Stressing over moving pets abroad
We’re moving in 3 months (exact date pending some details, like buying airline tickets). The whole thought of Getting Rid of Crap and Packing Up Stuff is bad enough, but there’s a whole lot of orchestrating to do. Like buying the airplane tickets, acquiring health insurance, finding temporary housing etc.
Today’s bugaboo is researching travel for our cats. Our friggin’ cats. I say friggin‘ because travelling with them complicates things quite a bit. In 3 months they’ll have more international experience than Palin but for now they are a collective PITA.
This whole travelling with pets thing is more expensive than we expected too. We thought it would cost $100/cat, and that it would be fine as long as the temperatures weren’t obscenely hot. But researching the various airlines has been downright depressing:
- US Airways doesn’t accept pets internationally
- Delta charges $550 per pet
- TACA/LACSA (who we flew with last year) won’t take any live animals as cargo. If in the cabin, they’d be in lieu of any carry-on luggage. Hmm - cats or snacks/entertainment for the kids?
- American won’t accept a pet if the temperature is below 45 degrees, though they mention getting a note from a vet to reduce that to 20 degrees (is that like an international hall pass?). Plus they charge $150 (must be under 100lbs).
- Continental charges $250 per animal under 50lbs.
- United charges $100/cat but … some of their flights to CR are handled by TACA/LACSA. And no pets accepted when the temp is under 45 degrees, no ifs/ands/buts.
I’m looking into international petshippers now - it may be less hassle and I bet the cost would be a wash since it’s much easier finding low fares without having to account for the cats. I hope they know how much we love them. I’ll be pissed if one of them gets bitten by a snake and dies a week after getting there.
