Crystal
kindly requested that I do a more detailed blog on the process of moving your
furry family member across the ocean, and being the obliging blogger that I am,
here is more info about the whole process.
Warning: this may be a very boring post for those of you who are not
interested in this process or who don’t have a pet.
My experiences, moving from France
to the US and from the US back to France
with Rasteau, have both been with Delta/Air France primarily because these
airlines offered us the shortest trips between France
and Ohio,
which we personally thought was very important when travelling with an
animal. After all, the poor little
creatures are trapped in cages the entire time, even when at the airport,
without a bathroom and most of the time without access to food and water
(though from what I understand this does depend on the length of the trip, the
airline, and the mode of transport chosen i.e. in the cabin, in the hold or as
cargo). As an added bonus, for us at
least, Delta/Air France allows you to bring your small pet in the cabin, rather
than restricting them to the hold, on international trips. This is not the case with all airlines, and
from my research, it seems like Delta is the only major US airline that
allows pets in the cabin on international flights. On the way to the US we chose the cabin as we thought
it would be easiest and we liked the idea of being able to keep an eye on the
little guy throughout the whole trip. On
the way back, however, we decided we would give the hold a try. I don’t really know the pros and cons of each
option, so I think it is up to you to decide what you think will work best in
your particular situation and with your pet.
Either way the cost was the same, $200 to have your pet on the plane
(not to mention the added cost of having Lionel travel with super expensive
Delta/Air France rather than my relatively cheap, but 21-hour long trip with Iberia). However, if you travel with your pet in the
cabin you do not get to bring a carry-on suitcase, only a small personal item
in addition to the pet. I personally think
this is an airline scam. You are paying
extra to bring the pet soyou should still get your carry-on! If the animal is in the hold this does not
change the number of bags you get to bring.
In either case, I highly recommend making a reservation with your
airline of choice as far in advance as possible as there are restrictions on
the number of pets that are allowed to travel in the cabin and in the hold on
each aircraft. Definitely do not just
show up at the airport the day of your flight hoping to get your animal on the
plane as this is not a guarantee. Each
time Rasteau has flown he was not the only pet on the plane.
So first, more information on travelling with your animal in
the cabin. If your pet comes with you in
the cabin the animal must be in a small, soft-sided carrier that can fit
comfortably under the seat in front of you. The airlines can provide you with more
specific information regarding the dimensions of the carrier, etc, but it has
to be soft-sided in case it has to squish a little to fit. Also important to note is that you can give
your animal sedatives if it is travelling in the cabin, but it is not
recommended to do so if the pet is travelling in the hold. From what I read, and from what our vets told
us, apparently it can be fatal to drug an animal travelling in the hold, but I
don’t really know why.
When you arrive at the airport you have to present your pet
at the counter so they can make sure the carrier is the right size and that it
follows any and all regulations. You
then proceed through security and boarding as normal. The only difference is, depending on the
country/airport, you may have to remove your pet from the carrier to take it
through security. In our experience, in France they
gave us the option of carrying Rasteau through the security check point or
keeping him in the carrier to go through the x-ray machine with the other hand
luggage. In the US we had no
choice but to carry Rasteau through. There
again, I don’t know which is better, but I’m sure there is research out there. I’m sure it also depends on the temperament of
your pet and their ability to escape from your grasp. I can’t even imagine the stress if we had to
chase a terrified cat through a major international airport!
When travelling in the hold you have to follow
IATA requirements for a hard-sided kennel.
These
requirements go so far as to dictate the kind of latches holding the kennel
together, the materials the kennel is made of, the kind and number of openings,
the dimensions based on the height/length/weight of your animal, etc.
I recommend doing a lot of research before
purchasing a kennel to make sure you buy one that meets all the guidelines.
You should also check this against the
guidelines provided by your airline.
In
our experience, Air France
required a kennel that went above and beyond the IATA guidelines but when it
came time to actually make the purchase, the only kennels we could find that
met the Air France guidelines were for large and extra-large dogs.
We thought this was a bit ridiculous as we
certainly didn’t need a kennel that big for a small cat, so we checked the
Delta guidelines, and they were very different from Air France, though
the two companies operate codeshare flights.
The Delta guidelines were the same as the IATA
so, after many frantic calls to Delta/Air France, we eventually followed the
Delta guidelines.
Even though we had
purchased the ticket through Air France,
we were flying out of Cincinnati,
which is a Delta hub, the flight was operated by Delta and we would be faced
with Delta representatives at the counter who would have the final say as to
whether or not our furball made it on the flight.
These kennels, depending on size and brand,
can range anywhere from $30-$200.
Additionally, according to the IATA and most airlines (but
again, not Air France) you should attach travel food and water dishes to the
door of the kennel, and attach a plastic bag of food to the outside of the
carrier, in case the animal needs to be given something to eat or drink. This does not apply in all cases, but on
longer flights, or if there are unexpected delays, the flight crew may be
required to feed your animal and they must be able to do so without opening the
door. On a normal flight to France your pet
would not be given anything to eat or drink, but if you had a long delay they
would (not sure exactly what the time limits are). Upon arrival at the airport, your pet is
dropped off at the counter during check-in to be transported to the aircraft
and upon boarding they usually make an announcement to let passengers know that
their animal has been safely boarded and is indeed on the plane.
However, when it comes to travelling with your pet in the
hold, please let me give you this one very important tip based on our own very
unpleasant experience bringing Rasteau back to France. Be absolutely sure to verify that the type of
plane you will be travelling on can in fact accommodate animals in the hold. Even if you’ve made the reservation and have
been assured by the reservations specialist that your animal will be flying on
your plane in the hold, do the extra research.
We did not and when we arrived at the Delta counter at the Cincinnati airport we were very rudely informed that
animals could not travel in the hold from Cincinnati
to Paris
because the specific aircraft used for that route did not accommodate pets in
the hold (I think it was a 767). You
see, I had naively assumed that when we called and made Rasteau’s reservation
(and subsequently confirmed it at least 5 times through various other phone
calls related to the kennel requirements), that the reservations agents would
have informed us if the type of aircraft Lionel was scheduled to fly on could
not accommodate pets in the hold. Seeing
as we had to provide Lionel’s reservation information in order to make Rasteau’s
reservation, this seemed like a logical assumption, but you know what the say,
assuming makes an ass out of you and me.
Imagine our surprise when we arrived at the airport, loaded
down with luggage, a giant hard-sided carrier and a very stressed out cat, and
we were so impolitely told, at first, just that animals could not travel
through Paris. What!?! I nearly
screamed, completely confused as we had made the reservation months in advance,
confirmed it, and never been told anything of the kind. Not to mention our cat is Parisian, of course
he could travel through his hometown! I
tried as hard as I could to calm down and asked, as kindly as possible given
the circumstances, what our options were at that point. We were rudely told that our only option was
not to bring our cat. Clearly not an
option! Finally, after a near panic
attack, a couple of inappropriate curse words on my part and a few tears,
another Delta representative came over to see what the problem was and kindly
informed us that in fact, it was not that the cat couldn’t travel through
Paris, it was the type of aircraft that was the problem and he couldn’t travel
in the hold. She, unlike the first bitch
who was incredibly rude and unbelievably unhelpful (and now that I finally have
internet and phone access I have to file my complaint), apologized for the
inconvenience and explained that we could still get the cat on the plane if we
could manage to find a soft-sided carrier to bring him in the cabin. She also offered to check Lionel’s carry-on
suitcase free of charge (and personally I think they should have offered more
than just that considering all the money we lost on the fancy kennel and all
the stress they put us through because their representatives are idiots) since
Rasteau would now be counted as his carry-on and we hadn’t planned on that.
So, off I went with my dad on a mad dash across the airport
and out to the car, directions in hand, to find the nearest pet store to buy a
carrier as quickly possible so that they wouldn’t miss the flight. Luckily, as I was frantically running through
PetSmart I found an incredibly nice employee who was very sympathetic to my
problem and quickly showed me all the options and then let me cut in line to
pay so I could make it back in time. Once
back at the airport, we got everyone checked in and I watched them head through
security, secretly praying that a non-sedated Rasteau would not manage to claw
through the soft-sided carrier in a panic on the flight (he has already managed
to rip through two of them).
Upon arrival in the country of destination you must take
your pet through customs and then back through security if changing planes. According to everything I’ve read online, when
your pet travels in the hold, you have to pick it up with your luggage to go
through customs, and if your pet is travelling in the cabin you just carry it
off the plane and through customs. Normally,
from what I understand, there is supposed to be a quick check with a vet or at
least a customs specialist to verify that the animal does not appear to have
any diseases, but we did not experience this on either side of the Atlantic. Also in
customs they are supposed to verify all of your paperwork, but Lionel said that
in Paris they
didn’t even really bother to look at it. Also, contrary to popular belief, most of the
time your pet does not have to be quarantined. Usually your pet is only quarantined if it
appears unhealthy when/if checked at customs. However, this does vary depending on the
destination country.
As far as papers are concerned, for Rasteau to travel from France to the US he needed to get a passport and
a health certificate. Both of these
documents can be obtained very easily from your vet in France. The passport contains the animal’s ID
information, microchip number and info on all check-ups, vaccines, etc and can
be obtained at any time and then updated with each subsequent visit to the vet.
The health certificate must be obtained
shortly before flying and states that the animal is in a condition to travel,
not sick, not injured, etc.
For the return to France, from what I understand we probably
would have been fine with just his French passport, but I like to be overly
prepared, just in case, so we went to our vet and got a health certificate as
well.
In the US
the health certificate is much more complicated than in France, probably because the US doesn’t have
passports for pets so they have to include records of all vaccinations, etc on
the health certificate, and it took our vet 5 days and multiple calls to the
US State Department to complete all the paperwork.
The US State Department provides the forms to
the vet and has specific forms depending on the destination country.
The State Department insisted we needed all of
this, and according to their requirements, once the form is completed by the vet
you have to bring it to the US State Department office in your state to be
stamped, which costs maybe $20.
We didn’t
know about any of this and found out a few days before flying.
This would have required a trip up to Columbus and we just didn’t have the time, so we didn’t
end up getting it stamped, figuring that the airline didn’t require a health
certificate and France
didn’t seem to require one for a French cat with a passport, though of course
the US State Department insists they do.
Another requirement for bringing an animal into Europe
is that the animal now must have a microchip.
Rasteau already had one, so that wasn’t a
problem for us.
The US, however,
doesn’t require one.
Be sure to check
with your airline though because some airlines do require documentation and
others, like Delta, don’t.
The papers
required also depend on your destination country and of course your animal’s
origins.
For example, I know that it is
much more difficult to bring an animal into the United Kingdom and it would require
a lot more research and work.
Rasteau's passport
The ID pages of Rasteau's passport. There is even a place to put a photo of your pet, though this is optional.
My overall impressions were that it is actually quite easy
to travel with an animal, at least between the US
and France. Rasteau took it pretty well both times. On the trip to the US
we sedated him but he was still wide awake and freaked out at the airport in Paris, moving around a
lot and meowing quite a bit. But once he
was settled on the plane he just passed out and slept the entire flight, only
waking up upon arrival in Cincinnati
when he was removed from his carrier to go through security. Coming back to France he was not sedated because
we thought he was going to travel in the hold. He was pretty freaked out at the airport and
from what Lionel said he didn’t really settle down until after take-off. Upon arrival at the airport in Paris he was quite scared again but then he mostly slept
through the flight to Bordeaux
and woke up again when he was taken off the plane. So overall I don’t really know if the
sedatives made much of a difference because drugged or not he was scared at the
airports and he slept through the flights.
I planned months in advance both times, partially because I’m
a control freak and partially because I like to do everything possible to be
sure to avoid potential problems (though that didn’t work so well this time
around…).
I made Rasteau’s reservations
a day or two after booking the tickets, shopped for an appropriate carrier a
few months in advance, verified and reverified and then verified yet again all
the documentation needed, both on the airline’s website and the border control
site for the destination country (in this case
Les Douanes Françaises).
I talked
to the vet about 2 months in advance just to make sure I wasn’t forgetting
anything and to make sure to have an appointment for the health certificate a
week or two before departure.
In the
end, problems can obviously still happen, as was the case for us this time
around, but it really is not too difficult to travel with your four-legged
friend (keep in mind, species outside of cats and dogs can be more complicated),
especially with proper planning and preparation.
I know that there are companies that
specialize in helping you move with an animal internationally, but I imagine it
costs quite a lot more and in my opinion it is not really worth it in most cases
as the whole experience is quite simple.
And I find that it really doesn’t cost as much
as you would expect, especially if you already have a good carrier.
But what really counts in the end, regardless
of all the stress, the expense and the hassle, is that your furry family member
makes it alive and in good health, as Rasteau did.
Rasteau seemingly quite happy here in France, taking a nap in the bottom of our hall closet.
Rasteau out in the garden, ready to pounce on something he saw move in the ivy.
