Cat shipping -- carriers?

Hi everyone!

We're getting ready to ship the cats with Virgin Atlantic and I was wondering what kind and size of kennels everyone had for shipping their cats. VA recommended a size but it seems quite small to me!

We flew Virgin with our 2 cats -- one large cat, one small cat.  They each flew in one of these in size medium (28 x 20.5 x 21.5).

ETA:  It's been 18 months, but at the time, we used the IATA guidelines for size and carriers.

I flew BA and they had precise instructions for measuring the length and height of the cat to ensure I had the right size carrier. My cat is really big, so I wound up having to buy a dog crate. Does Virgin have similar instructions on their website?

I flew BA and bought the smallest recommended size crate for my cat, and at check-in they made my mom go to the pet store and buy the next size up (which gave him a whole 1.5" extra of headroom, and he was already pretty small compared to the crate, so I'm not sure what the point was!).

I think the smallest one they recommend is 21x16x15, and the next size up (that they allowed him to fly in) is 23x17x16. He's a pretty average sized cat (frame-wise) and 13lbs.

Virgin does have instructions, the carriers I picked up are 25 x 17 x 16, which is still larger than what the rep at Virgin said people "usually" use and certainly larger than my very small cats. It just seemed small to me!

Thank you, equestrianerd, that makes me feel a lot better. I'm pretty sure I have the right thing now and if I don't, I can get to the pet store very quickly!

Yeah, apparently the people at the check-in were really nice and had no problems with my mom heading off to buy a new crate. So even if you have the wrong size, it's not a huge crisis.

One of the reasons we have to check the cats in so early (or so the cargo person told me over the phone!) was so if you have a problem, you have time to go out and buy another crate (among other reasons, of course!).

I am shipping my four cats in crates of the same size: 28 x 21 x 19 - it is the IATA "Medium" dog crate.