Travel with Pets - Experiences on Air France with dog in cabin?

Hi!
My husband and I will be flying JFK-CDG in February with our dog in cabin.

We have no issue with the weight limit (AF says that dog + carrier cannot be more than 13lbs/6kg; I've weighed the dog in her carrier and we clock in at 9 lbs). Our only concern is that AF says that the dog needs to be able to stand up and turn around - our dog is a bit tall, at 13" at the withers, so she cannot stand up entirely in the carrier (we have a Sherpa that is at 11" high) but she can very easily turn around and she has plenty of room when she is lying down inside.

We do have another bag (it's also a Sherpa, but it's more of a tote bag), that is a bit taller (I believe it is at 15" high) but not as wide as the carrier, so our dog can totally stand up in the tote bag. She can also turn around and lie down comfortably, but the tote definitely has less room in general than the carrier. I do know though that AF said that the total dimensions of the bag must not be more than 45" altogether, and the tote is well under the 45" limit.

Does anyone else have any experiences flying in cabin with AF? And do we need to worry about being turned back at check-in? Any additional information is appreciated!

Thanks!

hello
i have flown many many times with my incabin pet dog on AF from JFK to CDG.
They have always been very cool about it. My dog is actually a little heavier (17lb with carrier) and they've always closed an eye ("you have food in there right? and his toys too right?").
If your sherpa is within their dimension, they'll never going to ask you to see her stand in it (they never stand inside a bag anyway! they sleep!).
as long as they see she's comfy and she's within normal weight parameters , there's no problem. DO have her papers though, and stamped by the USDA office.
That's more important.
have fun, paris is the #1 dog friendly city in the world!

Thanks for the information!
We are leaving on Sunday, and we've gotten a Sturdibag carrier for our dog, which gives her a tiny bit more room.
We're excited to bring our puppy with us - we go to France often as my in-laws live there!

have fun! make sure you report back...

Hi!
My family and I are planning to fly to JFK from Athens with a connecting flight in Paris. However, we have a small dog and we had some concerns about her exceeding the weight limit for the cabin by a pound or two. She weighs 5.1 kg (11 lbs). i called to found out the limit was 6 kg (13 lbs including the dog and carrier bag) i have found a bag that fits the dimensions required, however the bag itself weighs 2.5 lbs, causing the weight to exceed.

Should we be concerned at being turned back at check in?? and cargo is not an option because we'd be unable to retrieve her in France due to the little time we have in-between flights.

please share experiences! and any help or advice would be nice.

Thanks~

im having a similar problem, only my flight is going to be from paris to jfk. My dog is a bit taller than the soft cage. (she's 12" at the withers) while the cage we bought is only 11"

could you tell me how your flight went? and if you experienced any problems with your dog?

sorry, but a quick reply would be nice~!
My flight leaves in a few weeks :)

Hi!
My family and I are planning to fly to JFK from Athens with a connecting flight in Paris. However, we have a small dog and we had some concerns about her exceeding the weight limit for the cabin by a pound or two. She weighs 5.1 kg (11 lbs). i called to found out the limit was 6 kg (13 lbs including the dog and carrier bag) i have found a bag that fits the dimensions required, however the bag itself weighs 2.5 lbs, causing the weight to exceed.

Should we be concerned at being turned back at check in?? and cargo is not an option because we'd be unable to retrieve her in France due to the little time we have in-between flights.

please share experiences! and any help or advice would be nice.

Thanks~

You are pretty close to the limit and you may want to chance it. A lot depends on the airline and the agent who checks you in. In the cabin you can use a soft-side carrier, but that kind of carrier can't go in the hold. So if you show up at the airport with a soft side carrier, they won't make you put it in the hold. You could always play dumb and say this is impossible - I weighed this and it was 6 kg exactly!

Are you Greek, by any chance? If so, you will probably not have any difficulty in Athens - just place nice wit the agent. Not sure about Paris.

I just flew from BDL to LCA via JFK and PRG with my cat and at no time was her carrier (and the cat) weighed.

I hope that you are aware that you must verify that the pet will be allowed in the cabin on all flights when you book your ticket. I have dealt with bizarre rules when traveling with my cat in Europe - no cats and dogs in the cabin together (unless you can somehow manage to be important enough that they break the rules for you - I'm not.) Or only one cat per person per carrier in the cabin and hold (I had two cats - one had to go in the hold and one went in the cabin, but then they called me and asked me if I could put them both in a single carrier in the cabin, which worked out fine for me because they were small cats and I didn't want them in the hold).

Good luck.

thank you for the advice!
the airline we are flying with is actually Airfrance, and ive read many places that they are very dog friendly. I am half Greek, but we are hesitant to risk being turned back and losing five thousand dollars on the chance we get an uncooperative agent.

the cage is also soft-sided, so worst-case-senario, we'd have to miss our flight since that cant go in the hold.

another question: at any time did an agent ask for your cat to stand up to see if she/he could comfortably stand in the cage? our dog might also be a tad tall, but only by a few centimeters. Besides, dont dogs sleep in the plane? not stand!

you can probably tell this is my first time flying with a dog :p

Hi!
I am traveling via Airfrance in a few weeks to JFK from Athens with a connecting flight in Paris. My family and I want to bring our dog in-cabin, however we found she may exceed the weight limit by mere ounces and be to tall for her soft-sided carrier by mere centimeters.

We've already purchased the soft-sided carrier that fits Airfrance dimensions, and are afraid we may be turned back at check in if the agent sees her head hung low when she stands.

can anyone share experiences? and do you think an agent will actually ask to see our dog stand in the cage? ive read Airfrance is dog-friendly, so will they close an eye at her barely exceeding weight??

please share advice and experiences, Thanks!~

im traveling with my dog and mom in a few weeks with Airfrance from Athens to NYC with a connecting flight in paris.

the dog is a little taller than her incabin cage, and my mom says if Airfrance does not allow our dog to fly we will lose the dog and not the money.

so my question is what happens to a dog if its left behind during check in??
we have no one to pick it up or take care of it.

thank you for the advice!
the airline we are flying with is actually Airfrance, and ive read many places that they are very dog friendly. I am half Greek, but we are hesitant to risk being turned back and losing five thousand dollars on the chance we get an uncooperative agent.

the cage is also soft-sided, so worst-case-senario, we'd have to miss our flight since that cant go in the hold.

another question: at any time did an agent ask for your cat to stand up to see if she/he could comfortably stand in the cage? our dog might also be a tad tall, but only by a few centimeters. Besides, dont dogs sleep in the plane? not stand!

you can probably tell this is my first time flying with a dog :p

No one asked about my cat standing up to see if she could stand in the carrier. The only interest anyone had in my cat was to see how cute she was.

The reason I asked if you were Greek was that you will be checking in in Athens and the agents will be Greek. They tend to me more helpful to Greek-speakers.

Are you in a position to go to the airport in Athens in advance with the dog and the carrier and see what they say with regard to compliance with their animal in cabin requirements? That might be an option.

They will not make you leave the dog. They will try to work something out for you.

Hi!
It's been awhile; I forgot to update on our trip back in Feb!

Everything went very smoothly - luckily, AF agents did not ask for the dog to stand up and turn around (she wouldn't have been able to stand up, but she can turn around in the bag). Our dog can get a little nervous sometimes in new situations, so we closed all the privacy flaps on the bag except one on the top so she wouldn't bark or anything, and no one seemed to care to look inside the bag. Agents only asked us to put the bag on the scale so they could weigh her. We came in at just under the limit, something like 5.8 kg. She was weighed both at JFK and CDG and once we had weighed her, they immediately sent us to pay the pet fee. We used the Sturdibag carrier and we were very pleased with it. It's lighter than most soft carriers, and it seems a bit roomier too. Our dog was fine during the flight; she mostly slept both ways and we made sure that she was super tired before we got on the plane.

I think that in the worst case scenario, if they think the dog cannot fly in cabin, they will make you buy a crate to put the dog in with checked luggage...

Hi, I see that this is an old topic but a lot of great info.

I'll be flying air france to CDG from IAD and I'm concerned that one of my dogs is 3lbs heavier than the allowed (dog + carrier cannot exceed 13 lbs).

It sounds like from the comments above that I can chance it and if they feel he is too big then he will go to the cargo hold.

I'd rather avoid the hold ... Are there any more thoughts on this?

Is it likely that they'll just let him go in cabin?

Thanks!