Hello,

I was on a flight with a few small cats. The owners were saying that they had to pay $80 per pet (one family had 2) and even getting boarding passes.

The international airline I used to work for had strict rules on that to ensure there are no more than 1 pet per cabin/zone, etc.

I wonder:

1 - for an LCC like HP, do they go out of their way to track cabin pets or the $80 is just a revenue enhancer
2 - what happens if someone hides a pet in a carry-on? With some of these small pet bags, I can't imagine that the gate agents would notice it all the time.

Thanks.

Hello,

I was on a flight with a few small cats. The owners were saying that they had to pay $80 per pet (one family had 2) and even getting boarding passes.

The international airline I used to work for had strict rules on that to ensure there are no more than 1 pet per cabin/zone, etc.

I wonder:

1 - for an LCC like HP, do they go out of their way to track cabin pets or the $80 is just a revenue enhancer
2 - what happens if someone hides a pet in a carry-on? With some of these small pet bags, I can't imagine that the gate agents would notice it all the time.

Thanks.


Someone from US can correct me if I am wrong, but I believe it is 2 per coach and 1 in First allowed. So I think a total of 3. I have seen 3 all in coach on a certain PHX-ONT flight.. but not certain how they did that since all were in Coach :)

I think the fee serves 2 purposes. First and foremost, as you said, its a revenue enhancer. Almost pure profit: the only cost to the airline to provide the service is the manpower to collect the fee. But it also serves as a deterrent. If there were no fee, you might have many more folks bringing their pets aboard. That would either lead to hassles over which ones get on (if you kept the limit) or much more severe issues for those pax with allergies (if you eliminate the limit).

I've travelled with my dog in-cabin on AA, and always paid, even though I often felt I might be able to "get away with it". My fear was always that the one time I tried it, I would be found out and they would already be at the limit.

I seem to recall that US East stopped allowing pets and unaccompanied children (unless a direct flight), but I could be wrong or like many things it could have changed. I remember seeing something on the old US site.

Correct me if I'm wrong...
I have no kids and my SO's fish, which don't travel well.

Hello,

I was on a flight with a few small cats. The owners were saying that they had to pay $80 per pet (one family had 2) and even getting boarding passes.

The international airline I used to work for had strict rules on that to ensure there are no more than 1 pet per cabin/zone, etc.

I wonder:

1 - for an LCC like HP, do they go out of their way to track cabin pets or the $80 is just a revenue enhancer
2 - what happens if someone hides a pet in a carry-on? With some of these small pet bags, I can't imagine that the gate agents would notice it all the time.

Thanks.

I seem to recall that US East stopped allowing pets and unaccompanied children (unless a direct flight). . .

Several months back US East changed their policies to mirror HP's. Unaccompanied children under age 15 are only accepted on non-stop flights; no connections. Here's the policy. (http://www2.usairways.com/awa/content/travelplanning/ticketingpolicies/minors.aspx)

Pets are not allowed as checked baggage. They can only be carried onboard, subject to limitations, advance reservations and other restrictions (http://www2.usairways.com/awa/content/travelplanning/ticketingpolicies/pets.aspx). The no-pets-as-checked-baggage policy stems from the extreme heat in PHX and LAS (where almost all US West flights are centered) 5+ months of the year.