Spike

Hi everyone,

We're going to be moving to Turkey in a few weeks and intend to bring our cat with us.

We're thinking of taking the cat in the cabin with us, rather than in the cargo hold, but all the airlines (at least Tarom and Turkish with whom we're flying) say if you do this, the container must be less than 10" high so it goes under the seat in front. Problem is, our container is about 12" high, one of these standard glass fibre 2-piece things with the wire door!

But I'm sure I've seen other people carrying these things into the cabin with no problem.

So the question is, has anybody done this and are the airlines flexible or strict on this 10" size limit?

Oh, and any tips on puss's welfare would be appreciated - we'll have 1 one hour drive and 3 one hour flights in a period of about ten hours.

Miku says thanks in advance .......

RIK

Hi Spike.We brought 2 cats with us.One in a Carrier which my wife had on her lap and the other in the hold.This was with Turkish about 3 years ago and nothing was said about the height then.They may have changed the rules now ?
Good Luck with move.

Ian

Peaceplant

Oooh İ had no idea you could take cats into the cabin!! My cats are big on screaming so they would probably ban me from travelling again after.

İ have never taken them on a flight though have considered it. Read somewhere in here İ think that Onur Air flights are no good if they are going in hold because they have no oxygen and the pets perish. Amazingly they fail to inform pet owners of this and let people put their pets in there!! How gruesome.

We took ours to Adana from Bodrum on a bus and back a few weeks later. We got some tranquilliser from the vet but apart from making them unable to stand up it had no effect on their distress. We had to put them in the baggage hold and they wailed for 16 hours non-stop. The drivers who take a kip in a compartment were not happy as they could not sleep. At every stop we opened up the baggage hold and tried to console them.

When we got a couple of hours before Bodrum the company (Pamukkale) informed us they were not completing the journey and we were to move onto another small coach with another firm. To our horror we witnessed an idiot start to toss luggage into a back boot quite high up and everyones stuff just lumped together and our cat box was next - İ nearly fainted. We managed to stop him and begged him to let them in the bus but no way. They put them in a very small luggage hold in the side with no oxygen. Our seats were directly over it and İ could hear them crying. The Turks on board were amazed cos İ was sobbing into my hands by then and convinced my girls were going to die. Every time they stopped even for a second or two my husband leaped out and opened the compartment to let fresh air in. Everyone thought we were nuts.

My friend Pat was great and picked us up at Bodrum so they were at least in a back seat of a car for the last leg of the journey with mam's fingers poking in which they were rubbing against but still wailing.

NEVER will İ subject them to anything like that again which is why İ am stuck on my own while hubby visits relatives in Adana for a month. No direct flights from Bodrum only via İstanbul and bus is OUT.

The good news is they quickly recovered and were overjoyed to see their home again and especially the garden after being house cats for weeks in Adana.

Look forward to hearing how you get on and sorry my experience probably wasn't much help.