6/16/2023 Update
we changed our flight to depart earlier due to rising temperatures in June at Frankfurt. I don’t know if we needed to do this, but we did just in case.
We called the Lufthansa support line and worked through the rebooking of the pets pretty effortlessly.
We showed up to Door 3 at departures and unloaded the giant and large crate. We had to reassemble the giant crate because it was too big for the taxi van.
we arrived the prescribed 3 hours before departure and had about 30 min to wait after clearing security/immigration.
inside of door 3 is the bulky luggage stand for Lufthansa. My wife flagged down a porter and a large trolley to come get the dogs and our bags. There was no waiting at bulky baggage.
we had duct taped food, water, treats, and meds to the top of the crate (ziplock bags)
we zip tied the lead and collar to the crate door, the attendant was thrilled we did that for some reason.
the attendant was very friendly and informed our booking and tickets. She made a few calls but ultimately said everything was GTG after reviewing our med certificate, Japan entry form, and rabies titer. We were charged 600€ total for both dogs.
another attendant quickly measured the height of the kennel and called to ensure it would fit on the 747-8 she told us it easily fits through the big cargo door!
The attendant checked our bags as well and they were taken away. They labeled the crates with the Lufstansa labels, and we had to wait for a security official to come and inspect the dogs out of the crate and the crates as well.
We loaded the dogs back in, and the security person zip tied the crate doors and the dogs were taken away.
we were emailed the baggage confirmations for dogs and bags.
we used air tags in everything and were able to track the dogs as they were boarded on the flight.
I have to say that flying out of Frankfurt with the dogs using a Giant crate was very easy.
Originally Posted by
HawkeyeXIII
Hello all,
first time post and I am very thankful that this forum exists.
here is our experiences with flying with a Large and giant breed dog. (Colorado Mountain Dog and German Shepherd).
Our experiences are ongoing and exclusive to Lufthansa.
like most of you, pet shipping is our #1 stress.
we are GS employees and have never had issues getting waivers to fly on separate airlines, even those with no code share with US carriers. There’s always a waiver.
May 2022 we flew from DEN to FRA of Lufthansa. We used a PP100 crate and a Large Sky Kennel.
getting pet reservations through Lufthansa caller support was the absolute hardest part, but once that was done, it was actually pretty straight forward.
Med certificate was done at Fort Carson, but no one ever asked or looked at the paperwork.
Crates were never measured, only weighed. We abided by all of the pre flight checklist items.
we actually watched as the dogs were loaded into the aircraft (they were stacked on a larger pallet, so our worries about size were pretty meaningless).
fast forward to June 2023 and we are moving from FRA to HND. Again, using Lufthansa.
Booking was easier as I just went to FRA airport and approached the desk and booked our pets with our CWT SATO reservation.
We are downsizing the Colorado Mountain Dog’s crate to a 700 and we’re also told that it “should t” be a problem to take on the 747-8. We hope so as we don’t have a plan B due to this being a PCS move.
med certificate is scheduled at Vogelweh Vet.
I will update once we meet contact with Lufthansa.
we are also worried about rising temps and airlines not allowing us to fly if temps are greater than 84F at either departure or destination during times of flight.