Suggestions on making a 30 hour flight a little more comfy for my Munchkin and me :)

Munchkin, me and my mom (she's coming to help me) will be flying from Indonesia to Florida at the beginning of November. I ordered Munchkin a carrier off of amazon.com called the jet set carrier and had it shipped to my mom in Florida for her to bring here. It's big enough for him and should be designed to make him comfortable in the cabin of the plane with us. My main concern however is the fact that there really is no way around giving him a sedative. We don't have a car here we have a motorcycle so he never travels around town like my dogs in America do. I know he will be stressed out beyond belief if I don't give him something, especially when we are lifting off the ground in a strange new enviroment that's noisy and filled with strangers, also when a strange customs official needs to look at him to evaluate his health. We also have a 12 hour layover in Korea, I think that will be a good thing as long as I have the quarantine customs forms specifically for Korea so we can go to a pet friendly hotel nearby for the day. Sorry this is so long but as you now know, it's not a one liner explanation. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to make this easier on all three of us during the duration of the journey?

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Permalink Reply by Sam Tsang on September 26, 2011 at 9:35am

Hi Katie, here's my flying experience with video. I know my trip was way shorter than yours, but I can certainly help you with some answers.

First thing first, Florida and all southern states does have a summer embargo, all arriving and outbound flights must be either really early or late at night, the tarmac heat can be brutal. Make sure you check with all airline and connecting flights.

When you reserve a ticket, let the airline know that you are:

1. traveling WITH your pet (same flight in cargo)

2. traveling separately (commercial cargo, pets / cargo only) Cargo planes take off and land in different airport usually. If I flew the dogs this way, I would have board the plane in Tampa, not Orlando. Makes sure the airline people know what you're talking about. I called my airline 3 times and each time I got a different answer, triple sure your answer :)

The ticket price will make a difference.

Before your flight: you must have rabies immunization and valid health certificate issued by a licensed veterinarian WITHIN 30 days of travel. The cert must be in english, or accompany certified translation letter.

Crate:

Every airline is different, you want to make sure the crate is large enough for your dog to stand up and turn around comfortably, it requires vents in all four walls, do not buy "snap on" crates, make sure all sides are screwed like the one I used in the video. After the Indo customs have checked your dog, use "zip ties" to "lock" the door, bring several so that you can re zip during a lay over.

Crate comfort:

Since your flight will be long, I would use double sided tape to line it with absorbent material, because no dogs will be able to hold that long, put lots of wet wipes / paper towel in your carry on, it'll allow you to clean up during your lay over and arrival. I sacrificed my brand new Ralph Lauren Shirt upon arrival, when an accident occur in a crate and you need to drive 1 hr with a poopy crate home with a poopy dog, trust me, you want to clean up ASAP.

Water:

you can get giant hamster like bottle inside the crate, it'll keep him hydrated

Sedation:

DO NOT do this, period.

2 weeks before flight:

Practice crating, re-introduce your dog to associate the crate as the happiest place on earth, eat there, drink there, sleep there. Gradually increase his time in there, progress from open door to close door thru the week.

Let me know if you have other questions!