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Originally Posted by alishasmom  I am interested to know, if you guys paid to be able to have your dog in the flight, and how much. Thanks |
I don't even know what that fee is for. They count as a carry-on and have to go under your seat in front of you like a purse or laptop. I could understand the exorbitant fee if they were using a seat, but what's this about? My dog weighs less than my laptop, and I don't pay extra for that. It must just be some sort of "inconvenience" fee, because it doesn't gain you anything that I've been able to find.
They also make you buy a special carrier, which I had a really hard time finding. Everything was one or two inches too long, wide, or high. People in the stores were looking at me like I was a nut case when I took a measuring tape out of my purse to examine carriers. (I did explain to several people who looked particularly curious about what I was doing that I had to have specific dimensions for a flight, and that US Air had already told me they would reject any carrier that exceeded their standards.)
The other delightful thing about airlines and dogs is that it isn't necessarily standard on the airline itself. It varies with the jet model. So you look up the jet model to see what you're allowed. In my case, the jet we're going on wasn't listed on the web site, so I had to call US Air and be transferred to three different people to find out how big my carrier could be, and I got two different answers. I decided to go with the answer that I got from two people.
The dog also has to be able to stand upright in the carrier, even if it's going to be lying down the entire time. This means that, if you have a dog taller than ten inches fully upright, good luck trying to get it on their plane.
Okay, I have vented. I don't think it should be this difficult to travel with a miniature dog. Thanks to all of you for listening. I guess it's obvious that I'm pretty nervous and annoyed right now.