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Get a QuoteOk, so we often get people calling us asking to move their pets and they are shocked at how expensive it can be to hire a pet shipper and so our clients will change their plans or book the flights themselves. Very few airlines will take a booking direct from a client and the main reason behind this is that if a pet lands at its destination with incorrect paperwork, then it is the airline who gets the fine and the job of flying a pet back to its destination.
PetAir UK has helped with 2 recent events which highlight why it is sensible to use a good pet shipper.
Story 1 – A little cat (lets call him Marmite) was travelling from London to Seattle, USA. All went swimmingly for little Marmite. Vet check was done, crate was ready and Marmite was checked in exactly on time. A job well done and another furball on the way. Around 10 minutes after the flight had departed, the owner called us. “Hang on – aren’t you supposed to be on the same flight as your cat?” was the first question and “Why not?” was the second. The owner had missed their flight. The plan had been for the owner to be on the same plane as Marmite and then collect Marmite the other end before the 8 hour drive to their new home and there was no-one in Seattle to call the owner. By the way all of this happened at around 4pm on a Friday afternoon. so, if you had booked this yourself, where would you start? If you had used one of the smaller pet shippers, chances of their answering their phones at 4pm on a Friday afternoon – probably fairly small. So we spent 3 hours finding an agent in Seattle who could collect Marmite and look after her until the owners arrived. we called BA in Seattle and BA in Heathrow to help smoothen the process. We redid the export paperwork and flight ticket to show someone else was collecting Marmite and left the office late with a job well done. Total extra cost to the owner for all of time and effort put in by the team at PetAir – nothing, not one penny.
Story 2 – 3 pets going to Dubai, UAE as excess baggage. PetAir UK had helped with the vet work and pre travel boarding and got all pets and docs to the airport at 0300 on the day of the flight as planned. However, the airline had not checked that all the pets would fit and, indeed, that the largest dog’s crate would actually fit on the plane, so the owner was sitting comfortably on the plane when one of the stewards came up and said “We have a problem with your pets”. The poor owner could not fly, the pets could not fly. The biggest dog could not fit on the plane no matter what. So Petair UK has sourced another crate at short notice and got the large dog booked on a different flight with around 3 hours notice and off they all went.
Ok, so flying your pets can be really expensive, but that is mainly because the airlines charge a lot to move pets by air. However, there is definitely value a pet shipper brings when it does not go smoothly can make a huge difference to the final outcome for you and your pets in this incredible move.
Wed Jul 22 2015