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This guide explains how to travel with pets, including the rules you need to follow, how to find the best airline for pets, and making sure your insurance covers them both en route and at their final destination.
Compare pet insurance policies to cover your pet overseas
Regardless of whether you’re flying domestically or internationally, you will need to follow some rules when travelling with pets.
IATA-approved pet containers are the way to fly. They have to be big enough for your pet to comfortably stand up, lie down and turn around. If more than one animal is sharing a crate, all of them need to be comfortable.
Depending on which airline you’re flying with, and what kind of plane it is, different size restrictions and weight limits might apply. You should check these before booking your ticket.
Plastic isn’t always suitable. A nervous flyer might break out of a plastic container. You should consider wood or metal if there’s a chance your pet might do this. The container also needs to be strong enough to withstand any outside bumps and should not be collapsible.
There are a few things you can do before take-off to make your pet’s flight more comfortable.
If you’re nervous about saying goodbye to your pet before the flight, try not to show it too much. Dogs and cats are perceptive, and if they pick up your nervousness it might catch.
Australia’s pet quarantine requirements are some of the strictest in the world. The moment your pet leaves the country, it no longer qualifies for its Australian health status and will need to go through quarantine to get back in.
It can take a long time to bring a pet back into the country, sometimes as long as six months. To help things go smoothly, it’s a good idea to plan ahead of time. Depending on your destination, you may be able to speed things up by visiting vets overseas, getting the right permits and booking quarantine accommodation ahead of time.
If you need to fly an animal overseas, the procedures are the same for all airlines. You will generally have to book your pet’s crate through to your destination as cargo, instead of checked baggage. Do this by finding an IPATA-approved shipper. They can work with you to find a flight path that takes your pet where they need to go.
You can only take pets on your flights as checked baggage when flying domestically.
If you’re taking your pets with you on domestic flights as checked baggage, conditions and costs will vary between airlines. If you’re not careful, you might end up booking a flight with an airline that won’t accept your pet.
In particular, it’s worth paying attention to size restrictions, fees and restrictions on the types of pets that you can transport.
You can only book domesticated cats, dogs and birds through as checked baggage on flights that you are taking. Any unaccompanied pets, business animals such as racing greyhounds, or animals other than cats, dogs or birds need to be booked through IPATA agents as cargo, even when flying domestically.
Container size limits. The maximum size of a container depends on the size of the plane.
There is no limit on the number of containers you can check in as baggage, but each will incur a fee based on total weight.
You cannot have more than one animal per cage, unless they are of comparable size, less than 14 kg each and are used to cohabitation. You can have up to three animals per cage if they’re younger than six months old and from the same litter.
You cannot book pets and containers with a total weight of more than 32kg onto flight numbers in the 2000s range.
Qantas lets you make bookings specifically for your pets to make sure they end up on the same flight as you. If you want to travel with your pet, you should book their flight before your own. However, restrictions apply to the types of pets and breeds that you can bring on board. Ineligible pets need to be booked through Qantas Freight or an IPATA-approved shipper.
You cannot use wire crates or ship animals for cosmetic or testing purposes.
Animal restrictions. In general, you may take cats, dogs, birds, guinea pigs, rabbits and similar animals as checked baggage in appropriate containers. You cannot take the following animals:
Breed restrictions also apply.
For pets flying as checked baggage, your options are limited depending on the type of plane you’ve booked a flight on. You cannot put more than two compatible animals of up to 14kg each in the same container.
Other restrictions also apply:
A vet certificate is required for the following reasons:
As you may have realised, taking an animal outside of Australia is a big deal. Finding the right insurance is an important part of making sure you’ve done everything you can to keep your pet safe. A lot of people believe that travel insurance will cover pets as though they were luggage because they’re not riding in the plane’s cabin, but this is not the case.
A travel insurance policy’s luggage or personal belongings inclusion won’t cover your pets, and neither will its medical emergency cover.
For their health, you need pet insurance instead, which often includes travel insurance for pets to help cover the cost of veterinary bills that you might encounter overseas, but note that some insurers restrict cover to New Zealand and Norfolk Island. As always, it's important to read the fine print!
Meanwhile, consider the pet essentials, such as medication or pet travel documents, that you need to bring with you when considering your own travel insurance policy. You should find cover that can help if these items are lost, damaged or otherwise go missing.
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