How much did your pets plane ticket cost?

We compared prices for flights to France where you can check the pet as baggage, and it is a fraction of the amount. The plan was to then take one of the sanctioned ferrys over. We aborted in the end because of too much hastle between dog and 19 month old son.

Would this even be possible? For traveling between EU countries, the pet(s) would need an EU pet passport, which I'm assuming cannot be done from the US. So, at a guess, you'd need to meet whatever requirements France might have in order to send your pets there, and then stay there long enough with the pet(s) to transfer their paperwork to an EU passport in order to get them from France to the UK.

If that's incorrect, and doing US->France->the UK is a feasible plan, please post with details, because I'm quite curious about this idea.

ETA: Transportation from airport->ferry and ferry->city (assuming London) also seems like it would be a major pain, but perhaps traveling with pets is easier there. (I can only imagine what a taxi driver here would think of me wandering around with a ton of luggage and a dog and cat.)

ETA: Transportation from airport->ferry and ferry->city (assuming London) also seems like it would be a major pain, but perhaps traveling with pets is easier there. (I can only imagine what a taxi driver here would think of me wandering around with a ton of luggage and a dog and cat.)

My taxi driver in Dublin thought my two cats were great! He oohed and ahhed at them when we put them in the van.

If that's incorrect, and doing US->France->the UK is a feasible plan, please post with details, because I'm quite curious about this idea.

AFAIK, DEFRA is clear about acceptable routes from the US into the UK and none of them include stopping in another country before entry if you are planning to avoid quarantine.

There is a table on their website that lists approved routes - from which city to which city via a specific airline.  I'm fairly certain if you choose an unapproved route and you've got to do the 6 months quarantine.

Yeah, that's why I originally said this:

So, at a guess, you'd need to meet whatever requirements France might have in order to send your pets there, and then stay there long enough with the pet(s) to transfer their paperwork to an EU passport in order to get them from France to the UK.

At that point, you wouldn't be doing US->UK, you'd be doing US->France and then France->UK, which does include options for both air and sea travel, as heartypete suggested originally.  Unless there is some workaround to allow you to stop in France and then get treated by DEFRA as if your origin is France (and not the US), I would think this plan is far more time/trouble than it's worth, with needing to get an EU passport to meet the EU country PETS requirements as well as the US ones (not to mention whatever requirements France would want for pets originating in the US).

Cargo flights for pets are expensive, but they're not that expensive. (Hassle of the EU passport aside, I personally would not want to drag my pets from the US to, say, Paris on a plane, then to a port city via car, then to England via ferry, then to London via car. Being able to do US to London via plane and be done in one shot is worth more - as far as my pets' comfort goes - than the financial burden of not getting a discount for shipping them as baggage.)

We've got EU passports for our cats, but it took at least a few days for them to be sent off from and then returned to our vet's office.  We didn't do it to circumvent anything, just wanted to make sure they maintain current documentation for any future travel (we're not in the UK permanently, only for work), and it was the easiest way now that we're in the UK, although I have their US paperwork and lab results filed away, too.

I didn't look into it, but if it was even remotely easy to get an EU passport from the US, it seems like that's what we'd all be doing.  It would have been way easier to have the little passport for them than worry endlessly about the EU998 paperwork and the ink color, date format and the vet stamp, USDA certification and all of that.  But it didn't seem to be an option.

My cats are older, and every minute shaved off an already arduous journey was worth it for us.  It's definitely expensive, but so was everything else for this move and they're our family. 

I can't believe the quote I got from BA last week.  They're telling me its going to be $1950 to fly my 45# dog from Denver direct to Heathrow!  I called Northwest just to get a competitive quote from Minneapolis to Heathrow and they quoted $1290 plus $650 processing fee for all the clearance issues at Heathrow - basically the same price.  I'm flabbergasted.  I'm putting her in an XL varikennel so I knew I could get nailed, but I was expecting something closer to $1000.  Just to give y'all an idea of how outrageously crazy I think this is, it cost me $450 to ship her from Cairo to Salt Lake city (2 flights as baggage - Mar 09).  Oh, on top of the $2000 to get her from DEN-LHR, I'll probably be in the hole for another $250 to fly her as baggage from Montana down to Denver.  Ouch!!!   

Smocha, did you have any issues getting your last cat in the country?  I'm flying over Oct 24th and am starting to get edgy about it.  But, I think I've read everything on this board that's been posted in the last year and overall I feel very ready.  Can't wait to have her in the country!!!     

did you try continental.......last time i talked to them it was 599 per dog which is far less than what youre looking at.........but of course you know prices do seem to change with each phone call

did you try continental.......last time i talked to them it was 599 per dog which is far less than what youre looking at.........but of course you know prices do seem to change with each phone call

Does Continental go by weight or crate size? Either way, I think you mentioned you have chihuahuas, who are (hopefully ) nowhere near 45lbs, so I would guess that if you could fly them for $600, a dog that's 3-4 times the size would still cost upwards of $1,000.

ill be honest with you......they never asked me about what type dog or size they were......i mentioned after the fact that it was chis and i wanted them to share a crate......answer was no......no matter what size they cant share a crate unless they are under 6mths of age.........so i cant honestly answer that question for you....i think these prices they charge are just ridiculous....i stick to my feelings ...they charge it because they know we have to pay it

Thanks for the suggestions, and no I didn't look into Continental.  For me, part of the problem is that my dog is in Montana right now.  So, I need to fly her somewhere to get to a city that has an approved route into the UK.  The only cities that have both a direct connection to Billings and to London is Minneapolis and Denver.  To get to a Continental city, I'd need to take 2 flights from MT and it just seems like too much hassle and more importantly, too much stress on my dog.

For the record, I just booked my flights today so it looks like I'm committed to flying her on the BA flight from Denver.  I'll let you know how much my final bill is...  My travel date is Oct 24th.  Wish me well at customs in Heathrow...  I have to admit that I'm nervous.

Smocha, did you have any issues getting your last cat in the country?  I'm flying over Oct 24th and am starting to get edgy about it.  But, I think I've read everything on this board that's been posted in the last year and overall I feel very ready.  Can't wait to have her in the country!!!     
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Hi, We (my cat and I ) just got back to England last week. The 1235.00 I was quoted became about 1350.00 because it did not include the fee for the airway bill and some fee at james cargo .(the BA cargo place in Dallas)

Other than that, everything else went smooth. I was soooo relievd when they let me take him away from the animal reception place at Heathrow.


I blogged all about it on my blog if anyone cares to read the gritty details

http://catsonthecounter.blogspot.com/2009/09/trip-to-england-part-1.html


                 Good luck to all of you, It is such an ordeal .We must REALLY love our pets

Congratulations Smocha!

That's so awesome that you've finally got your cat in.  I've read about your ordeal on this forum a couple months ago.  Now, you can finally sleep well in the UK.   That's just great. 

But, 1350 for a cat.  Ouch.  It seems all the fees have gone up lately.  I think in fact that this is a trend in the UK.  As the economic crisis has hit, they've increased the fees on all the immigrant issues in an effort to make up the difference in cash not brought in by taxes.  I'm sure the same thing is going on the US...

Anyway, enough ranting.  That's great to hear about your kitten.  May you have many happy years with her/him here in the UK!

Laura

So just as a follow-up on the Continental thing, they do go by the weight of the animal + the carrier. The quote I got for my 60lb dog was $1,539 (plus $659 for my 12lb cat).

And then there's...
$0.70/kg fuel + security surcharge
$550-700 "broker" fee to bring them into the UK (thankfully total, the 2nd pet is an extra $15-20)

So, that puts Continental at ~$2,748, not including fuel or surcharge. On the plus side (about the only one I could find), that's irrelevant of the airport you use on the US side (flying into Heathrow). So at least they don't charge extra if you're going from the west coast rather than the east coast.

I'm still likely going with BA, as they've been the lowest quote so far (though I should call for an updated number, if prices are rising), but I had considered flying within the US to get on a Continental route if they were going to be cheap...guess not.

Good luck to everyone and their pets on safe journeys!

Equestrianerd:

When are you planning to bring your animals in - sometime soon? Good luck with it all.  Let us know how it goes!!!

Laura

Their PETS time will be up December 12, but I'm hoping to move in early January.  That's dependent on finding a job and renting my house, though, so we'll see how those go and plan from there.