Booking your flight(s)

If you've microchipped your pet and had the blood tested and are at the 120 day waiting period stage, it's time to look at flights. One of our anxieties was the long journey because we were not coming from a major hub airport. There was going to be a stopover no matter what. With the layover, your pet could be confined to their crate for 10 hours or more, and airline personnel aren't allowed to open their crates or walk them. You are allowed to write feeding/watering instructions on the crate, but we weren't comfortable with the idea of having them drink water during the trip but not be allowed out to go to the bathroom. A possible alternative is to drive with your pet(s) to an airport with nonstop flights to Hawaii. For example, drive to San Francisco or LAX so they can fly nonstop to Hawaii in only 5-6 hours. Another option is to separate the trip into two parts, stay overnight in the hub city so you can claim your pet from baggage claim, spend time comforting them and assuring them that you will be at the other end of the next plane ride, and ensure an early nonstop flight the next day that arrives relatively early.

Side Note: Make sure you book your flight so it arrives in Hawaii while the quarantine office is open! Otherwise your pet will have to stay overnight at the airport quarantine station.

We decided we wanted to do the whole trip in one day. In my research, every airline told me we would not be able to see our pets during the layover. I believed that only way we could see them was if we booked separate flights on separate airlines, claimed them at baggage claim, then rechecked our bags and dogs for the next flight. This is the way we were going to go. So then I went about researching which airport would be the best place to have a layover with dogs. I checked the temperatures of each airport, because during certain months of the year the airlines have temperature restrictions.

Side Note: Check the average temperatures for the airports around the date you will be traveling at the times you will be there. Check the airline's restrictions for pet travel. With some airlines, if it is too warm or too cold (either at the departure airport or where you will be arriving) they will not allow your pet to be checked in or to board. The crates might spend a long time sitting on the tarmac on a baggage cart outside, especially if there is any kind of delay.

I found that Portland International has a "pet relief area" near baggage claim. We'd never flown through Portland before, but it seemed to have the best chances for acceptable travel temperature (could be too cold in Denver, too hot at LAX) so we went with Portland. I will post some pictures from the layover in Portland.

I should mention the "secret loophole" that I discovered at the end of the flight booking process that saved us a lot of money and enabled us to spend the layover walking our dogs. In my various interrogations of airline personnel during the flight booking process, they were always adamant that we could not see our pets before they were transferred from one plane to the other, no matter how long the layover might be. I researched the different airlines and their track record with transporting pets. They have reports available for fatality rates and incident reports (I know, I went a little overboard). We also had some drinks with a Northwest pilot on our previous trip here at Kaneohe Yacht Club and he explained their entire pet program. They have climate controlled areas for pets and a special "Priority Pet" program. The flights on Northwest would be expensive, over $1000 each, and we couldn't see the dogs between flights. But after we zeroed in on Portland as the layover city, I looked into Alaska Airlines as the first leg of the flight. It turned out that Alaska was just starting to fly to Hawaii. Alaska flies into Portland on their own plane, then continues to Honolulu on an Alaska flight "operated by Northwest." By booking through Alaska, we got the exact same flight from PDX-HNL (which is the most important flight) for over $800 less.

The best part, was when the reservation agent said, "I'm sorry, but you'll have to claim your pets at baggage claim during the layover and re-check them with Northwest." WOO HOO!!!! This is because they are two separate airlines and they didn't want to transfer the dogs directly between planes. So we were going to get the benefits of the Northwest Priority Pet Program while paying for Alaska Airlines discounted airfare, plus we could spend the layover with the dogs. The downside was we had to pay airline pet travel fees to the separate airlines, so their tickets cost more than ours, but not by much.

Side Note: Check the size of the plane you are taking into the hub airport (i.e., not the one that flies over the ocean to Hawaii, but the potentially smaller other plane). Many of the planes flying into Portland have a cargo door too narrow to fit a large crate or only enough cargo space for one or two crates. For example, the plane we took only had room for one extra large crate or two large crates. Make sure you call and reserve the space for your crates when you book the flight!

We had our tickets purchased, and space for the pets reserved on the flights. Time to prepare for the trip!