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Travel on Southwest Airlines!

3K views 13 replies 8 participants last post by  MarinaGirl 
#1 ·
Hello Everyone!

I'm flying with my boy for the first time in Sept. From Tulsa to Las Vegas. Size wise he would fit much better in a Med size carrier but of course most exceed SW standards by 2 inches in height. I saw on another forum here some had stated they had flown southwest using Sherpa carriers with no problems but no one mentioned what size they used.

Mr. Schwump is 15lbs, about 11 inches high. I just want little or no hassle at the airport if possible as I will have my five year old son with me as well (and hubby thank goodness!!)

Any advice would be appreciate-especially actual experiences!
 
#3 ·
Just flew SW last week with two pups...we went to pick up the dog we were adopting.

Bama is 6 lbs. she has a Sherpa medium because it was on sale. I had no idea it didn't meet SW requirements when I got it, but because the top can squish down and she still has room it's not an issue. When I had to get a carrier for Bear, who is 12.5, I realized the small Sherpa was too small for him, and the medium was too big for SW.

So I went to SW's website and bought their official carrier. I think it goes up to 25 lbs. it costs around $50 I think.

It doesn't feel as firm and sturdy as the Sherpa, but it is adequately enough. And because its the airline's official carrier as long as your pet fits they can't give you any hassle.
 
#4 ·
One thing I would recommend is taking tags off the collar right before going thru security. Bear's tags set the metal detector off. (Btw you will get to walk thru the old school metal detector and your hands will most likely be swabbed).

For Bama I have a collar with her name and my # embroidered on it, the metal on the collar hasn't been an issue so far. At Christmas I got a cat collar that was all plastic buckles and used one of those waterproof adhesive ID tag thingies to use the airport (didn't have embroidered collar back then).
 
#5 ·
Hello Everyone!

I'm flying with my boy for the first time in Sept. From Tulsa to Las Vegas. Size wise he would fit much better in a Med size carrier but of course most exceed SW standards by 2 inches in height. I saw on another forum here some had stated they had flown southwest using Sherpa carriers with no problems but no one mentioned what size they used.

Mr. Schwump is 15lbs, about 11 inches high. I just want little or no hassle at the airport if possible as I will have my five year old son with me as well (and hubby thank goodness!!)

Any advice would be appreciate-especially actual experiences!
The medium Sherpa is 10.5" tall which fits quite well under the seat on American and United when we've flown with our 14.5 lb and 16.5 lb dogs. Can't vouch for Southwest though but I think others have done OK. You can use the search option and see what comes up for Southwest, or just wait for responses.
Monica, Dooley & Roxie
 
#6 ·
If you already have a medium Sherpa you could always try flying with that and buy the official SW carrier for just in case and stash it in another carryon. A hassle and not the cheapest route, of course. I can't remember if SW sells their carriers at check in or not.

It occurred to me that maybe when I got the med size for Bama they had different height limits. When I flew last week I had to switch planes both ways, and all four planes I flew on were newer models with small seatback-pockets. (The kind that don't really let you stash a bottle of water and a book easily). At Christmas I think at least one plane was older (bigger seatback pockets, no wifi).
 
#7 ·
I have never had anyone measure any of my carriers and I have used a few different ones..I would suggest using one that is flexible, do not use a hard one ,I guess they figure flexible ones will squish down to size so a few inches big doesn't matter.

Take a blanket incase you need to hide them in your lap! LOL

Listen to me, giving advice on breaking the rules...:pound: as if..

Kara
 
#10 ·
Technically you are supposed to use pet relief areas which I think are often on the other side of security. I will take a piddle pad into the bathroom and try and get Bama to use it (she uses them at home).

I have bellybands and diapers just in case. And I limit food and major water intake. I keep Puppy-Cal in my liquids bag, and she can lick a bit off my finger if need be. We had that stuff when she was a tiny puppy to help avoid hypoglycemic shock (think that's the term).
 
#12 ·
We just flew from Raleigh to seattle via Chicago. Our puppy did great. We took her to a quiet corner in the airport and let her run around and pee on the potty pad. On the 2 hr flight from Raleigh to Chicago she was fine. On the layover in Chicago I tried to get her to pee -I can't remember if she did or not. On the 4 hr flight to seattle she barked about 2 hrs in. So I carried her in her dog crate to the restroom, put the potty pad on the floor and she immediately went pee. Then back in the bag for another two hours.

She did amazingly well - didn't fuss - just a few peeps but then settled right down.

We spent the night in Raleigh before flying home. I got my daughter to sleep, then read for a little while with the pup on my lap. When I went to bed and put her in the crate, she fussed a little which was expected. What I didn't expect was for my daughter to wake up crying because the puppy was crying. So that first night we all slept in bed together :)

Luckily, the pup- Lizzie - has slept every night in her crate through the night without a peep. Now I just need to convince her to switch over to west coast time so we can stop getting up at 5 am :)

Stacey and Lizzie
Starborn's The Divine Miss Bennet
 
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