I
know what the airlines say about your "pet" flying in cargo, DON'T DO IT. DH worked for several different airlines, in different states, so different air ports, NOT GOOD. Oh the horror stories, poor babies, "most" air lines will let you use a soft sided carrier, a good way to check it out is to take your carrier to your air port counter, have the agent check it out, of course a non busy time but most are happy to help, if it's too big, you can return it to the store where you bought it. Also, the web site
www.dogjaunt has a list of sizes for most planes and seems to be pretty up to date. Maybe others have used to pet shipping planes, the specialized ones, or have had good luck w/the shipping, but I have heard way to many horror stories. Besides you aren't going that far CA to TX just a couple of hours, flight wise. Anyway good luck. Sprocket is also a "teapot" and I have a large Alex bag that we are going to use to fly with and it has soft sides, remember our babies just curl up and don't take up quite as much room as we think.