Advice re: flying with cat in-cabin?
I need to transport a cat from NYC to SF. I usually fly United or Delta (Gold on both), but neither allows pets in F or J on any of their direct transcons - all now are configured with flatbeds, and pet carriers need to go underseat. I haven't closely tracked underseat clearance on Economy Plus (United) and Comfort+ (Delta), but there seem to be a variety of IFE boxes and misaligned seat rails that end up considerably shrinking the spaces.
Which brings me to American. I understand that the A321 "32Bs" allow two pets in each F cabin. It's unclear to me whether there is underseat space, or the pet carriers go into "pet cabinets" at take-off and landing. Can anyone clarify? I'm holding a F reservation, but the customer service rep couldn't provide the pet space details.
She did note that the pet reservation has to be finalized at the airport on the day of travel, on a first-come/served basis. Which apparently means the cat could be denied passage if two pets checked in to F before us. Unlikely, but worrisome. This leads me to question 2: does anyone know the under-seat clearance profile of MCE seats - particularly whether window/middle/aisle are unobstructed? In the wiki photos above, the MCE underseats seem relatively large and open- ? MCE allows 5 pets per flight, so our chances of being excluded there are much slimmer than in F.
I just want to get the cat to SF in relative comfort. Any guidance would be tremendously appreciated!