While I myself do not have a pet because of my transient lifestyle. I do know a couple of people that go all over the place with their dog. I questioned one of them recently about what it is that she has to go through in order to travel with her dog and it turns out that there is quite a lot involved in the process, but if you are patient and are willing to put up with limited options, it is definitely doable.
src
This girl I had met was from Europe and I met her in Southern Mexico where she frequently visits. She told me that the number one thing you need to do if you want to be able to travel with your dog is that the dog needs to be small. ha! Well hers was definitely small but I would imagine that airlines would be able to accommodate larger dogs, just not in the cabin with you. She is able to put her dog on the plane with her and told me that just like a piece of carry on luggage, the dog has to be stowed during takeoff and landing, which is wildly stupid but i guess rules are rules.
Because her dog is so small, she doesn't have to pay extra for this for the most part but there are some instances that some airlines will charge something like $100 or so, probably just because they can.
She also pointed out that some airlines flat out deny the carrying of any animal on planes and other ones that are owned by Muslim countries will allow falcons, but not dogs. Which is strange but definitely religion oriented.
Also, it should be obvious that you can't simply stay in just any hotel when you have a pet. Your options are going to be severely limited when you have a pet with you, even if you are dead certain that the dog is well behaved. I can understand this, because I know several people that believe their dog is an angel but every time I have been around it, it behaves like a wild beast.
src
There are lots of articles out there that detail specifically what you need to do, such as this one and it isn't as stringent as you might be thinking. Some countries are really cool with you bringing dogs in, such as in Mexico where they don't even ask for any paperwork, while others, such as the USA and Australia, you may as well forget about it even happening.
There is a famous story out there about how Johnny Depp was traveling by private plane to Australia with his dogs, and customs gave him two options: Take the dogs away or have them put down. While this seems cruel, I am actually kind of glad that they didn't make an exception for Depp just because he is rich and a celebrity.
For my friend who is currently traveling with her dog, she has to get some medical certificates before traveling that consist of, in most places, just paying a vet to look at the dog briefly, ensure that the dog is actually yours and not something you are stealing, then issues you a government certificate that approves the travel of said dog.
Many countries policies differ wildly as far as how willing they are to allow a dog in, so obviously this is extremely important to investigate thoroughly before heading to the skies. Once you arrive, you don't want to find yourself in Depp sort of situation.
Not long ago, there was an emotional support animal clause that was brought in that to some degree anyway, forced airlines to allow you to bring dogs on planes but thanks to a few lunatics out there that took the piss, this policy is mostly not observed anymore. However, many airlines will allow you to bring dogs on the plane with you and their official stance is that the animal has to stay in the crate during the entire trip but according to my friend, this notion normally goes out the window once the plane is in the air provided that your dog isn't a terror wrecking havoc on the other people on the plane. This doesn't mean that your dog can run loose, but she told me that her dog always comes out of the bag and sits on her lap or if the seat next to her is available, it will sit there.
of course we are talking about an extremely well-behaved dog in her situation, and it is very small.
It is critical that you check out the policy of the country you are traveling to before you book though because some places seem to not want any outside animals into their country such as Australia, while others like Mexico basically would let you bring in your Crocodile if you wanted to do that. She told me that she wasn't even asked any questions about paperwork for her dog in Mexico, but will be asked quite a lot on the way back to Europe.
You can expect to pay a bit more for anything when traveling with a dog because according to her experience, the places that allow pets generally don't have very high standards as far as quality of rooms are concerned. She suspects that many hotels adapt this policy of allowing pets because they can no longer afford maintenance and therefore allow pets because the management knows that there are not many options for this. I guess this is probably why I don't really hear about her spending a lot of time in her hotel room.
But when you are traveling it is supposed to be all about getting out there and seeing the place you are visiting anyway, right?
For me, if I had a dog I probably wouldn't want to go through all of these extra steps to make it happen but can totally understand why other people would want to. So if that person is you just know that it is very possible to travel with your pets and according to my friend this is a growing industry that has more and more options every year that she travels.
I could never take my pets on holiday because it would seriously limit your options. I have seen some dogs in the hold with one couple in the Paris airport taking their dog to the States.
I think it would make things a lot more tough but also in other situations it would make socializing a lot easier. The friends of mine that I know that travel with their dogs tend to be quite well off financially speaking because it sure as hell isn't free!
Airtravel can be so stressful without a pet. It becomes exponentially harder when you have one. I can't imagine my dog being able to handle an international flight if he had to go down into the hold. Also, there is nowhere for a dog to pee on long flights even if you do manage to get them into the cabin. I wish there were more viable options for pet owners. Thank you for sharing.
good points. The flip side is that you are given priority and special treatment if you are traveling with a pet with a lot of airlines such as not needing to wait in line to get through security and if you are checking your pet they let you wait until the last minute before you actually have to put the dog through.
I suppose this extra service comes at a price though because most airlines will charge hundreds of dollars for a carry-on dog and even more if you are putting them in the cargo hold.
Oh, interesting. I didn't know about the priority boarding and security screening.. I guess that is nice. Still pretty inconvenient and costly overall though.