Flying Southwest With a Cat (cost, airline, airport, best)

[ERH]

I'm a longtime Southwest flyer planning to travel from RDU to TPA with a cat this summer. I've never flown with an animal before. Can anyone speak to flying with a cat?

[WellShoneMoon]

Check with Southwest about their requirements, and ask your vet for advice.

[Jkgourmet]

Seriously consider using a hard crate instead of a soft sided carrier, most especially if it's a kitten. I've done transport for shelters and those little magicians find ways out of the soft carriers. And the hard carriers are safer. If you've got a bottle of perfume in a glass container, do you want it in soft sided luggage or hard sided?

[Arktikos]

That's a short route, so should be a piece of cake.

My suggestion is to arrange for the cat to travel with you in the cabin, in soft side carrier. Do not, under any circumstances, open the carrier while in flight. Withhold food and drink for the recommended time prior to traveling. Line the bottom of carrier with a towel or something else to absorb potential urination.

If traveling onboard with you, TSA requires that the cat come out of it's carrier during screening. Hopefully they have a separate room to do this inspection. If not, well just don't let kitty escape from your hands!

Whether or not to drug the animal depends upon your perspective and the cats' behavior. You don't want the animal squawking a lot on board.

My wife and I flew our daughters' two sibling cats from Juneau, AK to Boston, MA last summer, and then kept them in the carriers for a drive to Vermont. That was a long haul. Neither cat was drugged, neither one made noise and neither one had a smelly carrier afterwards. They were good travelers. My wife opened her carrier for some reason midflight to Boston and it took a herculean effort for her to push the emerging cat back into the carrier!

[himain]

You need to speak to your vet and SW. It will cost you extra to do this and if there's other animals already on the plane you may not be able to take it that flight. The carrier has to be able to fit under the seat in front of you so I don't recommend a hard side one

[LynnKrause1]

I traveled with an 8 week old labradoodle puppy from Chicago to Houston. I had to have a health certificate from my vet. And I bought a small crate for Henry. He was placed under the front seat, sort of so he could see me and off we went. When we landed, the seatmate could not believe that there was a puppy in that black bag. He didn't make a sound.....such a good dog. We lost him a couple years ago and he was absolutely the best dog ever.

[Teacher Terry]

I have flown many times with small dogs. Your health certificate from the vet is only good for 10 days so don’t get it too far in advance. It cost me 150 for one way. You must call the airline in advance as only so many pets are allowed per flight and make sure the case will fit under the seat. The dimensions will be on the airline website.

[hertfordshire]

If you think it will be very stressful for your cat, consider getting pet CBD. You can give a few test doses in advance (start small and increase as needed) to see how she'll react before actually using it for travel day. Just make sure it's a CBD with the THC removed so you can travel with it (for the return flight) without alerting drug dogs (and so she doesn't get high LOL!)

[Wile E. Coyote]

My cat is on Gabapentin (a pain drug). It helps calm them for vet visits also. You might ask your vet for that -- it's completely safe for long term use; so is also fine for short use. You would give a dose the night before (and next dose 2-3 hours before airport).