When Travel, Check Your Baggage and Pet Regulations.
Limits on Baggage Force to Travel Light
Last November we went to Spain via American Airlines. It was to our surprise to find out that the baggage limit for international flights on American Airlines is now 23 pounds per person. Thank god that my boyfriend’s luggage was lighter than mine by 10 pounds and I was able to move my shopping bags and souvenirs to his bag.
You, on the other hand, might not get that lucky. Especially if you are traveling alone, and there is no one’s accompanying you with a lighter luggage.
To ensure your travel goes smoothly – know your baggage restrictions and check answers to commonly asked questions in advance.
Here is a list of Airline Luggage Details:
Use the links below to find extensive information pertaining to baggage, including baggage allowances on flights, what constitutes special baggage, and more.
We Love Our Pets, but Airlines Might Not
And if you decided to travel with your pooch, there are regulations on how to transport your pet, and they change constantly. Especially in the times when airlines make adjustments to what they can accommodate, serve on board and what locations to make connections. Everyone is trying to save, and cut back on expenses, and unfortunately it comes at a passenger’s expense. Forget the idea of sneaking your kitty on board in a bag! Even if it’s just a small pet that will be sitting on your lap, or under your feet – it now cost a pet ticket to have a pet with you in the cabin.
Visit PetFlight for airline travel information for your pets. Not only it provides you with extensive information on airlines that allow pets on board as carry-ons, and which require specific accommodations, such as a pet ticket, but it also provides with you statistics on pet travel incidents (which might be a bit nerve-racking to read for a pet owner) and potty places where you can relieve your pet. They give you information on how to locate potty places not in a few, but in all the states.
This is as close as I got to getting information I need for my pets. Their rather extended list of airports, airlines, and additional animals’ services and tips helped me in the travels-with-a-pet.
Note: International travel is completely different from local travel (with a country); it comes with its own rules and regulations, as some countries impose quarantine on a pet once it arrives with you to another country, most of the countries require certain vaccines before you enter their countries, and others require for a pet to have a pet’s international passport. As you read it, it might be amusing to you, but if you decide to either acquire a pet in Russia, or bring to/from Russia a pet, the Russian airlines would require you to have an international passport for your pet, even if he/she is only 4 months old. This passport would need to list all the required vaccines your pet needs to have in order for you to transport him/her over the border. It’s basically a health document that allows a pet to travel through most international locations.
(A dog with his Austrian passport that allows him to travel through most of the European Union, EU. Photo by AlishaRusher, http://www.flickr.com/photos/9541469@N05/)
As much as we’d like to travel with our pets (and I’m one of them), it’s not easy anymore. And unless you travel by car, all other transportation means have their own rules and regulations, some of which are more painful and time-consuming than the other. In some occasions, I knew people with pets who would give up dealing with all the regulations and would be willing to rather pay an expensive boarding cost or hire a sit-with-a-pet professional (a pet-sitter) than take him/her with you.
Here is a list of Airline Pet Travel and Shipping Details (information by PetFlight):
Some of these airlines do allow small dogs and cats as a carry-on, but read all the information to see what it’d “cost” you. If you are looking for a pet-smart, pet-experienced person who can answer all of your pet-concerned and of-pet-interest questions, visit one of many Examiner's pet advisors, Pet-Friendly Travel Examiner. Or their Pet Care Examiner, whose last article Swine Flu- could H1N1 infect your canine? might provide sought-after information for you. Their Pet News Examiner looks into all kinds of various subject matters, from celebrities' saying about their pets, First Dog Bo, to the latest pet products on the market.
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