Have you ever wanted to visit a different country but didn’t want to leave your lovely little pet behind? Here, I share my experience and tips for flying with a cat.
Please note: These tips are specifically for flying with a cat; traveling with other pets will likely require different advice.
This blog post is all about fully preparing to fly internationally with your cat from the United States.
A Little Backstory
Tommy is my first cat. He’s three years old, adorable, and extremely loving. My sister rescued him for me when he was just over three months old—I didn’t even know I was getting a cat! She brought him over and placed him on me while I was sleeping. He has never left my side ever since.
Every pet is unique
Just from my experience of driving him to the vet, I know he has terrible travel anxiety. Fifteen minutes in the car, and this cat starts panting from stress. Sometimes he pants so much, he drools a bit.
I’ve tried petting him, keeping my hand close so he knows I’m right there, comforting him. I’ve tried putting on soothing music, driving slowly, and avoiding bumpy roads and highways to make him more comfortable.
Nothing works.
It makes me wonder what events took place in the first three months of his life to make him so scared of the outdoors. He gets palpable anxiety from being outside.
Cats and dogs are very different
I had puppies when I was younger, until I was about 17 years old. Then I moved away to college, got a job, and didn’t have all day to play with my puppy anymore. #adulting
Yes, even my 14-year-old dog was still a puppy, yours isn’t?
I have never taken a puppy with me on an airplane.
Truthfully, Tommy is the most loving pet I’ve ever known—the kind that gives you kisses before bed and cuddles with you. The kind that shows you unconditional love at every turn of the day.
Somehow, if I’m having a bad day or I’m feeling sad and crying, Tommy knows and understands, and he comes over to give me a hug.
My mom has flown with her cat many times, and she has been blessed with a very chill cat. As she often says, her cat is a very good traveler.
And when we fly, we fly internationally. Think a 10 to 12-hour flight day. I’m originally from Lima, Peru, and I currently live in Savannah, Georgia, so that’s usually my route. A quick stop in Atlanta, Miami, or sometimes New York.
6 Steps to Prepare for Flight Day:
1. Let your pet get acquainted with their kennel.
Get a soft kennel and leave it open in your living room. Put cat treats and catnip toys inside the kennel.
Line it with a small fleece super plushy blanket and make it super soft and cuddly for your cat. When it’s extra plushy, my cat loves making biscuits and imparting his scent onto it.
For my cat, I got this kennel:
This one is surprisingly sturdy and spacious, fits under the seat, and does the job.
For my mom and her cat, I got her this super fancy kennel:
The cool thing about this one is that it expands to create “rooms” for your cat while you’re chilling at the airport, while still keeping him constricted and safe. Her cat loves playing with it at home too.
2. Make a reservation for your cat after purchasing your own ticket.
To travel with your cat, you’ll need to call your airline and give them your ticket confirmation number. You specifically have to make a reservation for your cat and tell them how much he weighs and how big he is. If you want to take him with you, the carrier must fit underneath the seat in front of you.
This is why traveling with dogs is usually more difficult: depending on their breed, they grow much bigger than cats and need more bathroom breaks. Traveling with smaller animals is always easier.
The airline will tell you what documents you need, your baggage allowance, and how much the fee will be to fly with your cat each way.
For this trip, I flew economy with American Airlines, and they told me my cat carrier counted as my “carry-on,” and I was allowed a personal item in addition to that.
I have successfully flown on budget airlines all around Europe in tiny budget airplanes, so I know how to maximize my personal item to fit a week’s worth of clothing. So, for me, this wasn’t a big deal. But for someone with more items, I recommend buying a ticket that includes a checked bag (or just paying to check a bag).
Related Article!
The fee for my cat to travel was $125 each way with American Airlines. Delta charges $200 each way for flying with your small pet in the cabin. Prices are current as of August 2024.
You pay this fee at the counter when you show up for your flight and present the paperwork, and your pet’s kennel gets a little pet tag.
The documentation needed is similar with every airline: current vaccination records and an international pet travel certificate.
3. Be prepared in advance for the cost and time to get the proper paperwork.
I would say everything is easy until this part. To start, make sure all your pet’s vaccines are up to date. This should be done regardless of travel plans.
Then comes the process of getting an international travel certificate for your cat. Brace yourself for this one. My vet clinic informed me that they didn’t provide that service, so I had to go directly to my local VCA Animal Hospital.
In August 2023, I had to email back and forth with a very nice man named Calvin, who was specifically in charge of import/export for international animals.
After a week of sending him forms and required documents, I finally came to the vet’s office, and my cat got an exam. After the vet at the VCA examined him and declared him fit to travel, that piece of paper cost me nearly $400. Plus, the exam cost an additional $50. Then, a prescription for travel anxiety pills set me back an extra $54.
WTF, Calvin…?!!
That nice man smiled sheepishly at me and said that the prices were going up (!!!!!), so I was lucky (Ummm, excuse me?), and that it would be even more expensive next time.
Then he shared that he knew a Brazilian lady who would fly to Brazil every month and simply got her cat’s travel certificate at a vet in Brazil because the cost was ridiculously expensive in the United States.
Those papers cost nearly the price of my round-trip ticket to Lima, Peru, plus having to pay $125 to $200 each way for your pet.
The reason I had a bit of sticker shock was because my mom gets the same piece of paper at her local vet in Peru before traveling, and it never costs more than $25.
I wasn’t expecting this expense, so I’m warning you to prepare for it. Give yourself a buffer of $1,000 for your certificates and pet airline tickets so that you can travel peacefully without wanting to strangle any vets.
Related Article:
7 Specific Money-Saving Hacks to Make Traveling More Affordable.
4. Your cat might need some drugs.
While you’re at the vet getting your travel certificate, take the chance to get some anxiety pills for your pet if traveling makes him suffer from high levels of anxiety, like mine does.
This might not be necessary for you. All cats are different. As I mentioned before, my mom’s cat, Piru, is super chill and relaxed during travel and doesn’t need any pills. My sister’s cat, Louie, is so frightened and anxious while traveling in cars that he doesn’t stop panting and pees himself EVERY TIME. My cat, Tommy, as I mentioned, won’t stop panting and has an accelerated heartbeat. So, I highly recommend that you try going on long car rides and see how your cat behaves.
Seriously, go on the highway, not just slowly around the block.
Every cat has a different personality and different feelings about travel, but I would get some of these pills regardless, just to be safe.
5. Size matters!
To my understanding, if your pet is too large, he can’t fly in the cabin with you because of how the airplane is laid out. If your pet is too large, he/she has to fly cargo. I have never experienced this, and honestly, I can’t even imagine.
6. Don’t feed your cat before travel.
Before you jump at me and call the ASPCA® (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals®), hear me out for a minute.
I got advice this from a few friends and from my mom, who had all traveled with a cat internationally before: make sure you don’t feed your cat that morning before travel to minimize discomfort during the day. Also make sure he used the litter box that morning or the night before.
If your cat is generally well-fed (and most pet cats definitely are VERY well-fed), a few hours of not eating will be fine for him or her.
Think of this as being kind to your pet by not letting it have a full belly and be uncomfortable during the flight without easy access to a litter box.
Alternatively, you can carry a disposable litter bag inside your personal item for your cat to use, and then easily dispose of it.
Here are some Sustainable Disposable Cat Litter Boxes that you can pack in your carry-on, and you can bring a bag full of Purina Tidy Cats Low Dust Clumping Cat Litter, LightWeight Unscented. If I was going this route, I would double bag the litter, check a bag with my stuff, and use my carry on for mostly cat essentials and other separately bagged items.
Look at the airport map for pet relief areas. The bigger the airport, the more of these are available.
I have to be 100% honest though: This is tricky with cats —they are very finicky and usually don’t go to the bathroom unless they feel safe, which might not happen with other dogs and other animals around them in pet relief areas.
Be careful with feeding your cat treats during the trip! If they need to use the bathroom and there’s no suitable option, it can be very uncomfortable—or even worse, they might pee on you. If your cat tends to pee during car trips, make sure to be prepared with plastic liners, an extra blanket, and plastic bags in your carry-on in case of an accident.
Here is an example of the Miami International Airport pet relief areas. I often have to go through Miami for any South American destinations, so I’m quite familiar with this airport. Familiarizing yourself with your airport’s website and map will be a valuable resource for your trip.
Okay, so now that you are fully prepared to the best of your ability, let me tell you what actually happened during the three flights we took together so far.
Flight from Hell:
The anxiety pills prescribed by my vet were Gabapentin (generic) 50mg Tab Compounded.
The directions read: Give 1-2 tablets by mouth 90 minutes prior to travel. Repeat the dose in 8-12 hours if needed.
I was very nervous to fly with my cat the first time, so I gave him 2 anxiety pills. 💊 My poor cat was fully drugged and out of it, even for 2 days after the trip. He was extremely upset that I had brought him to a strange place where he couldn’t find his bearings or feel comfortable and safe.
Then, my mom scolded me for over-drugging the cat (even though I followed the instructions on the medication). I felt so guilty that I decided not to give him any pills on the flight back.
Hey, if Piru can travel with no pills, maybe Tommy can also do it and not feel so crappy from the pills… right?
NO.
Oh god… so wrong.
The flight back was a red-eye with terrible turbulence, and my cat FREAKED OUT. He started screaming, crying, and trying to rip open the top screen from the carrier with his claws—he almost ran away!!
He was in such a state of desperation that I had to put my whole arm inside the carrier, zip it in, and try to calm him down.
There were lots of “shhh” sounds, quiet pleading, and stress-praying. The airplane was bouncing up and down like a bunny on cocaine, and that was the least of my worries.
A couple of tips about pet energy:
- If you are calm, your pet will feel that and be calm. If you’re freaking out, there’s no calming anyone.
- Even just feeling your hand will help calm a nervous pet in a soft kennel. Make sure to zip your arm properly in on the edges so that your pet can’t slip out and run away.
- Pets are not permitted to be removed from their carriers during flight… so this was the only way to do it, and all I could do.
Can you imagine me trying to shove tranquilizer pills down my cat’s throat at 4 a.m. on a dark airplane, mid-turbulence?
It was a hellish flight, and I felt terrible for my cat, again.
You’d think the logical thing would have been to give him one pill both times, right? Yep, sometimes I’m an all-or-nothing kind of gal, and evidently, occasionally, not the cleverest.
At this very moment, I am on my third international flight to Peru with this cat. This time, I gave him one pill (Hooray! Genius), and it has been enough for him to be peaceful. Obviously, he doesn’t like flying, and I don’t think anyone loves spending a day in airports and on flights, but so far, this is the best flight we’ve had together.
This third time, many people stopped me at the airport, marveling at how nonchalantly I was flying with my cat. It’s no big deal, my friends—I’ve already been through the worst flight of my life, so I’m ready for anything!
They asked me for tips on how to do it successfully, which made me realize that this article could be an important resource.
Final Thoughts:
Flying is hard on pets. This is true for all pets—it is what it is.
Because of this, I try to stay for a few weeks when flying with my cat so that he gets plenty of time to rest and relax before flying again. Last year, I left him with my mom for a couple of months and then flew back to pick him up.
This time, it’s a 3-week affair, and he recognizes the space we visited last time, so we’re doing well so far.
Why do I do it? Ever heard of medical tourism? Well, I practice veterinary tourism once a year. I have an excellent veterinary surgeon who looks after my cat—he checks bloodwork, ears, paws, teeth, EVERYTHING. He even gives him a mammogram to check his organs. Yes, just like a pregnant lady, same process. Weird AF, but that’s how they do it.
All this, for a small fraction of what the cost would be in the United States.
Understand that if you bring your cat to an unfamiliar space after a long flight, he will hide and be unhappy for at least a couple of days. This is normal. Cats, in general, hate change and being taken away from their familiar spaces.
They are also extremely sensitive to scent and sounds. So, the scents of the people who were there before you, or if you are visiting a busy and loud city (like Lima), will also influence their behavior.
The best thing to do is to let him or her be. Give them catnip in a scratcher, some treats, fresh water and food, and a comfortable place to rest. My cat hides under the bed for 3 days and barely eats or pees for a couple of days, but then he’s fine.
As I said, some cats adapt better and faster to change than others, but all eventually adapt.
If you are traveling back to a familiar space where the cat has visited before, it will be easier.
Always remember, your relationship with your cat is unique, and all cats are different. These animals are highly perceptive of energy and stress levels, so the best way to calm them down and make them feel safe is for you to relax and be gentle with them.
Happy travels!
Leave me a comment if you have any questions or want to add to this article.
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