Background
When Brandon’s job offer opened the door to our European dream, excitement and anticipation filled our thoughts. However, the looming concern of relocating our dog, Guava, posed an unexpected challenge. The cargo option seemed straightforward, but our family hesitated due to uncertainties about his well-being during the 10-hour flight. Would he stay hydrated and comfortable? Would the cargo area maintain the right conditions for his safety? With these questions in mind, we decided find an alternative solution.
To our surprise, our search revealed a dearth of viable options for long-distance pet transportation. Despite discovering a startup that aimed to offer pet-friendly flights, it had not yet launched, leaving us in a quandary. Eventually, we identified two potential solutions: the Queen Mary 2 cruise and charter flight.
Queen Mary 2 cruise
This is the only cruise line that allows pets onboard travel across the Atlantic. They have a route departure from New York and arrive at Hamburg Germany for a total of 9 nights. However, when we called in to reserve a spot for Guava in January, the available spot was not until November. And there are several dogs before Guava on the waiting list for May or September ones. We only plan to stay in Europe for 2 years and for the first half year if we cannot even move Guava, then why bother. So we ultimately didn’t choose Queen Mary. On Queen Mary 2, dogs have to stay in their kennels, but you are allowed to visit and there are playtimes for dogs to play in a dedicated owner’s lounge. Checkout their official page for more details. According to the person we spoke to on the phone, dogs love it, it’s like summer camp for them. So we are going to try it when we move back to the U.S. We already booked a spot for him.Â
If you are also thinking about this option, make sure to book as early as possible. There are only 24 kennels per cruise and if your dog is big, he/she will need 2 kennels.
Charter flight
Most people are probably scared away by the high cost for this option. We cannot afford to fly a private jet either. But luckily there are enough people who have this need, there is a private jet company called K9 which is pet friendly and allows you to pay by per seat. They currently have 9 routes, if one of them satisfies your needs, it is probably the easiest and cheapest way to get booked. Otherwise there is actually a Facebook group you can join. People usually post their departure city and destination city trying to organize a group together to share the fee. To make it successful, someone has to volunteer to be the organizer who sources a private jet and be the main contact with whoever others are interested. If you cannot find a group that already has an organizer, you can be the organizer. But just make sure you are fully committed, it’s a lot of work. The organizer from our group started to organize the trip one year before, and spent hours and hours talking to different interest parties to make sure the flight is fully booked so the cost is lowest for everyone. The Facebook group has successfully organized many of those flights already and is very active. If you are considering this option, my suggestion is trying to look for a group as early as possible, at least 6 months before.
The long journey
Preparation
There are some required documents we need to obtain before flying Guava to Europe.
Health Certificate: You’ll need a health certificate for your pet issued by an accredited veterinarian. Make sure to use the specific form required by the country you’re entering within the EU. Each EU country may have slightly different requirements, so it’s crucial to check and use the correct form.
USDA Endorsement: After obtaining the health certificate, you must have it endorsed by a USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) Endorsement Office. This step ensures that the document meets the EU’s standards and regulations.
Driving across country
The charter flight we found on facebook actually fly from Dallas Texas to Paris France. But it also stops at New Jersey to fill the gas. To save the cost, we decided to drive all the way to New Jersey and join the flight from New Jersey. It’s $2000 cheaper to fly from New Jersey than to fly from Dallas.
We left from Tri-city Washington on June 6th morning and got to Newark New Jersey on June 10th morning. It took us total 5 days, 4 nights total 40 hours to drive across the country. We stayed at Billings MT, Alexandria MN, Portage IN, Mifflinville PA at different nights. Each day is around 8-12 hours drive.
The big day
On June 10th morning, we arrived in New Jersey. And we decided to take Guava dog for a big long hike to tire him out, so that he can just sleep on the flight which turned out to be a good decision, he was very calm on the flight and didn’t cause any trouble. He is usually a little crazy especially when he sees other dogs.Â
Our flight has 8 passengers total, 10 dogs and 1cat. It sounds crazy, right? But all dogs were well behaved during the flight. Guava got his own seats(you don’t have to pay for dog seats, only have to pay for people), although he is too big for the seat so he has to lay on Brandon’s lap. But he was happy.
From Paris to Amsterdam
The good thing about living in Europe is there are trains that connect you to almost everywhere. There is an express train Thalys running between Paris and Amsterdam which allows pets. You can buy a special ticket for your dog once you are on the train, which costs 30 euros at the time. (you cannot buy it online). And pet doesn’t get a seat. Although according to the website you have to carry your dog on the lap, on leash and muzzled so they don’t disturb other passengers. But we just reserved a regular people ticket for him online so that he can have his own seat and we didn’t muzzle him, and it was totally fine.
Total cost
Car rental from Tri-city Washington to New Jersey New York: $960
Gas costs for total 2715 miles: $543
Hotel costs for 4 nights: $500
Uber costs from to Teterboro Airport :$38.55
Flight costs: $8300
Uber costs from to Paris train station: 28.65 euros
Train tickets for 2 people from Paris to Amsterdam: 182 euros
Total cost: ~$11000
In the end
After a total of 6 days, ~$11000, Guava finally landed at Amsterdam. It took lots of planning, effort and money to move our dog. But he is one of our family members, we want him to be safe and happy with us. Although we debated a lot at the beginning whether we should fly him in a private jet, looking back, it was worth it that now our whole family finally got together!
