British Airways and the pet travel scheme (PETS)

 

In light of the recent decision by England to consider lifting the pet
quarantine for North American pets, I thought it would be appropriate to share
our dreadful experience using the pet passport scheme with British Airways to
save future victims and their pets from the same disaster.

Last fall, my husband and I moved from Naples, Italy to London, England with
our two dogs.  We knew in advance that we would need to prepare our dogs so
they would qualify for England’s Pet Travel Scheme (PETS).  PETS allows pet
dogs and cats from certain countries to enter the UK without quarantine as
long as they meet certain rules.  Basically, the process includes fitting your
dog with a microchip, having a current rabies vaccination, and a blood test
showing satisfactory protection against rabies, which must be done six months
in advance.  After the six months have passed, you may be issued a PETS
certificate from a government-authorized vet, which you must have in order to
enter the UK.  Then, before your pet can enter the country, they must be
treated against tick and tapeworms between 24 and 48 hours before you check in
with the transport company.  The vet must give you an official certificate to
show that this has been done.  You must also fill in a form to declare that
your pet has not been outside the PETS qualifying countries in the six months
before it enters the UK.  Also, each country has it’s own paperwork that you
must fill out before you depart, in Italy this is done no more than 48 hours
from departure.  We had completed most of the process, but had to wait two
days before we moved to finish the rest, which we did.

We also needed to figure out the best way to transport our dogs with the PET
scheme, which was quite limited.  We could either fly them out of Rome, which
was the only airport choice in Italy for PETS, with British Airways, the only
airline choice, or fly from Rome to Brussels and then Brussels to London
(using two separate carriers).  The direct route, which was only a two-hour
flight, was the best option for us and for the dogs.  We called a few British
Airways reservation agents in Italy and the head office in the UK, and no one
seemed to be familiar with the rules and regulations for flying out of Rome to
London with two dogs.  We tried again and finally reached an agent who said
that we must make reservations for our dogs with the British Airways Cargo
office in Milan before we could make reservations for ourselves.  We called
the cargo office in Milan and the agent said that there was only one flight a
day from Rome for pets to fly on the PET scheme and she would book that flight
for our two dogs.  After we reconfirmed our details with her, which included
kennel dimensions and the dogs’ height and weight, she gave us the flight
information we needed to book our own reservations.  We called a BA
reservation agent using the information we received from Cargo and she said
that the rules stated that we could not fly two dogs on the same flight and we
would have to fly separately on two different days, which was logistically not
possible for us.  After speaking with her, we called the BA headquarters in
London to make sure she was correct, and they concurred, which was strange
since cargo was able to book both of the dogs.  So, we decided to change our
plans and fly to Belgium instead.  A few days later, we received a phone call
from an agent at the BA Cargo office in Milan.  She said she was checking her
records and noticed we had not made our reservations yet and asked why.  We
explained the situation to her, and she said that what we had been told was
incorrect and that she would call a reservation agent directly to clear the
matter up and would have them call us back to book our tickets.  We waited
until we confirmed our reservations and had a faxed copy of our dogs’
confirmation on the flight before we cancelled our reservations to Belgium.  A
week before, we called and reconfirmed everything with BA Cargo in Rome and
double-checked all of our paperwork, etc.  Before we left our home for the
last time early that morning, we made sure we had everything with us: our
Italian vet certificate, the PETS certificate, the tapeworm and tick
certificate, the blood tests and rabies vaccination paperwork, well-marked
kennels, two dogs, suitcases, tickets…we were well prepared and had
everything.  We were not prepared, however, for the horrific events that took
place when we came in contact with British Airways personnel face to face.

We arrived at the airport four hours before the flight was scheduled to
depart.  We stopped at BA Cargo first with the dogs and they said to come back
after we checked in our luggage.  We drove over to the airport and waited
there for an hour, because it was too early to check in our luggage for the
flight.  After checking in, we exercised the dogs and then drove back over to
cargo.  It was extremely hot, so we kept the dogs in the car with the air
conditioner running to keep them comfortable.  My husband went in the office
with the paperwork and was told to bring the dogs and the kennels into the
office.  He mentioned that the dogs and kennels were fairly large and it might
be difficult to transport all of it up two flights of stairs.  The cargo agent
reluctantly followed my husband to the van and when he arrived he immediately
said that there would not be room in cargo for two large kennels.  We showed
him the fax that had the booking confirmation for both of the dogs and said
that we even called to reconfirm all of our details and everything had been
approved.  He started talking about how expensive it was to quarantine the
dogs and as he peered in the window said that the kennels did not look like
they would be large enough to keep the dogs in for six months.  We knew at
that point, there was something really wrong – we did not even have the
kennels assembled yet and he was talking about irrelevant information.  We
reassured the agent that the dogs were not going to be quarantined since they
were traveling under the PET Scheme.  After a lengthy discussion, he finally
agreed to at least look at the kennels assembled with the dogs inside.  In the
blazing heat, we assembled the kennels and put the dogs inside.  As soon as we
closed the kennel doors, the agent said that the dogs were too big for the
kennels and he would not put them on the flight.  We could not believe what we
were hearing.  We explained to the agent that we had flown the dogs before in
these kennels and we never had a problem.  There was ample room for them to
lie down, turn around and stand up in, so we couldn’t understand why he said
the kennels were too small.  He showed us a picture and said that our dogs
didn’t look like the diagram; therefore, he didn’t think he could let them
fly.  In disbelief, we asked if there was a manager that we could speak to and
if they could make the final decision.  He gruffly responded that the manager
was on vacation and he was in charge.  We then asked if someone else in his
office could at least take a look and give their opinion, because we didn’t
believe this young agent knew the rules.  He said that he would have a sales
agent come out and headed back to his office.  After waiting ten minutes in
the grueling heat and hot sun, we gave the dogs some water and put them back
in the air-conditioned car.  In the meantime, we called BA Customer Service
and the BA Cargo office in Milan, each person we spoke to said they could not
help us with this situation.  Twenty minutes later and only an hour before our
flight was scheduled to depart, the sales agent arrives.  We put the dogs back
in the kennels and he and his colleague started speaking in Italian.  After
several minutes of their discussion, we asked them to please make a decision,
so the dogs did not have to be in the kennels in the heat.  The sales agent
wasn’t sure, so we asked them to please telephone a manager to clarify the
rules and so they went back inside.  When my husband went inside to check
their progress, he found them chatting and drinking coffee – they had not
made any phone calls.  The agent picked up the phone and began speaking in
Italian, my husband heard him say that the dogs were four centimeters taller
than the kennels.  When my husband confronted him about it when he hung up the
phone, the agent ignored him and told him that if he wanted the dogs on the
flight, he needed to fill out some paperwork.  Relieved that they had made a
decision to allow the dogs to fly, my husband began filling out the form he
was given.  At 12:45 I decided to leave the dogs in the car with the a.c.
running and see what the status was – it did not look like we would make the
flight, because we still had to drive back to the airport and return the
rental car.  When I entered the office, I asked if the dogs were going to be
allowed on the flight, the agent said no.  I could not believe that this was
happening to us and I began to cry out of frustration.  I asked them to remove
our luggage from the plane, because we could not fly without the dogs.  My
husband was dumbfounded, why did they have him filling out forms if they
weren’t going to allow the dogs to fly.  The agent said to my husband, “if
she is going to cry she needs to do it outside of my office”, I heard his
rude remark and left.  My husband arrived outside shortly after me followed by
the agent.  The agent stopped my husband and asked him how much money he had
and that maybe something could be arranged for our dogs.  We were appalled and
disgusted and walked away without saying anything.  We were both in tears on
the way back to the airport – how could this have happened to us after
planning, reconfirming and double-checking so that there was no room for
error.  When we went back to get our luggage and see what we needed to do to
get a refund for the unusable tickets, not only was one suitcase missing, but
we were told that it was our fault that the dogs were not allowed to fly on
the plane and we would not get a refund.  What a nightmare!!!  We had to
figure out another way to get to the UK in the 48-hour time frame – we would
have to fly to Brussels, which we should have done in the first place.  We
checked with all of the airlines and no one could get us out on a flight to
Brussels that day with two dogs.  We then checked to see if we could fly into
Paris instead.  Air France said that it would not be a problem and booked the
dogs and us on the next flight.  When we were checking the dogs in with the
Air France cargo inspector, we told him what happened to us at British
Airways.  He said that there was plenty of room in the kennels for the dogs
and if the kennels were any larger it would be unsafe for them on the plane.
To make a long story short, everything went smoothly with Air France, but we
missed the 48-hour window to get into the UK.  Kudos to the concierges and
guest service agents at the Sheraton Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris for
allowing us to stay with our two dogs and helping us find a vet to do the
official certificate of treatment against ticks and tapeworms again.  We
eventually arrived in London four days later, minus a few thousand dollars and
exhausted – the entire fiasco started by one person and their ignorant
decision.  By the way, my suitcase with all of my clothes in it was delivered
eight days later.  I wrote a letter to British Airways and BA Cargo to tell
them about our experience and to request a refund.  No one from British
Airways ever responded or even apologized for what happened to us.  I called
British Airways Cargo and spoke to a manager there.  He said that we were
blowing things out of proportion and “we must have misunderstood” when the
agent was asking for a bribe.  I spoke to British Airways Customer Service and
they said that they had the letter and someone would call me back – I have
never heard from anyone. 

We never would have had the opportunity to live in England if we had to put
our dogs in a six-month quarantine, so we are pleased that the Pet Travel
Scheme is in place.  However, I hope that the Department for Environment, Food
& Rural Affairs in the UK, who heads PETS, will screen more carefully the
transporters that participate in this program and not allow them to join until
all of their employees know the rules and regulations.  No person or pet
should ever have to go through what we went through and hopefully it won’t
happen again.  But, now that more people will have the opportunity to use the
Pet Travel Scheme in the future, it is important for everyone to choose their
transport company carefully and to ensure that they have a back up plan if
something goes wrong.