Travel with Pets - prepping for travel ORD- CDG.. cat overweight :(

Hi,
we are planning (well in advance) our long term trip to paris. We have 2 cats and we will be taking them with us. There is absolutely no way that i will put them in cargo. but I am terrified that the airline will make us weigh:confused: them. One of them, the female is heavier, probably around 15lbs by now.
Air france was my first choice, but I am worried they are going to give me trouble. we already bought the soft sided carriers that fit the dimensions.
I checked we could also do UNited , which I have enough miles for our 2 flights, would only have to pay forthe kitties or lufthansa.

We will have them completely knocked out probably since it is such a long flight and they get pretty scared/chatty when in the car, i cant imagine it would go well in a plane.

any advice or experience with AF weighing the bags at checkin? or boarding???

How does it work when you book a lufthansa flight and it ends up being operated by United.. Which rule do they apply?

I can't comment on UA or Lufthansa, but I recently flew BDB-JFK-PRG-LCA on DL (PRG-LCA was on Czech Air - codeshare) with my cat in the cabin and my cat and carrier were never weighed and her paperwork was never examined by any airline employee.

Please do not sedate your cats when traveling by air. I feel it is too risky. I found that keeping my hand in the carrier to pet the cat or just rest my hand on her kept her quiet. She did get stressed a bit when we had to get off the commuter plane in JFK - way too much airplane noise since we did not use a jetway to disembark and I had to wait for my pink-tagged bag. But mostly she slept.

Do you have EU pet passports? Makes things very easy when traveling within Europe. If not, you might want to consider getting them once you are in Paris.

thanks for your answer! I am having issues thinking about what we could possibly do with our kitties if we dont sedate them.. Both tend to freak out and one of them will whine to no end when in the car and I cant imagine making other passenger putting up with that for a 9 hour flight. Maybe we could take the sedation medication with us to be used if we have trouble, But i am not sure how it works..
I know our vet gave us 2 options: complete sedation or just a calming med.
He suggested we try it out before going as the calming med freak some cats out, which would be counter productive.

My cats make all kinds of noise when traveling by car. But they were generally very quiet when flying. Take-off was a bit stressful for them and of course I could not calm them because they had to be under the seat during take-off. People were generally understanding of the poor kitties.

There is a product called Feliway which is a feline phemerone that you can spray in their carrier - it is supposed to have a calming effect. That is something that you can try, though it didn't seem to matter much for my Fishka and Trishka.

I wish you the best of luck with your move. Our cat and I flew back on UA from Hong Kong a couple years ago, with the cat in the cabin. She was never weighed, although the airline did check her paperwork before issuing boarding passes.

Regarding sedation, if we move overseas again with Fat Choy, we'll have to sedate her in some way. Like your cat, she whines like crazy in the car, and on our trip home, I learned that it was not limited to cars: the train to the airport, the train at the airport and, of course, the flight. She screamed. She broke out of her carrier. It was terrible.

She did calm down once we hit cruise level, and was quiet until landing, when she screamed again. We had a connecting flight, and she screamed again on as we took off. By the time we reached the east coast, she was worn out and didn't make much noise as we landed. But in the car the next day, after a good night's sleep, she cried all the way home.

She's the second cat I moved with. The first one moved well (no noise at all on the plane) but was skittish for the first six weeks in his new home. Fat Choy was a terrible passenger, but moved into the motel room, and then a friend's house, and then our new house, like she had lived there all her life.

My point is that you know your cat better than anyone, and if you think you'll need to sedate her, you're probably right.

One more thing -- Fat Choy is rather wiggly when she is held, so prior to our flight, we practiced going through security. I put her in her bag, left her there for a while, took her out, carried her through a door, and put her back in her bag, and repeated this exercise every night for a couple weeks. My wife made endless fun of me, but I think it helped.

One more thing -- Fat Choy is rather wiggly when she is held, so prior to our flight, we practiced going through security. I put her in her bag, left her there for a while, took her out, carried her through a door, and put her back in her bag, and repeated this exercise every night for a couple weeks. My wife made endless fun of me, but I think it helped.:D Did your wife get a video?

An idea for cat travelers is to condition them to wear a harness before you travel, not a collar. It's much easier to grab/restrain a cat in a harness than a cat without handles! Don't use a collar, because if your cat wears a safety/breakaway collar and you grab it, you'll end up with a collar in your hand and a view of the backside of a cat running off at high speed. A non-safety collar and you could end up with a strangled cat.

We've got one cat that is leash trained, I could imagine him sauntering through the WTMD on his own, if it wasn't for the fact that at 17 pounds, he's technically too big to fly in cabin.

A harness is definitely the way to go. I put the harness on before we leave the house. When going through security, I put the leash on the harness before taking my cat out of the carrier. Fishka and Trishka have never bolted but just in case, the leash and harness will keep them under control. And the small amount of metal in the harness and leash has not set off the metal detector, thank god. Could you imagine TSA patting down a cat?

thanks everyone, so i will have to discuss further abbout sedation but the move sounds like it is moved up 6 months so i am glad i posted! while your wife might have made fun of you, I am pretty sure I will use the same training process :)
we moved into a new place last week, and just getting the cats in the carrier was tricky, can't imagine taking them out and back in.. so harness on the list, training, and talk to hubby about sedation and possibly knowing what to do if something goes wrong (if anything can be done)

we moved into a new place last week, and just getting the cats in the carrier was tricky, can't imagine taking them out and back in.. so harness on the list, training, and talk to hubby about sedation and possibly knowing what to do if something goes wrong (if anything can be done)Have you tried the gravity method? Tip the carrier on end so the opening on the top, put one hand under the cat's tush and one under the front paws, and lower the cat in? Or, if need be, firmly wrap cat in old towel and lower cat into carrier. When you are lowering them down rather than pushing them in, it's much hard for them to get purchase with their paws/claws and run.

Try leaving your cat carrier open and in a common area of the house. You can even put treats or catnip in it, or spray in some Feliway. If you make it feel friendly for your cats, they will be less likely to put up a fight when it's time to travel. They might even hang out in it when they're just sitting around the house.

Warning: If you put a blanket in it, they might get a little too comfortable and urinate inside!

thanks!
Yes i tried the gravity method :) That is where i got push back from my male cat. the clever little one saw me put his sister in the bag, and spread his paws as wide as possible to resist the gravity..
As far as the bags in the common area of the house, they had been out for 6 months i tried feeding them treats in there, so they associate it with treats. i tried the catnip too. I just have little toughies I think ;)
That reminds me I have to look at harnesses.

thanks!
Yes i tried the gravity method :) That is where i got push back from my male cat. the clever little one saw me put his sister in the bag, and spread his paws as wide as possible to resist the gravity..
towel method for him!
As far as the bags in the common area of the house, they had been out for 6 months i tried feeding them treats in there, so they associate it with treats. i tried the catnip too. I just have little toughies I think ;)
That reminds me I have to look at harnesses.We've just begun leash training for Cat 3, who has world class CATTITUDE. So far, I've been putting the harness on her and just leaving it on for an hour or two. Soon we will advance to adding the leash to see what she thinks of it. When she's not wearing it, I leave it in her favorite nap spot, so she gets used to the smell of it.

Could you imagine TSA patting down a cat?

Fat Choy, who is very sociable, would enjoy the attention! :D

Could you imagine TSA patting down a cat?

Fat Choy, who is very sociable, would enjoy the attention! :D
Cat 1, Maine Coon mix, expects that everyone will pet him!

Cat 2, the one our vet calls "the sweetest cat I've ever seen," would be calm.

Cat 3, our Philly girl rescue cat, would remove their hand at the wrist. :D

I had a cat that was very chatty during a flight, but I found that the engine and white noise was loud enough that I couldn't hear her very much. You might have the same experience. I don't think anyone knew that we had a cat with us, despite the noise she was making.

I would also discourage you from sedating your cat. My three cats traveled without any meds and did just fine in the cabin.

Hi everyone,
so it is a go for early January. I solved the overweight issue with deciding to fly on United. They do not have a weight limit plus I can use my points for our flight so, I will just the bagage and cat fees. I am going to buy feliway spray and see if they like it. I am also buying the harnesses and do training :) thanks!! I am hoping the feliway will work enough we dont have to sedate them.. Or maybe, I will ask the vet to see if we can get something to give them if it is really bad.. as a last resort..I wish I could hold them, I am sure it would be a lot better if I could.

You can put the carrier on your lap affter take-off and put your hands inside to pet the cat - that's pretty close to being able to hold one.

Good luck Garfield:D

thanks!
Yes i tried the gravity method :) That is where i got push back from my male cat. the clever little one saw me put his sister in the bag, and spread his paws as wide as possible to resist the gravity..
As far as the bags in the common area of the house, they had been out for 6 months i tried feeding them treats in there, so they associate it with treats. i tried the catnip too. I just have little toughies I think ;)
That reminds me I have to look at harnesses.

Sooo glad I have a dog. ;) Trip coming up this week, he hasn’t flown in months. I put the travel bag on the floor and he tries to push his way in before I can unzip the door! :cool:

Best of luck acclimating your kitty and having a pleasant flight. I second (third?) the recommendation to refrain from sedation if possible. Having airway or cardiac issues halfway over the Atlantic would be more traumatizing than a few vocalizations. If you can work on acclimating the cate to the carrier (maybe place it’s food bowl in the rear of the carrier for the foreseeable future?) it should be a fairly pleasant process.

thanks everyone for the help.. I am pretty convince not to sedate given that a/ the cat is going to have at some point to be tired meowing all night..
b/ the noise of the plane is actually probably going to cover it all

I just bought all the equipement needed, including another bag (we bough new carrier and dont like them anymore) AA approved that looks roomier.

as well as harnesses, leashes, and natural calming spray (not feliway though).
We will have a trial run with a 4-5 hours car trip that we have to take them with, so we will see how bag it is.

I will try again to get the carrier out but that never worked. I feel better about it, just need to figure out if there is any asborbent product for their carrier in case of an accident...

I feel way less stressed knowing i dont need to worry about weight limitations.
I might even splurge for economy plus on United, so we have a little more room since it is the 4 of us (2 adults+2 cats)

our vets always put an absorbent pad in the crate if they have been kept in for something, what about puppy trainer pads, \I think I saw them in the US

Hi,
I would also advise against sedation, especially if you have one of the snub-nosed breeds. You can try seeing if Rescue Remedy helps at all. I traveled last year overseas with my dog, who is quite energetic and nervous, and the Rescue Remedy helped calm her down. It may also help to limit the cat's view of what they can or can't see - one of my previous cats was also a bit of a nervous traveler, so we would put a towel over her crate (this was for car travel). For air travel, I recommend the Sturdibag, which is the brand we used for our dog. It's lighter than most other bags and it has a bunch of "privacy flaps", so that if you need to, you can totally block their view of anything. (It was helpful for us with our dog, as she tends to calm down a lot if she can't see anything)

Just an FYI, though, it may be different for cats, but when we traveled with our dog, they would not let her go through security with her leash/collar/harness. We explained our concerns both times (in CDG and in JFK) that she could easily bolt, but security refused to allow her with a collar/harness/leash through security, we had to take everything off, put it all in a separate bin to go through the scanner, and I had to carry her in my arms. We were expecting that they would at least let us leave a harness or collar on her just in case of any problems, but they were really, really strict about it, both at JFK and CDG.

Just an FYI, though, it may be different for cats, but when we traveled with our dog, they would not let her go through security with her leash/collar/harness. We explained our concerns both times (in CDG and in JFK) that she could easily bolt, but security refused to allow her with a collar/harness/leash through security, we had to take everything off, put it all in a separate bin to go through the scanner, and I had to carry her in my arms. We were expecting that they would at least let us leave a harness or collar on her just in case of any problems, but they were really, really strict about it, both at JFK and CDG.

There was no problem with my cats going through security wearing their collars and harnesses. My cats have gone through security in BDL, PRG, LCA, and SOF wearing collar and harness with leash attached. One time I carried 2 cats in full regalia through the metal detector - no problem.