hawaii-bound

Alaska Airlines is pet travel friendly. Most of the other airlines will not fly pets out of certain hubs in warmer weather. We have used Delta cargo in the past for pets from the east coast, but not sure if that still applies. It has been a few years since we needed to get an animal to Hawaii

zdcatc12

Just curious what has changed?

pesos

Due to rabies quarantine rules there are no pets allowed in cabins inbound to Hawaii.

For checked pets, you do not need a widebody however airbus a3xx planes can't have checked pets at all. This can make it a bit tricky for connecting flights with the ubiquity of those aircraft in domestic USA fleets - especially if you are scheduled on say a 737 and then there is a late aircraft swap. Because of this possibility, a widebody-heavy route is ideal to try and avoid the chance of such a swap.

I had originally planned to work around these challenges when I had to move our dog from Texas to Japan, routing through Hawaii in late 2020 (the idea being to break it up into shorter flights for the dog and visit old neighbors along the way). I had a ridiculously difficult time working out a route because all the connecting flights to DFW were on a3xx craft, so no checked-pet option - and because the DFW-HNL leg was the inbound there was no in-cabin option. AA (and I believe most airlines) also do not allow you to mix/match cabin/checked pet status on the same itinerary, complicating things further. Eventually, unable to work out a better option I gave in and decided to be "one of those" and went through the process to get the dog declared an emotional support animal, which superseded the "no cabin" rule for inbound flights to hawaii. Things were all set until a couple months later the law was changed and everyone dropped support for ESAs (which generally speaking I am totally fine with!).

Ultimately the challenges with Hawaii were too much of a pain and I ended up flying to LA for a day and then direct from there to Japan.

LIH Prem

In addition to Matson, you can look at Pasha Hawaii for car shipping.

-David

mfirst

zdcatc12 - I was able, and probably appropriately so, able to take him in the cabin as a registered emotional support dog - but then the rules on that changed

I just got email confirmation from UA-Cargo that they do not transport any pets as cargo - and they referred me to AA (I have not gone down that route yet - and I have to admit, yes this is a UA forum, but considering all of the issues that I have heard about AA lately on the blogs and news, I would be concerned...)

I did find a company that appears to have a business model (dry or wet lease?) planes that allow passengers to travel with their dogs in the cabin regardless of the size - so imagine a long-haul with 50 people and 50 dogs.....this sounds like the service that the "pro's" use when they need to fly with their show dogs. The tickets are expensive, but cheaper than private jets, and variable depending on how many people are flying at the same time.

I have found a few relocation services - but much of this is a balance between the emotional and practical aspects of something that appears to be more difficult than it should

pesos

It was tough enough before covid - more so now like everything else. I thought for sure one way or another something was gonna go wrong and I'd either be stranded in LA, or the poor dog would be stuck for weeks in a Japanese airport shelter, or worse.

Best of luck!

mfirst

yes, it was tough - but it was also too easy for everyone to bring their pets on board and I can see why they clamped down on people abusing the system. This topics comes up frequently because I am hoping that the options might change - like UA bringing back PetSafe and I recall Delta introducing what appeared to be a very nice option (but that only lasted a short period of time and I never had the need to use it). I would be nice if there was a 'reasonable' option for people wanting or needing to travel with their pets. Sure, if you have a little rat dog or cat that can fit under to seat, but not too many dogs are that small. I would pay for an extra seat - and my dog is much better behaved than many passengers these days (and he does not drink much nor his COVID risk is low - but I cant get him to wear a mask).

I think UA got rid of PetSafe when COVID hit because they needed the extra cargo for $$$ transports - and then they told me that they needed to alter the climate control for all of the vaccines they were moving around the world

I think there are a lot of people - like me - who would pay a lot of money when they need to travel with an animal (for work) and probably even more people that have no problem tagging on an extra $1-2k to fly their pet for a week long vacation vs the options at home

Eastbay1K

AS may be the best bet.

https://www.alaskaair.com/content/tr...aveling-hawaii

Not great, but there's 100% chance of a Boeing jet to Hawaii from the West Coast. I've seen the crew come to greet the pax with dogs underneath to assure them the dog is onboard (and I just hate when I can hear them barking).

As for the cars, some friends moved to HNL last year and car shipping was by far the best option in the current car buying market.

SBA to SFO

Having done this shortly before COVID (January 2020) there are also fully cargo flight options that may be worth exploring. We have a bulldog breed that none of the major carriers will accept in cargo due to their breathing issues. We utilized a local pet moving company (Island Pet Movers I think?) that booked him on a Kalitta Air cargo flight, which seemed to be a common option for dogs in similar situations. You obviously aren't on the same flight, however in our case his flight departed LAX around 2am, I took a flight the next morning and the pet movers had already handled quarantine procedures and picked our dog up when I landed. The total cost was not unreasonable so something to consider.

denver19

I am United 1K. On the occasion I travel with a pet to or from Maui (I have done it 4 times) I book on Alaska. They are great with animals. I usally book and extra seat in coach and it gives me and the pet some room to manuever.