Moving Abroad With Pets
In October 2020, we flew business class with our dogs on our way from Chicago to Vienna. Let me explain and take you on the journey we went through to get them here.
In February 2020, we found out we were moving to Austria, but with an undetermined move date. The very first Google search I did after Eric confirmed we were relocating was: “How to safely bring a dog from America to Austria?”
The responses took me down a rabbit hole of stories and information leaving me overwhelmed and confused. A lot of articles gave similar information regarding health certificates, vaccinations, airline policies and what to pack.
However, I was missing a minute by minute itinerary of exactly what to do and what to expect in the months to come. As someone who has never flown with pets, the little in-between moments were exactly what I needed to complete the puzzle. After all, you are not just planning the plane ride. You are planning the entire journey from your house, to the airport, to your gate, to your seat on the airplane and through the arrival airport.
This was our personal itinerary. Feel free to use it as a guide when creating your own travel plan.
February 2020
We received confirmation we were moving to Austria but did not know exactly when. Eric had to connect with his counterpart in Austria and figure out the plans to make it work for both parties. A few weeks later the decision for mid-September was approved.
March 2020
Covid-19 changed everything, adding a lot of uncertainty and shifting the date back a few weeks.
April 2020 (6 months til departure)
I started researching options for getting our pets to Austria and then decided to reach out to Pet Relocation. It is exactly what it sounds like, a relocation company for pets. After a 45-minute phone call, they suggested booking the Manifest Cargo option. If you are like me and are unaware of the seven options you have for pet travel, here they are…
Manifest Cargo - You drop your dog off at the cargo building, separate from the airport entrance. This option is where animals and other goods are placed inside a freighter airplane, meaning the passenger seats have been removed.
Checked luggage – The dog enters the airport with you. You drop the dog off with TSA certified agent and reunite with your dog again when you land at the next destination. Dogs who are placed in the cargo hold under the airplane are secured in a separate compartment away from the luggage. It is very dimly lit and should be temperature controlled. Keep in mind the month you are flying. Pets cannot be accepted when the ground temperature is below 45°F or over 84°F. Most airline policies state pets are the last on when boarding and the first ones off after arrival.
In cabin (under 25lb) – If you have a small dog, lucky you. Things got a lot less stressful for you. You can take your dog on the airplane with you without too much hassle.
On their own private jet - Unless you have $10,000 saved up, this probably is not feasible. Although I seriously considered it for a few hours.
On a cruise ship – Flying was posing too much stress until I discovered The Queen Mary 2. My itinerary had us traveling on a 10-day journey. Driving from Chicago to New York City. Boarding the ship in NYC. Cruising across the ocean to London. Taking a ferry from London to Germany. Renting a car from Germany to Austria. Challenging, but if it meant staying together with our animals, I was up for the challenge. Eric, who works in international logistics, vetoed it almost immediately after hearing the itinerary it would require.
Leaving them behind – This was not an option for us, but after researching and experiencing the process firsthand, I see how it sometimes has to be an option for some people. My only hope is those who have to leave an animal behind, leave it with a family member or close friend. Please do not turn your pet into a shelter.
An Emotional Support Animal – An ESA is NOT a service dog. ESAs are not trained to perform a specific task. They are meant to provide emotional support to people who are in need of it. This is ultimately what we ended up doing.
June 2020 (4 months til departure)
Our dogs were 35 pounds and 65 pounds at the time, so our only real option was boarding them under the airplane. I spent the previous two months reading articles that would build up my confidence that flying them as cargo was actually an okay option. Millions of dogs fly in cargo every year and rarely do we hear about bad things happening. Then I would come across an article contradicting everything I had read previously. There were nights when Eric would walk into the room where I was sobbing reading articles about dogs who died on an airplane or boarded the wrong flight. Leading up to the move people always asked what was the most stressful part about the move and my answer was always getting the animals over there.
This is when I started researching Emotional Support Animals. I learned about a company called CertaPet. If you think you are in need of an ESA, but not sure where to start, I recommend speaking with CertaPet. If you are approved for an ESA letter, make sure to use this link to save 5%.
After two months of terrible anxiety about putting them under the plane and potentially making the wrong decision, Eric and I had meetings with a licensed therapist to apply for an Emotional Support Animal. I knew if our dogs could just be in the plane next to us everything would be okay. After a couple of meetings, the therapist approved us for an ESA!
Charlie also started his workout regimen. To fly in the cabin as an ESA, he needed to be under 55 lbs, or else we needed additional approvals.
Pack Mama Tip: Factor your dog’s breed and age into your decision. We believe our girl, Daisy, is part whippet. A leading cause of death for whippets is heart attacks. She also has some crazy separation anxiety. So I kept thinking if we left her at the check-in counter, she’d bark non-stop and then would have a heart attack under the airplane.
July 2020 (3 months til departure)
Order your pet passport from Pet Travel. I have linked the Austria option, but you can change it to your specific country. The papers that come in the packet are literally all you need in terms of paperwork. The papers cover general personal information, overall health, and historical vaccinations. We ordered 3 physical copies of the pet passports, one for each animal. We received the papers in the mail one week later!
Once receiving the packet in the mail, start reading all the instructions and familiarize yourself with what needs to be done.
Book your flight and reach out to the airline and let them know you will be traveling with your ESA. If you are flying on Austrian Airlines, then you need to email the special cases department and inform them at specialcases@austrian.com
August (60 days til departure)
Order the things your dog will need for the flight. A lot of Airlines require muzzles if the dog is not inside a carrier. The harness is not a mandatory thing you need but we wanted our dogs to be focused. If kids ran up and started petting the dogs they could easily get over-excited.
September 19 (30 days til departure)
Call the airline to confirm the dogs are checked into the flight and showing up as approved to ride in the cabin. Also, ask them if they require any additional airline-specific forms to be filled out.
Schedule your final vet appointment. Tell them what is going on. You can find comfort in knowing your vet will more than likely be familiar with the process and will know how to handle the paperwork.
Get familiar with the airline's pet policy and look up the airport maps to find out where the pet bathrooms are in the airport. If you are flying out of the O’Hare Airport in Chicago, there are three outdoor pet relief areas near the lower level curb directly in front of Terminals 1, 2, and 5. 5 is the international terminal.
Pack Mama Tip: Take your dogs on long car rides and new places to get them prepared for the big flight. Go to dog-friendly stores that have shopping carts, new noises, and smells like Home Depot. Get dogs comfortable with going to unfamiliar places so the airport isn’t a scary thing. Shopping carts are a lot like rolling suitcases.
10 days til departure
Call the APHIS office in your state and tell them they will be receiving papers that need to be endorsed and returned ASAP….keep reading, this will make sense in a minute.
7 days til departure
The final vet check. *Note, the health certificate your pet needs cannot be more than 10 days old upon arrival in your destination city. The vet will fill in all pet records, provide any necessary vaccines, and do an overall health check of your pet. Once you receive the papers back, do one more thorough look-through to make sure all signatures and information are on the paperwork. We also asked for one last nail trim and bath for good measure.
Pack Mama Tip: The Pet Travel paperwork mentions it already, but make sure the vet is signing in blue ink. At the departure and arrival airports, blue ink will be a lot quicker to see and will make the process faster. I think the TSA and customs agents only looked at our paperwork for a total of 3 minutes.
Once you have the vet’s signature, you have to get it endorsed by APHIS. Every state has an APHIS office, just look it up, but here is a link to the Illinois office if you are relocating from Illinois.
Our APHIS office was several hours away and because of Covid, we could not go in person to get our certification. So we had to mail it. This was THE MOST STRESSFUL MOMENT OF THE WHOLE THING. You take the signed health certificate, vaccination records, and a check to pay for the endorsement services and go to FedEx. Tell the nice people at FedEx you need to overnight the papers with a prepaid return shipping label and make sure to get tracking on the package.
72 hours til departure
Our endorsed paperwork came back! This was the absolute best feeling in the world. Everything was smooth sailing after this.
Call the airline one more time to make absolutely certain your dog is listed as flying with you in the cabin and make sure everything is ready to go to avoid any hiccups upon arriving at the airport.
Day of Flight:
8 AM Feed the dogs a small handful of food. Avoid feeding them a lot or giving them a lot of water or else you run the risk of them having an accident later on in the airplane.
11 AM Take the dogs on an hour-long walk. Don’t stop walking until they both pee and poop. You want to tire them out so they can relax and sleep on the airplane.
12:30 PM Uber to the airport.
Pack Mama Tip: Alert the driver you have a dog with you so you do not get turned away when the car pulls up.
1:15 PM Arrive at O’Hare airport in terminal 5. Make sure you have your IDs, passports, approved ESA letter, and pet passport that includes the APHIS-certified health certificate and signed vet records. Also, go ahead and put the harness and muzzle on if they are not on already. After we were handed our boarding passes, we went downstairs and back outside to the pet relief area to give the dogs one last chance to go to the bathroom.
1:30 PM Went back inside and proceeded to security. Our experience going through the security checkpoint was awesome. The agents enjoyed seeing the dogs come through. Remember most people are animal lovers, so what was a seemingly stressful situation turned out easy.
Pack Mama Tip: Keep your pet with you when walking through the security. Do not place them on the conveyor belt to go through an x-ray machine. If your pet's collar and leash have metal, they will show up as a place for TSA personnel to pat down.
2:00 PM Arrive at the gate and administer the calming chews. *Note, sedatives are prohibited on flights. Sedatives slow the heart rate down and will affect your pet’s ability to breathe. The chews helped tremendously with keeping them calm and relaxed.
Pack Mama tip: Test the calming chews out a few days prior to making sure your dog will not have any reactions to them.
3:15 PM Boarding the airplane.
4:00 PM Sit back, relax and enjoy the flight. We were in business class on Austrian Air and there were maybe 40 people total on the whole flight. Because the flight was so empty, the flight attendants said the dogs could sit in their own seats! Once we found our seats, the flight attendants brought an extra leash that secured the dogs to our seatbelts.
ARRIVAL
8:45 AM We arrived in Vienna!! The dogs were PERFECT ANGELS! No barking! No accidents! Eric and I never went to the bathroom on the plane either. If the dogs couldn’t go, we didn’t either! The flight crew members loved having them in the cabin. I witnessed several head scratches for Charlie in the seat in front of me throughout the flight (despite the “do not pet” harness). Each time we were given a meal on the flight, we would give the dogs a little bite. During the breakfast meal, the flight attendant brought Charlie a plate of steak!! We cannot say enough good things about Austrian Airlines. If you ever have to relocate internationally with your pets, I highly recommend you fly on Austrian Air.
9:15 AM Deboard the airplane.
Pack Mama tip: Put the dog diapers on in case they need to pee when getting up and walking through the Vienna airport. Once we got to the baggage claim area, we made sure the dogs were sitting or laying down. If they are sitting, they are not peeing!
9:30 AM Go to the customs counter for the final check of the dog paperwork. Since we were coming from America, and the dogs were up to date on all vaccines and were healthy, they did not have to quarantine. Customs approved the papers after looking at them for maybe two minutes and we sprinted outside to let the dogs go potty.
10:30 AM We got our rental car and started the 2-hour drive to Gmunden, Austria!
I hope this recap of our experience helps you in planning for your travels with your pets. Looking back on the whole process, I know we made the right decision for our pack. You know what is best for your dog, so as long as you are confident in your decision, that is all that matters!
Here is a list of other blogs with great information we benefitted from when figuring out our travel plan.
Long Haul Trekkers for pets traveling in cargo
Cruise Maven for pets traveling on the Queen Mary II
Helene In Between Another blog for pets traveling on the Queen Mary II
The Dog Momager for traveling with an ESA
Windy City Paws for tips on traveling with a pet through the airport
The Portable Wife for what you should know about moving abroad with pets.
