My Mr and I will be flying next week with two cats, so one cat in carrier for each of us. US' new protocol for traveling with pets is pretty lame-- you can't book them in advance, and just show up at the airport, pay the fee and off you go. Per the CP desk:

There is a limit of 6 pet containers per aircraft for Mainline flights and 5 per aircraft for Express flights. The first class cabin cannot exceed two pet containers.

We are on mainline and have already gotten upgraded for our flight, so that is the maximum two for the F cabin. I'm guessing it's strictly first-come, first-served, and that if there is another pet already in F then one of us can go sit in Y; it's only a 90-minute flight so that is an option, but it's also a very full flight and the last one of the night, so theoretically we could possibly have to split up or stay an extra night or get stuck in seat 21B.


So I am wondering if anyone has ever been on a flight where there are actually the maximum 6 pets or been put on a different flight because there are already too many pets?

We are travelling MCO-DCA, both cities brutally hot so putting them in cargo (even if we wanted to) isn't an option. Just trying to see if we need to show up at the airport super duper early to beat any other pet-carriers, or if the chances of having too many pets onboard is so remote that I shouldn't worry about it.