I could see that I was going to have to have a serious talk with Jim about this Hawaii business! He’s tried assuring me that he knows there are ways to get pets to travel cross country (and further) without any damage. In fact, most pets are completely safe and unharmed by airplane travel. For starters, we’d be able to have Fifi and Princess with us (although he hasn’t explained what they do about toileting) and he thinks he’ll be able to organize a way for Samson to travel on the plane with us, too. I really am opposed to keeping animals in the cargo hold! They’re not baggage for goodness’ sake, they’re living creatures, and the cargo hold just isn’t designed for them.

Anyway, Jim explained to me how Pet Air has been transporting animals safely for 28 years now, and have dealt with wild as well as domesticated animals. Jim’s pretty confident that if we use the right channels it should be perfectly safe to fly with our babies, especially if we’re prepared to pay that bit extra (which I definitely am). I’m still not sure it’s a good idea, but I agreed to look into it further. We’ve looked into the size of airline carrier kennels, and have found that the biggest most flights will allow is 21″ x 16″ x 10″ the catch being that the animal must be able to stand, sit and lie down. The other problem I mentioned is that most flights won’t allow more than two pets in coach. I can see that we’re going to have to do a lot of research here! The other problem seems to be that many airlines won’t carry pets to Hawaii, so Jim’s idea may just not work! Also, pets count as carry on bags…which would definitely restrict our in flight comfort!

I’ve suggested to Jim that hiring a private jet might be the way to go! I’m not sure he was terribly impressed with the suggestion, but I’ve already vetoed the cargo hold, and I’m not sure that our mid-sized pooch Samson would comfortably fit inside an on flight carrier, even if we manage to get all three animals approved to travel with us!

Now, what did I say about pets being worse to travel with than kids? I’ve never yet seen an airline that says “adults only”. Pets just aren’t given the same respect!

While I’ve reached the conclusion that I would consider plane travel with the pets if 1. they were allowed in a carry on capacity and 2. if the flight wasn’t excessive in length, I definitely don’t think Hawaii meets those criteria! Really, I think that what it comes down to is the safety of your pets, and really you can’t put much ahead of that, can you?