FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Business Class With Pet?

Jun 24, 2023 | 3:06 am

#1

italyjen

Join Date: Jan 2013

Posts: 9

Business Class With Pet?

Hello all! Hoping to tap into your collective wisdom. My husband and I are purchasing a second home in Italy and are planning on "relocating" from Arizona to Italy twice per year, for two three-month stints. We would like to bring our cat and our dog with us. Ideally, we would fly into Milan (MXP), but any airport within a reasonable (<10 hour) drive/train is doable (ZRH, FCO, CDG, VCE, etc.).

It seems simple enough at first glance, but we're also trying to solve for the following factors:

Our dog is 30 lbs., so could only fly in-cabin on La Compagnie. Unfortunately, she is quite tall and will not be able to stand up in any-size carrier (XL Sherpa or otherwise). I believe this precludes us from any in-cabin travel with her.
If she has to fly in the hold, we'd like to limit the number of connections we have. This is problematic, because we're limited to flying from the west coast (LAX, SFO) and there are very few transcontinental routes available. That said, we are willing to get to the east coast if necessary. Our "perfect flight" is direct from the US to Europe, with as minimal transit on either side as possible. Obviously, we need to be aware of any heat or cold embargoes on "hold travel," as well.
In a perfect world, we are able to fly business class. This seems to be a limiting factor for carrying the cat in-cabin. The only airlines that I can find that allow in-cabin business class travel are La Compagnie (which doesn't seem to allow pets in the hold and thus wouldn't work), Lufthansa (which isn't ideal, given that the "direct flight" would put us into Germany, rather than Italy), and Swiss Air (which would put us into Zurich, and is a 4.5 hour drive from our ultimate location in Turin).
Chartered air travel is not financially feasible for us.
We have a unique ability to generate a lot of spend, so it would be ideal to book via points. I'm having a heck of a time finding award availability on Swiss, AF, or others! Cash fares may be acceptable, but obviously less ideal.

All thoughts welcome! This might be an impossible situation to solve for, especially with the business class wrinkle, but thought you'd all have some excellent recommendations. Obviously, we'll give up business class to ensure comfortable and safe travel for our pets, but still hoping there is a good solution out there that I'm not thinking of.

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