using FF miles for dog rescue activities
 

Not sure if this is the right place to post but do any of you know what airlines allow use of FF miles to transport dogs?

I see requests for FF donations from animal rescue organizations and have agreed to accept a black lab that was severly but need to arrange tranport from Georgia to Boston.

Any guidance would be appreciated.

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Rachel R. Boersma, MS, RN, CARN
Forensic Nursing Consultation
Psychiatric and Addiction Specialist

I can't answer your question but I would be interested in donating miles to animal health/welfare groups. You mention above that you have seen organizations requesting donations, can you tell me who that might be?

Glad to post what I know -- here are several links to organizations

Humane Society of the U.S. (see page 2) of pdf newsletter

http://files.hsus.org/web-files/PDF/2001FallNRRO.pdf

PETA's wish list

http://www.peta.org/about/wish.html

Farm Sanctuary's wish list

https://secure.vegsource.com/~farmsa...n/wishlist.htm

Hearts United for Animals

http://www.hua.org/Wish/supplies.html

Golden Retriever Rescue

http://www.golden-retriever.com/ff.htm

There are multiple other animal rescue organizations - this just represents a small, random list.

Rachel

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Rachel R. Boersma, MS, RN, CARN
Forensic Nursing Consultation
Psychiatric and Addiction Specialist

I will try and answer your questions the best I can.I at one time was involed in dog rescue.
The mileage being requested is for the person to travel with the dog.Persons doing this work goes and picks up a dog then usually takes it to it's home and gets it ready to place in a adoption home.

The airlines charge a fee to transport the dogs but this is alot less then shipping them air freight if a person travels with the dog.This is especially regarding the larger breeds that are over 100 lbs.

I hope this helps answer some of your questions.I would hope you would consider giving any help you can to any organization doing this.It takes a great deal of expense and time.

Neighbors of mine just adopted a Greyhound from Florida. The dog travelled to DCA with an off-duty USAirways flight attendant who volunteers for a Greyhound rescue association. Don't know the details but assume the flight attendant used her privileges to do this. Am sure many of us here would be willing to help out with an occasional gift of a free ticket. It would be great if an airline or two could help facilitate this. Maybe Randy could use his network and good offices to float this idea?

Do not get me wrong - I love Animals! -
But I really think there a LOT of people in NEED for miles which in my oppinion is a better case to help, than fly a dog cross the country.

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Viele Grüße

Oliver

Rachel,

I used to work often with Labrador Retriever rescue. Most often, a group of volunteers would drive the dog to its new location (arranged in shorter segments, where one transporter passes off to the next). I don't have my contacts handy at the moment, but if you are interested, e-mail me directly (pls put "FT" in the e-mail heading), and I will get info to you on how to contact the proper people. My e-mail is in my profile.

God bless you for doing this. I have rescued two labs, and they have turned out to be the most loving, grateful dogs I have ever had.

Robin

I think most of these miles are to move and house people not animals.

PETA wants free airline tickets, hotels and rental cars.

THe Golden Ret site puts it best. The miles buy a ticket for a person, who will then fly a dog. That is very inefficient, compared to van or trailer with 5-10 dogs.

In most cases, there are plenty of abandon dogs of a particular breed in a particular area to keep the rescue league overstocked. I realize Greyhounds are unique, and I participate in the Brittany Society Rescue, which moves dogs from KS and MO to the east coast.

I bit off the topic, but you need to know that most airlines will not take pets as checked baggage (or shipped) during the summer - mid-May to mid-Sept.

Also, certain airlines are much better at dealing with animal transport than others. Delta even has a specific "pet desk" that deals only with animal transport. American is great for pet travel also.

An alternative may be to check with breeders that may be traveling to and from shows (by car).

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Laurie Schiff

Germanfflyer - You are right that there are many people in need of miles but there are also many people who donate miles to those causes. Thanks for your input on the priority of needy causes but I think if people want to make a charitable donation it should be up to them how they do it, there are plenty of causes that are not very important to me personally but I am not about to tell you or anybody else whether they are worthy of their time, money or miles.

RachRB-

I have not found an airline that will let me use or earn FF benefits to transport my dog. And, while it might be nice to fly 'em for free, the most important concern should be keeping the pet in transit for the shortest possible time, which means a nonstop should be the primary consideration when shipping. Pets generally need to be delivered at least 90 minutes before the flight, and often cannot be retrieved until 30-45 minutes after arrival.

Not helpful to you, but I have found CO's QuikPak office (and the crew in DEN in particular) to be outstanding when sending my Vizsla somewhere.

I wanted to thank each of you that took the time to reply -- this particular dog (Lab Retriever) was severly abused and neglected so I will be flying (with my miles) to Georgia to collect her.

Again, that you very, very much for your kind, illuminating and thoughtful comments.



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Rachel R. Boersma, MS, RN, CARN
Forensic Nursing Consultation
Psychiatric and Addiction Specialist

I was actually asked in SJU by someone from AA if they could print extra bag tags on my behalf so they could transport dogs to mainland.

I told them they could, but I would appreciate it if they could take my miles and give me an upgrade, they refused even though there were available seats.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

Since this is BTT anyway . . .

RachRB - I don't think anyone would mind if you followed up later with a quick description of how the trip went. I for one, would appreciate it (and a picture or two of the dog maybe? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif )

If not here, maybe TravelBuzz?

Everyone's heart is in a different place. If you rather help people, more power to you! But if we decided not to help animals until all people have been helped, the time for animals would never come. Just my opinion.