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Taking Bernie from the U.S. back to Europe this time was far from simple.
We booked our airline tickets through a travel agency, and thankfully we did! When we mentioned that we had a dog, they warned us.
“Airlines have become much more strict in the past year or so with traveling pets. Many airlines won’t even take pets anymore.”
Apparently, these new restrictions were in response to the recent deaths of several dogs during air travel. Airlines no longer want to take the risk of being held responsible for killing people’s beloved animals.
Little Did We Know
Little did we know what was in store for us.
American Airlines had the cheapest one-way tickets for our family. However, we quickly learned that they no longer allowed pets to travel in cabin on transatlantic flights (across the Atlantic Ocean). Flying from America to Europe was crossing the Atlantic, so Bernie would have to be checked in his big plastic kennel with our luggage in cargo. No big deal.
Wait! There’s more! As we looked at possible itineraries from Pittsburgh to Spain, we knew we would have to catch a flight to a major city and then fly on to Spain. Our travel agent informed us we would not be able to fly from Pittsburg to a major city, because the smaller American Eagle aircrafts no longer accepted animals. Their cargo spaces were not pressurized and climate-controlled. Ugh oh!
Maybe we could take a direct flight from Washington DC (3-hour drive) to Spain. Nope! Way too expensive! There were cheaper flights that would take us through London on British Airways, but that was off limits for us too. Any dogs going through the United Kingdom must be quarantined. It’s a royal mess! We had heard nothing but nightmare stories of the expenses and trauma involved.
In addition, the agent told us that the entire flight itinerary had to be under 12 hours—including layovers—in order for Bernie to be able to fly. All the itineraries we were looking at, with multiple flights, were over 12 hours.
What were we going to do?!
Limited Options
Our options were limited, and I was starting to panic. We couldn’t leave Bernie behind. Our family needed him!
The travel agent called us. She had found a solution. If we could drive to JFK International Airport, we could take a direct flight from New York to Spain. Bernie could fly with us. The cargo space was pressurized and climate-controlled, so he most likely wouldn’t die on the short flight of 6 hours. Terrific! We were making some progress.
We rounded up some wonderful friends from church who could borrow the 15-passenger church van to drive us 5 1/2 hours to New York City! Whew! Bernie was going to make it across the Atlantic Ocean afterall.
Well, maybe.
Watching the Temperatures
After booking our tickets and feeling a sense of momentary relief, we received an alarming email from the travel agent. She warned us to check the temperatures on the day of our flight. Another major restriction—if the temperature was over 85 degrees Fahrenheit on the day of travel in either the city of departure or the city of arrival, Bernie could not travel with us.
Oh great! We would now need a plan B if we arrived at the airport on the day of departure and Bernie was banned due to extreme heat.
I knew then that I would be feeling some form of stress and anxiety up until the moment when we would all be checked in and boarded safely on that airplane to Spain.
More Surprises!
That was not the end of our surprises!
Thankfully, I started doing some research about the required medical forms for the vet to fill out. More restrictions. Things had changed drastically since the last time we had traveled with Bernie from America to another part fo the world. The USDA had gotten involved big time!
The procedure involved finding a USDA-approved veterinarian, having him fill out extensive paperwork, driving to our state’s USDA office for their official endorsement, or overnighting the paperwork back and forth to the USDA office.
10-Day Window
All of this had to be done within 10 days of travel, so we only had a small window of opportunity.
Finding a USDA vet was far from easy. I called at least six clinics before finding one in a city located 40 minutes away. On the day we went, the assistant filled out all of the paperwork with the incorrect dates. In Europe, as the forms required, the order for dates is day/month/year. As a result, she had to redo all of the paperwork. We spent 2 1/2 hours at the vet’s office!
The vet then faxed the paperwork to the USDA office for pre-approval. They never heard back, so the vet called and said, “No news is good news.” We took the risk and headed to the post office to overnight the envelope. The USDA office was 2 hours away, and we had no time in our busy schedule of packing bags and saying goodbyes to go there for endorsement.
We included an overnight envelope for the return of the endorsed paperwork, and we prayed that the process would go smoothly. A few days later—longer than usual due to everything being closed for Memorial Day—we got the dreaded call. One page of our documents was incorrectly filled out by our veterinarian. I asked if we would need to present the new forms in person at their office. Thankfully, it wasn’t a page with a signature, so the USDA office was able to re-type the page for us. Whew!
The paperwork was endorsed and overnighted to us that day. We had all the necessary paperwork in our hands two days before departure.
Ready for Take Off!
Other than the unknown temperatures of the day of travel, we were all set to go!
As I looked at the forecasted temperatures, I saw a high of 94 degrees in Spain. Oh no! I frantically called the airline and asked them if they looked at the temperature at the hour of arrival or the high of the day. They reassured me that they looked at the hourly forecast and based their decision for travel on the temperature at the estimated time of arrival. Thankfully, the mornings in Spain are cool (60s), so we should be ok . . .
SHOULD be ok . . . stay tuned!
For information about international pet travel around the world and APHIS regulations, click here.
—The Cultural Story-Weaver
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