Booking flights for my cat and me

I'm having some trouble getting a straight answer about this.  My intention is to fly December 12th to London (direct from Chicago) with my cat who is all ready to go with the PETS Travel Scheme. 

I'm trying to book with British Airways now for MY ticket, but I'm not able to book the cat in the cargo until 2 weeks prior to the actual flight.

Has anyone done this?  Have you had any problems?  Alternatives?? 

Thanks everyone for a great forum!  This has all been a massive help for me 

The two weeks prior is fairly standard. My ticket was booked well in advance and I just called two weeks before we were scheduled to go and booked the cats.

I flew my cat and dog over on BA (without me as I was already here), and they wouldn't let me book until <= 14 days prior to travel. I had no issues getting them both on a flight for the day I wanted, so you should be fine. (They'll accept up to 4 pets per flight, I believe, but only from up to 2 owners.)

Just aim to call first thing on the 14 day mark, and book them in.

Just thought of one other thing - when you take your cat in for the tick/tapeworm thing, check if you need an "acclimation certificate/statement" as well as a health certificate. When I flew my cat (NC->NM) I had to get the vet to state that she was acclimated to regular winter temps (she flew in Dec, and their standard min temp is 45, I think). It wasn't a big deal, but they were pretty strict about needing the vet's statement that she could travel if the temp fell below 45 at any point during her journey. (I'm assuming Chicago and/or London will be that cold in December!) That was with American Airlines, though, so BA might not need it.

You have no idea how much better I feel!  Thank you!

How did your cats handle the flight??  Mine is a typical cat, hates to leave the house and lets you know it.

Mine did fine. They were 11 and 12 at the time. For a few weeks before we left I slept in a t-shirt. I then cut it in half and put half in each crate. I don't know if it made them feel better, but it made me feel better!    One cat peed in the crate on the way over, but the other one held it for 13 hours! The people at Gatwick took the soiled towels and such out of the crate and put it in a plastic bag. This was promptly discarded on the way home!

ETA: My cats settled in just fine. The cat who soiled his crate got a bath first thing when we got back to the flat. He was so tired he didn't even fight me. Then we all went to bed and slept for 14 hours. They were right as rain the next morning!

My 4yo cat handled the trip pretty well, overall. He usually detests being in a carrier so when I picked him up I thought he would be his typical whiny self, but he was practically mute (I imagine he cried a bit at first but gave up at some point). His crate was clean so I think he held it during the flight.

Once he got here, it took about a week before he fully settled in (eating/drinking/pooping regularly). He was fine during that week, but obviously a bit off his game. He also had to adjust to being an indoor-only kitty now (in NC he got to roam the neighborhood at will), so that took another couple of weeks.

My dog, on the other hand, walked off the plane like nothing had happened, so each animal handles it in their own way, obviously.

My four kitties did really well :-) one is 11, two are 4ish and the baby is 2 - all were right as rain when I picked them at Heathrow ARC.

When they saw me they all came right up to the front of their huge carriers and looked very bright and happy - though I could tell they were tired, when I transferred them into their soft carriers for the car ride to our new place, not a single peep came out of them! (As opposed to the non-stop yowling during our 14 hr car journey to the airport the day before).

Once we were in our new place, I let them all out in the bedroom with kitty litter, water and food and slept for aaaaages....the next day they were all over the place exploring their new digs.

Our 2 cats were 12 when we brought them over 2 years ago.  They did really well.  One of our cats is a giant, friendly beast and he'd charmed the folks at Heathrow Animal Reception Centre by the time we arrived.  Our little cat is much more anxious and was clearly frightened by the trip, but she adjusted pretty quickly once we got to our new home and was able to explore (and use the litter box -- both cats had held it for the duration!). 

Even considering our anxious kitty, I was definitely the biggest wreck of the crew.      

Sarah - you need to go read this over on the British expats site..

newcomer link: http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=693048 [nonactive]

And call the carrier today - You should be able to get on if you can pay in full today.

Good luck!

Thanks for posting this, but it seems to only affect pets flying into the US, right? Regardless, this helped me since I'll be flying my cat back to the US in the next few months. Thanks for the heads up!