Pets from Heathrow to Houston

[jayne d 12]

United have gone downhill in my estimations for other reasons.

I am flying out with Delta if interview goes well. I spoke to a Delta representative who said my cat could fly in the cabin with me (LHR to ATL and then onto DEN). Pets can not fly business class cabin with delta. You may need to check with LHR as sometimes they place a block on pets flying out of heathrow.

I researched shipping Freddie with a pet courrier, they were asking for 750GBP to ship him to Denver flying with BA cargo. They would collect him from my home address but I had to provide fitness to fly, pet passport, microchip docs etc to them before they would take him. I also remember reading somewhere you have to be in contact with the shipping agent for 30 days before the pet flies. This is just my experience and research but it may help you.

I am waiting with this and Freddie is flying out with my Mum on another occasion and I didnt want to risk LHR turning him away on the day. I know he'll cope better with being around those he knows and you know you're pet so you will do whats best for you

Hi. I tried doing this originally and was told by a delta representative that I could take my cat with me either in the cabin or as excess baggage, I booked my ticket and included my cat in the booking and was told I would get confirmation a few days later. After waiting a week for confirmation, I called them back, was given the run around and eventually got put through to someone in Delta in the USA who told me I couldn't take him as excess baggage or in the cabin due to UK rules. This is why I ended up going down the agent route and getting him in as cargo. Hope you are successful, but i would recommend you call again to confirm. It would be awful if you arrived and they wouldn't take your cat at the same time. Good luck.

[Keeto 12]

I should have completed this a loooooong time ago. Sorry guys.

At the end of the day, we booked Leo as excess baggage at Heathrow - after confirming with AA that this is what we should do - phone call to Heathrow AA office.

The morning we flew we did not feed him and only gave him water. We had zip loc bags with food for him that we were going to attach to the kennel.

Arriving at the airport we booked Leo as access baggage and the lady that did the booking was unsure about the procedure and was asking us all kinds of irrelevant questions about feeding him etc. We were under too much stress to have these kind of conversations with her so we asked to speak to her supervisor, which in turn sorted out the whole booking in a couple of minutes. We paid $195, I think. My wife was in tears by this time. I guess more from happiness than anything else. A guy that deals with pets was called, an employee of Heathrow not an airline and this guy was super nice! He even allowed us into the cargo area to say goodbye to Leo. We really appreciated that kind of service for a change. Kudo's to him. When we got onto the plane we asked the air hostess if she would be able to confirm that Leo made it onto the same plane. About 20 minutes later she came back and reported that he was on the plane with us.

Leo arrived safely at Fort Worth Dallas and once we passed through immigration we found him in the baggage claim area for oversized items - mini Schnauzer and all.... We asked the people if we could take him outside to give him water and a toilet break and they agreed! Needless to say Leo was VERY happy to see us. The people asked us to make sure to bring him back an hour before the flight left for Houston. We did that and Leo was checked in again as excess baggage onto the small Bombardier CRJ 700. We actually saw his kennel go up the cargo belt into the plane when we were looking at the plane from the gate. At least he was not alone there was another dog in another kennel. He arrived safely in Houston (50 mins flight) that evening. Thanks to American Airlines for this, we really appreciated it.

Edited July 23, 2014 by Keeto