The Cat with airmiles

[catmeister]

hi everyone

I'm new to this forum.

My cat is almost 5 years old, she is an indoor cat so has never had to wear a collar. I will be moving soon and have to fly in a plane and plan to bring her with me in the cabin. I have been told that it would be ideal to teach her to be on a cat leash (or at least get her used to it) because when I have to go through security control I have to take her out of the bag and the bag has to go through the x-ray machine. With all the commotion going on in an airport it would be safe to make sure I attach a leash when I take her out of the bag.

Ok, so I have bought the Cat Harness, my cat looks really silly (

), and she knows this as well. She hates this thing...but I guess I get brownie points for managing to put in on her!

Any tips for training a cat to be comfortable in this contraption?

Also any tips for plane travel with a cat?

Thanks in advance,

The Catmeister

 

[mooficat]

Hello and a warm welcome from Spain and my kitty-crew

Well what an interesting question ..........I brought my kitties with me to Spain, but they travelled in the hold...........so I´m afraid I cant offer any specific advice, but as you say its going to be pretty busy at the airport - I see you have London as your location, so will you travel out of one of the big ones, Heathrow or Gatwick.....so how do you think she go on with all that activity through passport control & the security checking ?? I suppose you will hold her, so hopefully she´ll feel safe if she close to you ! Would she stand a t-shirt or similiar around her ? or maybe you could cuddle her under your jacket. I recently travelled through Gatwick and I am sorry to report it was just MAD.

Umm..........have the airline offered you any special arrangements due to you travelling with a pet ? Maybe you could contact then to see if they can.

Once she is on the plane, she´ll be in her travelling case, so I suspect she´ll just go into a sort of shut-down mode and sleep

so that bit should be ok.

Hopefully some of our other members will be able to help with the harness question.

Well I hope all goes well, and that you are still going be checking into TCS......when you get settled maybe you could post some photos of your kitty

We just love photos here

Enjoy the forums and all the best for your journey

 

[catmeister]

Thanks for the reply.
Actually we will be driving to Paris and then taking the plane from there. They do not allow animals on board the passenger cabin from England. I'm not too worried about the drive, its more about the airport that I am concerned about.

Well, if anyone has any advise about cat air travel in the passenger cabin or any tips about cat training with a harness, please let me know!

 

[momofmany]

I flew one of my feral cats once. We put him thru the security scanners cage and all. Being feral, I wasn't going to take the chance of opening up a cage in a public place. No harm done to him by going thru the scanners and the security people all got a kick out of seeing a cat go thru them. But that was many years ago and I don't know if they upgraded equipment in the mean time.

Double and triple check the airline rules about having your cat in the passenger cabin. The airline I flew absolutely refused to allow an adult cat with passengers unless the cat was with kittens. They put my Sebastian in pressurized luggage and I did have to sedate him during the trip.

 

[catmeister]

I checked with all the airlines here in London and they do not accept cats in the passenger cabin which is why we are driving to Paris and taking the plane from there. It wont be for a few months yet, but I am planning ahead to make sure all is in order. I even found a hotel in Paris that will allow us to have the cat in the room when we stay there overnight.