Just a little FYI for those of you who might consider flying with your pet. Before booking my recent flight to Wisconsin, I carefully read all the information on the airline's website about what I could and could not do, taking my cat on board. I made sure I had an appropriate carrier. I paid the necessary fees. However, nowhere, NOWHERE did it say that I would be expected to take Bax out of his carrier to go through airport security.
He had been doing so well. There was a bit of howling on the way to the airport but he quickly chilled out. I was feeling pretty good about this whole pet travel thing. Soon enough, I was in the airport security line. I had taken off my shoes, thrown all my crap into the dingy gray bins, and was ready with Bax safely enclosed in the Sherpa carrier to pass through the metal detector. That's when the security woman who appeared to be about 19 years old (why are they all so young?!) said, "Please remove your pet from the carrier."
"WHAT?" Already anxiety ridden, I thought my heart was gonna give out right there.
"Remove your pet please," she repeated. I think she may have been snapping gum, too.
I was in complete shock.
"What?" I asked again.
I will save you from the boring details of our conversation since it went into broken record mode. Suffice it to say that there was a rapid succession of phrases such as:
"HE'S GONNA TAKE OFF IF I LET HIM OUT OF THIS THING!"
"Well, ma'am, you've got to."
My favorite part, though, was when she tried to instruct me in the appropriate manner of cat transport through the hustle and bustle that is airport security.
"You just take him out, hold him like a baby, and walk through."
Clearly, not a cat owner.
But what could I do? So I had one of those, Don't think about it! moments and opened the carrier, grabbed him, held him to my chest while he went a little nuts, yelled at security staff to get my (*@#! carrier through ASAP and then stuffed him back in as a cloud of gray fur settled on the conveyor belt. All in all, he did rather well. I was honestly amazed that he did not take advantage of the moment and execute some sort of escape. By the time I had gotten my shoes back on, he was looking amazingly mellow in his little case. I, on the other hand, was sweating and on the verge of heart palpitations.
I hadn't realized what a scene I had made in line until I got to my gate and random people began approaching me.
"Are you okay?" "How's the kitty?" "Everything went okay, right?" "It's so stressful, isn't it?"
In the end, I'm glad that I didn't know about the airline's policy. I probably wouldn't have gone through it all. However, I'm not exactly a fan of being kept in the dark. Hence, my desire to spread the word. So there you go.
And next time, for my heart's sake, collar and leash!
2 comments:
Airlines don’t mandate airport security.
From TSA’s website:
Your animal will NEVER be placed through an X-ray machine. However, you may be asked to remove your animal from its carrier so that the carrier can be placed on the X-Ray machine.
But isn't the liquid/gel mandate also a TSA issue and not a a rule of a specific airline? And yet THAT info is generally listed on an airline's website...
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