Singing The Airline In-Cabin Pet Carrier Blues

Do you know how hard it is to find a pet carrier that meets the criteria of a specific airline’s in-cabin restrictions?

First, you have to really hunt around their website for the actual restrictions because they don’t actually want you to know what they are because really they don’t want you to fly with your beloved furry family member. Then once you find it, there’s a bunch of unrealistic stuff to read through — by the way, did you know that if you want to bring a four inch aquarium fish with you on an airplane, it will cost you $80 per flight? — and finally you find the measurements you have to adhere to: (emphasis is US Airways)

The maximum carrier size varies by aircraft. America West operated flights accept pet carriers up to 17 inches long x 16 inches wide x 8.5 inches tall. US Airways operated flights accept pet carriers up to 21 inches long x 16 inches wide x 8 inches tall. Use your confirmation e-mail to determine your aircraft type. If you have multiple flights on different aircraft or don’t know which aircraft you’ll be flying on, carriers up to 17 inches long x 16 inches wide x 8 inches tall are accepted on all US Airways aircraft.

Well, this is crappy. My e-mail confirmation says that my flights are operated by US Express/Air Wisconsin and that the aircrafts are both “Canadair Regional Jet (Jet)”. Soooooooo?

O.K. So really I still don’t know which of the measurements I’m supposed to use and I’d go for the compromose of 17″x16″x8″, but I’ve come to the conclusion that such a pet carrier does not exist in reality. I even suspect that if one did come into existence, everything else would suddenly cease to exist in that instant.

I’ve looked at hundreds of pet carriers over the last few days. What I think would help would be a website that listed them by size rather than just showing pictures of them as if everyone is shopping for trendiness. Some of them I’ve really had to hunt for the sizes on. For the most part it seems like most pet carriers seem to be about 8.5″ to 11″ wide and about 10″ to 12″ high. I’d really like to find one that’s 14″ to 16″ high. Finding one that’s 17″ long on the dot is also problemsome. They seem to be 14″ or 15″ or 18″ or 19″ and the first two are too short for Pugly and the other two are too long for US Airways.

It’s really becoming a stressful experience. This pet carrier even advertises that it’s approved for US Airways but it’s an inch too long and several inches too wide.
A phone call to US Airways later left me more frustrate because the connection sounded like I was talking to an adult from Peanuts speaking through a fast food ordering speaker. However, I did have an answer. 17″x16″x8.5″.

I really could have used the extra inch on the length.

Damn it.

I definitely need help here.

tags: U.S. Airways, pet carrier, Pug, the puppy

5 comments

1. on August 30, 2006 at 1:32 pm

   Tamara said:

   Sorry, no idea how to help you. I hope you can find a solution!

2. on August 31, 2006 at 3:48 pm

   Danielle said:

   I’d go with 17×16x8.5, but I’ve never flown so I’m not much help. The site I found were supposedly approved, but they were all bigger than that!

   Is this the CA-credits plug-in or something different? I like it!

3. on August 31, 2006 at 4:00 pm

   n. mallory said:

   The plugin was called commenter-prommoter but it kept causing some sort of DB error randomly though I don’t know why so I had to deactivate it. I’m trying to find another one. I can’t find the CA-Credits one. I may have to write my own.

4. on August 31, 2006 at 4:31 pm

   n. mallory said:

   OK That’s CA-Credits. The configuration is kind of funky.

5. on February 4, 2007 at 4:48 pm

   Danielle said:

   I would really like to know how this worked out for you because i’m having the same issues flying with my pug.Its so frustrating!!

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