Originally Posted by welltravelled88

4) Cats on aircraft

Just a few weeks ago, the person sitting next to me in Y (fortunately there was an empty seat in between) had a cat in a box. It was six hours of "miaow miaow"... I did not mind too much, I quite like cats. I did however end up replying angry "miaaaow !" to the cat and engaged with it, and laughed with its owner (who was quite embarrassed) about whether we should feed the cat some wine. The FA also was amused by the situation, and explained any pet up to 5 kg can fly in a the cabin as long as it's in a box. Well, they were lucky that the person next to the cat took the "miaows" easily and did not make a fuss.

However, this made me wonder: what would we do if someone sitting next to the cat is allergic to cats ? I gather that can also be quite dangerous, as traces of cat hair and cat waste can be around...

On this one, I honestly think that airlines may wish to consider just putting dogs and cats in the relevant compartment downstairs, no matter how small they are. I think that would be reasonable. I am surprised indeed that there is no thread yet (or is there ?) on cat allergies. But if there is, my view would be that yes, cats can be downstairs.