Question about travel carriers

Hi all,

Now that my documents are in Sheffield and all I can do is wait, I'm turning back to getting the pets ready to go. Since I have three pets, I'm trying to save as much on carriers as possible. A family friend gave me one that can be altered to airline standards (bought Dryfur airline kits with metal nuts and bolts, etc). However, it has ventilation slits on the top and bottom half of the carrier. I can't find anywhere if this will pass inspection or not. Should I email a picture to Delta Cargo and see if they'll respond?

 You may find what you need here:

http://www.delta.com/content/www/en_US/traveling-with-us/special-travel-needs/pets/pet-requirements-restrictions.html

We had a purpose-built wooden 'kennel' when we shipped our cat with Delta in 2011. Heavier than some others, but we knew it met all requirements.

Hi all,

Now that my documents are in Sheffield and all I can do is wait, I'm turning back to getting the pets ready to go. Since I have three pets, I'm trying to save as much on carriers as possible. A family friend gave me one that can be altered to airline standards (bought Dryfur airline kits with metal nuts and bolts, etc). However, it has ventilation slits on the top and bottom half of the carrier. I can't find anywhere if this will pass inspection or not. Should I email a picture to Delta Cargo and see if they'll respond?

Dryfur is an awesome site! I got my dog crate and the "airline kits" from them and read and re-read every bit of information I could on traveling with pets that they have on their site! 
Basically if the crate you were given looks like the ones that Dryfur sells, it will be fine, if you aren't sure, by all means, contact Delta and ask! Better to double and triple check now rather then get to the airport and have a problem then. 

Better to double and triple check now rather then get to the airport and have a problem then. 

Even then, you may still have to go buy a kennel on the day. My mom dropped off my pets in their airline approved kennels to fly out, and the measurements they took on the day said that my cat needed a bigger crate than I'd bought for him. My mom had to drive to Petsmart and get a bigger kennel and then come back to the airport to drop them off.

TL; DR - consider going for a bigger crate than you think you'll need, even if the size you get seems like it meets/exceeds the requirements.

Agree regarding the kennel advice above.  We bought a second hand SkyKennel on Craigslist (maybe try this or Ebay local to you?) and while it would have been fine for the kitties based on our measurements, we decided in the end to stump up for the next size up at Petsmart to give them a bit more headroom and light.  The LAST thing I wanted was to get to O'Hare and have to run around finding a new kennel.  You don't want to go too big so that they are tossed around, but if you are on the edge of measurements, its better to be safe than sorry.

Kitty measurement and kennel worries took up a bunch of time, almost as much as timing and sorting out the vet paperwork.

Third on the Dryfur packets!  We went that route too and were very pleased with the package and service. I also got some of the absorbant pads that were AMAZING - one of the cats had an accident in the crate or just couldn't hold it the whole way and I had no idea until two days later when I really checked the pad - no smell, no muss, nothing.  We even had our two in the crate together (as per our airline's regulations - keep in mind ours flew SAS to Stockholm - not sure if any available airlines to the UK allow two pets in the same carrier, but you could check) and they came out nice and clean.