Pet Travel Agents: 4 Reasons Why You Should Hire One

When you’re moving abroad with pets you have two primary options. Firstly, you can attempt to transport your pets yourself. Alternatively you can hire a professional pet travel agent who will arrange the whole process for you.

The reality of the situation is that moving abroad is of course an expensive process. From paying for flights to all the paperwork needed to emigrate through to the costs of setting yourself back up in your chosen new home many expats look to save money in any way possible.

As a result, many people moving abroad attempt to arrange their own pet transportation. However in many cases this can turn out to be a false economy; indeed the small sum of money charged by most pet travel agents is well worth the saved trouble, heartache and uncertainty of trying to arrange the whole process yourself in order to save a small sum of money.

In this article we’re going to discuss four excellent reasons why you should consider hiring a pet travel agent to help transport your pets abroad rather than attempting to do so yourself.

Airline Policies

Pets moving abroad invariably travel on planes; it is much easier and quicker than transporting pets by boat. However every airline has their own unique policies regarding the transportation of pets. These might relate to items such as the type of approved crate that your pet must be housed in during transit and the paperwork that you must be able to show.

The reality is that ensuring you meet the requirements of any specific airline can be problematic. The very last thing that you want is to turn up at the airport on your day of travel, only to find that you have misunderstood something, or a policy has changed, and your dog can no longer get on the plane. What would you do in such a situation?

Paperwork

Unsurprisingly when moving pets abroad you’ll need all sorts of paperwork. The type of paperwork you’ll need – and how you actually get it – will depend on which country you’re planning to move to as well as the airline you plan to travel with.

In many cases it is necessary to plan months ahead in order to ensure that you have all the relevant paperwork available on the agreed day of travel, and without this few airlines will accept your pet. After all, the last thing they want is to have a pet declined at Customs, and then have to try to find some solution to the problem.

Hiring a professional pet travel agent means that you’re enlisting the help of someone who knows the paperwork requirements intimately. This individual will be able to provide you with any advice or guidance necessary, and will act on your behalf to ensure that all paperwork is correctly filed ready for your trip abroad.

Vaccinations & Health Checks

In order to receive all the relevant paperwork necessary it is frequently necessary to undergo a battery of vaccinations and tests. This is designed to control the spread of animal-borne diseases around the world, but creates something of a burden on the caring pet owner.

In some cases it is necessary to begin vaccinating months in advance of the planned travel date, in order to allow immunity to build up. There is simply no way to “cheat” the system or hurry things along, as all work must be certified and tested.

Hiring a pet travel expert means that they will be only too familiar with the paperwork requirements. Arranging such vaccinations and health checks will be second nature for your pet travel agent and they will no doubt have contracts in the industry that they trust to carry out such work.

Speed of Results

The final point worth making is that “time is money”. Without enough time and patience you almost certainly could do that the pet travel agent does; but just how much research will you have to do first? How many articles will you need to read, how many appointments will you need to book and how many phone calls will you need to make?

Even then, can you be absolutely certain that you have covered all the bases and your pet will successfully arrive at its destination as planned?

Hiring a pet travel expert takes away all this worry – and the wasted time. Surely when you’re moving abroad you have more than enough to worry about; why not put your pet safely into the hands of an expert so you can rest easy knowing that your dog or cat will arrive at your chosen destination exactly as planned – and without any headaches for you.