Talk Quesada forum

Can anyone give me advice and information on Companies that transport Cats back to UK. I am considering flying them back to UK to cut down on the time scale.

Try these people AIA Pets https://www.aiapets.com/ As you will see from their website they are agents for a number of airlines that take pets and could locate the right airline for you depending on where in the UK you are going. They are agents for Thomson for example who can take pets certainly to Manchester and Edinburgh - but they''ll be the experts on where else is possible. The reason I recommend trying them is that I flew our two cats out to Alicante with them ( Thomson flight from Glasgow) last November and it all worked out fine . I checked the cats in myself at 3am in the Cargo area of Glasgow airport , then scooted round to the passenger terminal to get myself on the same flight. I picked them up from the cargo area of Alicante airport, which is presumably where you would check them in to fly them out.

I had looked at several different pet transport companies and they were incredibly expensive, but they bundled up all sorts of extra services ( collecting your cats, arranging the final vet inspection etc etc ) - and then I found you can book your cats directly through AIA if you are willing to sort out the paperwork and vet visits yourself and check them in at the airport yourself and it was half the price ! You need airline compliant transport crates etc ( But I have seen many of these for sale on the forum.) and all the usual up to date pet passport stuff etc But the AIA lady I dealt with was really really good and told me exactly what I needed to do and reassured me ( as I was more nervous about it than the cats, )

Their website is as above ( you can get an online quote ) , their phone number is +44 (0) 203 432 7828. The lady I dealt with was a Katie Bowler [email protected] and she was great but I dare say their other staff would be fine too.

Do report back to the forum on how you get on, I would be keen to know of people's experiences flying pets back in case we ever had to do that.

Meant to say Manchester and Glasgow in post above, not Edinburgh ( there were no airlines taking pets on the Edinburgh - Alicante route, which is why we flew from Glasgow )

Many thanks for the advice. I will keep you posted. Ps. I'm so nervous about doing this.

If you're nervous drive them back. Make sure they have a harness on and stop for 5 mins every couple of hours. Then they are in your hands and nobody else's. Lots of hotels take pets.

piglet20 wrote:Many thanks for the advice. I will keep you posted. Ps. I'm so nervous about doing this.

If you follow the agent/airline advice, you don't need to worry. I know, easy said, but they fly animals all the time. I myself was sick at the thought! Kept imagining all sorts of horrors the little dears would go through but in the end they were perfectly fine. Moaned a lot as usual when first conned into their crates, survived the 2 hour drive to Glasgow with a few loud complaints but by the time they got to the Cargo check in they were just curious and peering around at everything, including having a good look at the cargo check in man.

Will also admit I made a big point ( when I got on the plane myself) of making sure the crew knew the cats were in the plane boot ( I had read a silly scare story on the internet of some poor kitty freezing to death ( in America) because the captain hadn't realised he had live cargo and forgot to turn the hold heating on ( I suspect your imagination tends to that kind of anxiety as well ) but the crew were totally in the picture ( in fact making a fun story out of it ' We have special guests aboard' ) and pointed out to me that the cats were, in fact, positioned in the hold just under where I was sitting.

Had to wait an hour at Alicante for them to come through the cargo bay but when they finally arrived they were fine ( I was up to high dough but they just looked bored. ) . Got them home and as soon they arrived in the house they wanted out of their crates, something to eat and started exploring.

I understand ChrisDee's point about the potential for driving them but I couldn't see that working for our circumstances ( especially travelling from Scotland, a really long haul) , might work well with dogs as you can let them out for a bit of a leg stretch but unless your cats are already trained to harness that's not on for cats. The flight is quick and easy and doing it yourself ( checking them in yourself and picking them up yourself etc) means you are with them until the last possible moment and picking them up again at the first possible moment. And its all over within 8 or so hours.