Flying with cat from New York to London England

Being allergic to cats, I hope they wouldn’t be allowed in the cabin. I doubt that any posters here will have travelled with a cat, so you may get a better answer on the Trip Advisor air forum.

TA Air Travel Forum:
https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowForum-g1-i10702-Air_Travel.html

I have flown with a cat before, but only because we were moving cross-country and the cat flew cargo. There were strict requirements about temperature,etc. The cat was pretty upset for about a week afterwards.

Are you moving? Otherwise, leave the cat at home. He/she will be much happier.

Cats are not allowed to travel in the cabin on flights to and from or within the UK. The only animals that are allowed are service dogs that have been trained to travel in aircraft and behave appropriately.

In the US passengers are allowed to bring 'emotional support animals' which in reality means nothing and has opened the floodgates to anyone who wants to bring their pet on board on the basis that it's an 'emotional support animal'.

If you want to bring your cat to the UK then it'll have to travel in the cargo hold.

Please be sure as well to have looked into the requirements that UK authorities have for bringing in a cat from the States. I have a feeling there is a LOT of paperwork and vet exams to be done.

You can cross on the Queen Mary 2 with a cat in a kennel.

We were on a cruise that originated in Southampton, England in 2017 and one of our cruise friends brought her cat. She had been in Italy and France prior to coming to the UK.

She did have papers declaring her cat as an ESA. It is easy to get this done, do some research first.

One option other is flying to France and then getting into the UK via another method. I just flew from DC to Frankfurt and the woman next to me brought her cat. He just sat down there in his carrier and never made a sound.

Please do not try to claim your cat as an emotional support animal as one poster suggested just to have your pet in the cabin. That would mean you are falsely claiming to have a mental disability and you are claiming you are under the care of a mental health professional. The flood of ESAs has been a problem to disabled persons who depend on their highly trained dogs to assist them in life. ESAs do not have to be trained, and may react to and interfere with service dogs doing their life-saving jobs.

My husband and I flew with our cat from Denver to London about a year ago when we moved here.

Like many others have said they is no way to get away from the cargo hold. Even if you choose to do the emotionally support animal (I never would) it still must go in the cargo hold. If you are moving here, make sure to find a vet that has done this before. Our cat was held at the center due to vet errors in the paperwork and we spent the entire day on the phone back and further with the vet and the Center.

Our cat was thrilled to see us and adjusted very well! The cargo is better for them because it is dark and much more quiet than the cabin which can tend to stress them more than they are.

Check out Heathrow Animal Reception Centre on Netflix or YouTube, it is will give you insight on what animals they handle on a daily basis and some relief.

We did IAG World Cargo (British Airways) and my friend did American Airlines when she brought her cat too.

Hang in there! It was stressful but worth it to have her here with us.

For the import paperwork stuff, a vet clinic near a military base is often very used to these kinds of scenarios and handles that kind of thing on a regular basis for families who want to bring their pets to an overseas PCS.

Please do not try to claim your cat as an emotional support animal as one poster suggested just to have your pet in the cabin.

No-one has suggested that the OP should do this. I mentioned emotional support animals in respect that they are allowed on internal US flights but I didn't say they were allowed on UK bound flights or suggested that the OP should claim that it is one. As I've already stated, only accredited service dogs are allowed on UK flights, emotional support animals are not so even trying to claim that your pet is one still won't get you anywhere.

JC - you say that "no-one has suggested that the OP should do this", but, to be fair, another poster did write about someone taking a cat into and out of Britain and explained "she did have papers declaring her cat as an ESA. It is easy to get this done..." . So, I think, it has been suggested, wrongly, though not by you.

Ah yes Nick, I missed that one although they were referring to a cruise which I understand has different rules than airlines. The Queen Mary 2 for example charges $800 to $1000 for a pet! At those prices the cat can stay at home.

On a JetBlue flight to Fort Lauderdale from LaGuardia in Dec 2017, I saw a monkey in a cage inside the cabin and it was allowed because the passenger declared it as an “emotional support animal”.

NYC is very lax about the ESA.

It is disgusting what some people will do.

I would hope on international flights and domestic flights, cats are never allowed in the cabin given passengers’ terrible allergic reactions.

Is it really that important for your cat to travel to London given it will be in a holding area at JFK, in cargo 7+ hours and then go through processing at Heathrow before returning to you?

let's hope the cat's not called Peanut....

jvb,
You are correct, there is a lot abuse in the ESA area. I certainly am not condoning it, but our friend on the cruise had an excellent reason to have her cat declared an ESA. Don't assume that everyone is faking it.

I am on the neighborhood Homeowners Association and in enforcing our covenants that don't allow animal other than dogs, cats and caged birds, we had a case where a homeowner claimed that he had two chickens that were ESA. That will make it nearly impossible to enforce the covenants. That ticks me off quite a lot.

If your friend had an “excellent reason” for having her animal declared an ESA, I trust it was because she certifiably needed an Emotion Support Animal. Does a person with an ESA have to carry documentation to prove the need, by the way, or do you just have to look needy, sincere and frown a lot? I remember a woman on the QM2 once with a medium sized dog, who was by her side only occasionally, so perhaps the need for emotional support is intermittent for some people?

Norma, yes, here in the states they do have to show papers. I went down to Florida with a friend to her condo, she had to show several papers from doctors showing that her little Yorkie is her ESA.