# Advice on dog travel needed!



## SusiePlus2 (Nov 19, 2016)

Can anybody provide current advice on the best way to fly my dog to Cyprus?
We are relocating in February and after a fair amount of research I am still struggling to find a clear answer. I have had quotes from several companies but my biggest concern is the process Cyprus end. 
She is 12 years old and very timid so I am desperate for the journey to be as stress free as possible. I would like to be on the same flight as her so I can drop her off and pick her up. I believe Thomson take dogs but can't really find much more than that!
Any advice or experiences shared would be very much appreciated, this is by far the most stressful part of the move so far!
Thanks in advance,
Susie


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## David_&_Letitia (Jul 8, 2012)

Hi Susie - welcome to the Forum.

We moved here in October 2014 and brought our dog, Bonnie, with us. She was 12 at the time of travel, and like yours is very timid. We flew with Monarch on the same flight as Bonnie from Birmingham to Paphos. TFA Logistics are the Monarch agents for pet travel, so all we did was to check the Monarch website for availability of seats for us on the flight we wanted, then booked Bonnie as live cargo on that flight through TFA Logistics. Once they confirmed Bonnie would be on that flight, we booked our own seats with Monarch.

It was all very simple, but certainly not cheap:

One way seat only flights from Birmingham to Paphos with Monarch Airlines in Oct 14 = £49.99 each.
1 x 20kg suitcase from Birmingham to Paphos with Monarch Airlines = £22.99 each
1 x 6kg dog in pet carrier as cargo in hold (total weight around 13kg) with Monarch Airlines = £538

By the time you add the cost of the pet passport, an airline compliant kennel etc, the total cost would have been around £800. For a much loved family member, though, it was worth it! Like you, I discovered that Thomson also allow pets to travel but only from certain UK airports. The costs were pretty much the same as we paid with Monarch. I think you'll find that the airline itself doesn't deal with live cargo - it will usually be a logistic company which is responsible to the airline for such things.

After booking everything and before we had even left the UK, we had a telephone call from the chap who deals with live cargo in Paphos airport to introduce himself and to tell us the procedure once we landed. The process at this end was so quick and simple. After retrieving our suitcases, we collected Bonnie at the outsize baggage carousel where the chap met us. He took us to an office where we had to produce our passport and our pet passport and we were issued a piece of paper. That was it - we were then able to leave the airport and travel on to Polis where we now live. During the following few days, we had to go to the 'Government Vet' with the piece of paper and the pet passport. He scanned Bonnie's microchip and issued us with yet another piece of paper which allowed us to obtain a dog licence from the local Municipality. 

Good luck!


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## SusiePlus2 (Nov 19, 2016)

Thank you so much, that's really helpful. I'm so glad to hear that I can collect Ellie as soon as we arrive, I would hate to think of her sat alone and scared. 
One last question, do you have any recommendations for a pet carrier? I have seen a few but again, I'm not really sure what I'm looking for!


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## nemo1843 (Sep 27, 2012)

We also flew with Monarch from Birmingham bringing our much loved schnauzer. It was, as David has described, a very easy collection at the Paphos end. As regards the pet carrier, this was arranged for us by TFA Logisitics who handle pet transportation for Monarch, I simply had to give measurements of the dog and they sorted the cage and it was waiting for us at Birmingham.

However, in hindsight, I would never have brought him. I miss the freedom of having a dog in the UK that you can let of the lead and have relaxed walks with! Doesn't happen here.


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## David_&_Letitia (Jul 8, 2012)

SusiePlus2 said:


> Thank you so much, that's really helpful. I'm so glad to hear that I can collect Ellie as soon as we arrive, I would hate to think of her sat alone and scared.
> One last question, do you have any recommendations for a pet carrier? I have seen a few but again, I'm not really sure what I'm looking for!


You need one which is IATA approved for air travel. We bought ours - a Sky Vari Kennel - from Doggie Solutions (see link below). The advantage of this was that it comes in 2 halves for easy storage, but we used the bottom half on its own as her bed for a couple of weeks leading up to the flight in order to get her used to it - eventually also adding the top half as well. For the actual flight, her blanket and a couple of fluffy toys were sufficient to settle her completely. Letitia also wore a t shirt for a couple of days and put that in the kennel so that her scent would also be a comfort to Bonnie during the flight.

https://www.doggiesolutions.co.uk/s...ennel-airline-approved-dog-crates-8725-0.html


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## SiAnDem (Jan 8, 2016)

SusiePlus2 said:


> Can anybody provide current advice on the best way to fly my dog to Cyprus?
> We are relocating in February and after a fair amount of research I am still struggling to find a clear answer. I have had quotes from several companies but my biggest concern is the process Cyprus end.
> She is 12 years old and very timid so I am desperate for the journey to be as stress free as possible. I would like to be on the same flight as her so I can drop her off and pick her up. I believe Thomson take dogs but can't really find much more than that!
> Any advice or experiences shared would be very much appreciated, this is by far the most stressful part of the move so far!
> ...


Hi Susie,

I know exactly how you're feeling. My wife and I, and our 6 year old collieXdalmatian moved to Cyprus in January.

I would very strongly recommend Aegean; they are astonishingly reasonable, and made bringing Lunete to Cyprus a breeze.

Here is a blog post that my wife wrote about it, and I suggest reading through this thread too (http://www.expatforum.com/expats/cy...36434-anyone-brought-their-dogs-them-2.html):

Bringing your pet to Cyprus

We heard the barking as soon as the plane’s engines turned off. On the one hand, after all the worry about how she would deal with the flight, it was a relief to look out the window and see Lunete’s – our dog’s – crate sitting, or rather shuffling, on one of the massive luggage trolley’s on the runway of Larnaca airport. On the other, it was deeply embarrassing, both because other people on the plane started picking up on the noise and wondering what was going on outside, and because of the two poor Cypriot baggage handlers looking gingerly at the crate that was rocking back and forth as, in her tantrum, Lunete barked her little head off as ferociously as she could.

Afterwards, though, we had to congratulate ourselves on having successfully managed to bring our dog from the UK to Cyprus. The first step was getting her Pet Passport sorted, which was actually very straight forward, and most vets in the UK are well informed about the procedures. And also making sure we complied with the specific accompanying documents requirements for Cyprus. (The Pet Travel Scheme, is available to all EU countries and many other listed countries – there is a handy list online.)

The main stumbling block was actually figuring out how to bring our dog from the UK to Cyprus without having to sell body parts on the blackmarket to book her on our flight, or to get a “pet-transport expert” to ship her over separately. The secret, it seems, is the airline – in this case, Aegean, which provides absolutely the easiest and cheapest way of bringing over your pet from Heathrow.

First off, most airlines won’t even let you book your dog in as excess baggage, and force you to hire a third-party shipper to deal with your dog’s transportation, which means one more – very expensive – bit of admin to deal with when you’ve already got the horror of shipping all your earthly possessions, lining up a place to stay, and planning a way of making sure you don’t starve once you get to Cyprus to think about. To give you an idea, the cheapest quote we found from a third party was around £900.

Second, those airlines which do let you check a dog in as baggage tend to charge an obscene amount to do so: one well-known “budget” airline quoted more than £1,200 for our 20kg dog. That was 3 times more than the cost of both of our own tickets to Cyprus on the same airline.

So, when we checked on the Aegean website and their pricing guide said it would cost £120 to check in a dog+crate weighing over 25kg (if you’ve got a smaller dog, it’s only £60!), initially, the disparity seemed ridiculous and possibly a mistake. But a quick phone call (don’t be put off by the level of English spoken by most Aegean customer service employees, or the fact that they seem either unaware or dismissive of the possibility of transporting dogs) confirmed that, yes, that’s all it would cost. And – even better – all we had to do was show up at check-in as usual where we could pay the baggage fee. Aegean got 2 new flight bookings very shortly afterwards.

A word on the practicalities of it: you don’t actually pay at the check-in desk. You pay at the ticket desk, which is on the front wall of Heathrow terminal 2. And there’s no point getting to the airport super early – as we did to try and get ahead – because the ticket office opens only at specific times, so make sure that you ask what the times are, and that your arrival coincides with those. But if the ticket office will be open, then do get to the airport early, as trying to maneuver one of those luggage trolleys from behind a massive dog crate is pretty difficult, so beating the queues is a good idea.


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## SusiePlus2 (Nov 19, 2016)

That's really great information thank you. Ellie is a Lab x Springer so she will be in a large crate also, I hadn't even thought about getting it through a busy airport, thanks for the tip!


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## Geordiehandbag (Dec 20, 2015)

We moved with our Border Terrier at the end of August. We too used Monarch and TGA Logistics. All went very smoothly - they sent us the crate in time for us to have it around the house for her to get used to. We had to make sure we booked a taxi that was big enough to accommodate her crate and all our luggage and who were able to take us to the TGA office first - we had to drop her off 3 hours before the flight from Gatwick.

Be aware of the vaccinations you need to arrange before travel - the rabies one was straight forward but the worm and flea treatment has to be done 24-48 hours before travel - unfortunately for us this fell on a bank holiday Monday which added to the expense.

Once we got to Larnaca I could see my crate but wasn't allowed to collect her until all the paperwork had gone through - this took nearly an hour so I found it very stressful and there were tears!

Its true that you don't have the same freedom here as you do in the UK. You have to be careful when out walking and you can't take them on public transport and to pubs etc but she's settled in well and is enjoying the new smells and neighbourhood dog chorus!


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## SandT (Dec 1, 2016)

Geordiehandbag said:


> We moved with our Border Terrier at the end of August. We too used Monarch and TGA Logistics. All went very smoothly - they sent us the crate in time for us to have it around the house for her to get used to. We had to make sure we booked a taxi that was big enough to accommodate her crate and all our luggage and who were able to take us to the TGA office first - we had to drop her off 3 hours before the flight from Gatwick.
> 
> Be aware of the vaccinations you need to arrange before travel - the rabies one was straight forward but the worm and flea treatment has to be done 24-48 hours before travel - unfortunately for us this fell on a bank holiday Monday which added to the expense.
> 
> ...


Our dog ( old springer spaniel) is arriving at Larnaca airport on the 20th March via Emirates.
We will already be in Cyprus and will be at the airport to collect him.

Do we go to the main airport or do they get delivered to a cargo area, anyone know?


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## Geordiehandbag (Dec 20, 2015)

SandT said:


> Our dog ( old springer spaniel) is arriving at Larnaca airport on the 20th March via Emirates.
> We will already be in Cyprus and will be at the airport to collect him.
> 
> Do we go to the main airport or do they get delivered to a cargo area, anyone know?


We arrived on the same flight as our dog at Larnaca but the other dog on the flight was collected by a lady waiting in the main arrivals area. The agent simply wheeled the crate through on a trolley and the lady was there to collect her dog on the other side of the barriers. I would check with your agent/handler what the situation will be.


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## SandT (Dec 1, 2016)

Thanks, we will check with Emirates before we leave.


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## madmum54 (Apr 24, 2016)

We used a company called transfur to bring 3 dogs and 4 cats in october to larnaca. cost just under £4000 certainly cheaper to arrange it all yourself. but found it much less stressful to let them handle it all. the crates are expensive. they arranged delivery from doggie solutions about 2 weeks before. as 1 big dog of 26kg his alone was £250. 
have to get pet passport, microchip if not got 1, rabies jab at least 3 weeks before flight. flea worm & tick treatment 24-48hr before. and vet has to put time as well as date so make sure timing right. need a fit to fly certificate i think up to several days before so can get that at same time
if dog is biggish would need large car to transport with crate from airport also. Transfur arranged delivery to our apartment. cost about £150. heard storys about waiting hours from pets to clear security but we were still on our way when had call to say he was there. so they got thru arrivals faster than us.
they were all fine and just happy to get out, ate their dinner and went to sleep 

think process more stressful on us than them. they were collected at 2am as flight 7am and have to check in 4 hours before. idea was we went back to bed for couple of hours but wide awake thinking what if something not right with paperwork & cant go.

I even asked stewardess when boarding if they were onboard. she went & checked with pilot. my 10yr old not impressed as she told him the little girl worried about her pets. luckily i gagged her before she said its not me its mum

they have settled here very well. was good time to come as hopefully can get used to the heat gradually when it warms up. 
they dont seem to miss the runs in fields and parks. luckily have dog beach 10 mins drive away so go there every day.


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