When shipping pets, one thing to be mindful of

When shipping pets, one thing to be mindful of are the very specific requirements that can apply to travel crates and kennels. When we flew out of the UK with our cat, we arrived at Heathrow airport with our brand new shinny crate only to be told that they could not accept it because it did not have a "central locking mechanism" (the crate happened to lock in 2 places).

 

We were extremely lucky that day to be able to buy a crate from them directly, they had one available that day, which is apparently not always the case. Otherwise the cat would simply not have been allowed to fly. 

 

As lucky as we were, the crate still ended costing us a lot more than it would have had we bought it in advance. So be careful with these requirements and don't let this happen to you (and your cat)!