sorts of prices did you end up paying  in terms of excess baggage for the pets?  Any difficulties - unexpected issues?

Thanks!

When I brought my cat over in December I flew Continental from Houston to London and cleared him throught the PETS scheme. Well that left me to get him (and myself) from London to Aberdeen. I flew BA and checked him as excess baggage. It cost 15 pounds. The quote I had for flying him as cargo was 224 pounds!! It's a huge difference.

Here's how it worked, after he cleared the PETS scheme and customs I picked him up and then checked in at the BA counter (just like you normally would) they put a luggage tag on the pet carrier, you pay your extra 15 pounds, and then ask you to wait in the special assistance area and someone from BA will come and pick him up. The only thing I had to do when booking my ticket with BA was reserve the space for the carrier. It took about 2 days for them to confirm if they would have room then it was no problem - they know he was coming when we checked in.

Oh thank you so much!  I knew that I could put the cats in as excess baggage as I finally got through to someone at BA and I also spoke to their cargo rep at Heathrow (James Cargo Services)

What I didn't know was what charges would be and that I'd need to ask to wait in the special assistance area or reserve the space for the carriers.

This is so much better!  Thanks again.

They have to know the measurements of the pet carrier as well to make they have the space..........but definitly has to be done at least a week before travel!

Opps...MeShell made me re-read my post and it's a little confusting. I reserved his carrier space on BA a month before the flight (when I bought our tickets). It took BA two days to get back to me after I requested the space to confirm that they had space. Make sense?

Correct Neeps...also reserved the ticket but don't pay for it UNTIL they confirm the space for the animal carrier.
They can hold the reservation for 3 days!

Don't know if this is of any interest to you, but you can also take pets on trains within the UK. Dogs must be kept on a lead and cats (and other small pets) must be kept in containers. I'm fairly sure there's no charge.

Wow, I had no idea you could reserve the tickets for 3 days without actually paying for them!  That's great news - yes - I had planned on making the actual reservations at least a month in advance in order to ensure that there was enough space for both the flight to London and then from London to Glasgow.

We did know about the train option; we had looked at that, as well as driving up - we finally decided that it would be in our best interest not to try to travel between 7-10 hours with 3 cats on top of the 7 hours they'd already endured on the flight over (actually we'd gotten a quote out of DC on Virgin which was several hundred dollars more than BA and were going come over on the QM2 as a result and drive up or take the train from Southampton  - but the cost and time were just too prohibitive once we arrived in the UK)

So a shorter flight with the cats seems to us to be in their best interest; though I have to say, if I had a dog, the train is definitely the way I'd go