We explored several options to get the dogs to Europe. Commercial airlines no longer accept dogs in the cabin, all dogs must go into crates which are then loaded as luggage on to the plane. The largest crates accepted are too small for Lump and SweetPea.
The Cunard shipping line has dog kennels on board the Queen Mary 2, but once again the kennels are too small for our dogs.
Luftansa operates a large animal air cargo service from Montreal to Frankfurt, but we would have to ship the dogs separately from ourselves. Not really keen on this solution.
We find a company called K9 Jets which operates charter flights from Teterboro New Jersey to Farnborough UK. These private flights take 10 people and 10 pets. The pets sit in the cabin with you! The cost is about twice the price of a first class commercial air flight, but each seat includes your dog, so it’s a good deal!
One downside to flying on a private charter jet is that they are small, so there are luggage restrictions. Each person can have one 30 kg checked bag and one 10 kg carry-on bag.
We managed to get everything we now own (really, everything we own – we could give a master class in downsizing) into two 30-ish kg checked bags and two 10-ish kg carry-on bags!!! This included one-days worth of kibble for the dogs.
One of the upsides of a private charter flight is that your luggage always ends up in the same city as you. Not many airlines can promise that!
We wanted to do a one-way van rental from Dunrobin to Teterboro NJ, but apparently you can only rent cars one-way into the US, not vans. But, we got lucky, U-Haul had a US cargo van stuck in Ottawa and needed to get it back to the US, so they let us rent it one way.
So we loaded up the truck and headed to the US… where we hit a slight snag. The US border agent was less than impressed that two Canadians had a moving van that was going to be left in the US. When he asked us if we had tickets to get out of the US (apparently they don’t want any Canadian bums hanging around in their country) we had to say “No” (no tickets on private flights). We explained the situation and showed the email containing our flight itinerary. He checked in the back of the van and saw only two dogs and luggage. Eventually he let us pass (a theme is developing here).
Some minor logistics hurdles at Teterboro airport… B’s phone apparently doesn’t work with Uber (apparently Uber can work with VOIP phone services like Fonus which we use). We try to find a regular taxi, to no avail, so I drop of B, dogs and luggage at the airport and return to the U-Haul drop off location (about 10 minute drive away) with the idea that I will figure it out when I get there.
I drop of the van no problem and asked if anyone would like to make a quick $50 by driving me to the airport. The U-Haul agent pointed to a bicycle and said “that’s my ride” and the other person in the office was about 500 years old. The U-Haul agent volunteered to arrange an Uber on his phone if I paid him for the ride. Great idea, here’s the cost of the ride, plus and extra $10 for the brilliant idea!
While sitting in the lounge waiting for our flight, we see several people come and go from their own private flights. This is how the 1% gets around! (we are just 1% wannabees).
Our flight leaves at 9 pm, so it is dark out and it is just starting to rain. We have to walk the dogs from the lounge building to the nearby plane (a Gulfstream G4). It is quite noisy, but all 9 dogs seem to be doing well… until it is Lump’s turn to board. Up those stairs. Nope. Not today. Not ever. Not going to happen.
B leaves SweetPea on the plane and comes back down the stairs to assist. I get Lump’s front, B gets the back… and we heave Lump up the first step. Once he gets started he races up the stairs, “Way too scary Dad”.
On board at last. B has a seat. Lump has the aisle floor (on his blankie of course), and SweetPea and I share the couch. Nice!
Flight is great. No turbulence (plane flies at higher altitude than commercial flights and apparently there is less turbulent air at this height).
All dogs are mellow (one or two enjoying chemically induced happiness) and the champagne is flowing to any who wants it.
The plane lands at Teterboro airport in Farnborough (just outside London) at around 8:30 am. The animal control people board the flight and check the dogs documentation and read their microships.
Border control officers are next on board to check passports.
All done, so release the hounds! There is an area of grass not far from the bottom of the plane’s staircase and the dogs are in a hurry to make good use of it! (no accidents on the place by anyone, human or canine!).
It is a bit of a zoo as people, dogs, animal control agent, boarder control officers, K9 Jets reps and drivers who are picking up passengers (we arranged a limo service to take us to the car rental office). In the midst of this mayhem (remember that foreshadowing I mentioned earlier) border control agents ask to speak to B. After a bit of to and fro-ing we head to the boarder control office to explain why we don’t have return tickets, or any other tickets out of the UK.
After much discussion the boarder control officer’s finally believe that we are just here on vacation and not planning on staying permanently, and that we just make travel arrangements as we move along. No fixed exit date as we don’t plan that far in advance.
Nice people at the lounge area call our limo service and get them to come back and pick us up again for our short trip to the car rental office. Finally, we have arrived in the UK!