Attention: Canadians and others wanting to travel with pets on Air Canada

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Air Canada has announced they will no longer carry pets on passenger flights - AT ALL. Please help with protests to Air Canada on this change in policy.

FYI, here's some background on our situation. My husband Bill and I spend the winters in PdC and have fostered homeless dogs in the last few years. You may remember hearing about Darcy, who ended up with DJ (of DJ's Bar). Sadly he had to give her up after his accident and has since left PdC. So we re-fostered her when we arrived for the winter of 2007.

We finally lost the battle to hold ourselves back from losing our hearts, so now we've happily adopted Darcy and another little guy called Odie.

Then what happens? As soon as we decide "yes we can manage dogs and the travel" Air Canada decides to stop carrying pets on passenger flights! Because of our long stay, AC has been our best (virtually only) choice of airline.

This year, I'd come back in late April. When Bill arrived later with the two dogs, he had the best possible experience with AC. Then we heard about AC's announcement that pets will be carried by cargo only and no longer on passenger flights at all as of mid-July.

The worst of it is Air Canada will still take pets on cargo flights - BUT they don't fly direct cargo to Cancun! Instead, they fly through US carriers with journeys taking 2-3 days and going through at least two US airports. So that won't work at all.

As soon as I heard about the announcement from AC, and after checking the cargo site, I immediately got in touch with AC Cargo and asked for an email addy to lodge my protest. This is the guy I wrote to:

claude.morin@aircanada.ca

Sidebar: after confusing himself totally on what AC Cargo does and does not do about cargo to Cancun , Mr. Morin finally said 1) I was right, they don't fly direct to Cancun; and 2) they will be reviewing all their routes in view of the change in policy. So there is SOME hope as to a change at least in the cargo routes, but that's far from perfect.

I know many people don't transport pets, but for those of you who do (or want to help), sending a email to AC would help a lot. Again, here's the addy:

claude.morin@aircanada.ca

It should say something along these lines:

• I am unhappy about the change to Air Canada's policy regarding air carriage of pets on passenger flights.
• Since travelling with pets is important to me/my friends/family, I hope Air Canada will review this policy change and reinstate passenger flight transport of pets.
• Further, since Air Canada does not supply direct Cargo service to Cancun, even that option is closed to us. Therefore, I hope at the very least Air Canada will begin to provide direct cargo service to Cancun.
• This said, direct cargo is a far cry from providing the safety and convenience of flying with our pets in close proximity and having them arrive at the same time. Therefore, I hope Air Canada will reconsider this entire matter, keeping the well-being of their passengers and their animals in mind.

I've seen the peeps on this board do great things in the past, so I hope you'll band behind us on this. Thank you very very much in advance!

[karona]

Thanks for reporting this. I have sent Claude an email. I may want to travel with my pets one day.

[pao2310]

I dont fly Air Canada but I have sent an email as well. That is just unacceptable - I hope other airlines dont try to start doing the same!!

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Karona and Pao - thanks for your help. Pao, your dogs are hilarious and cute! I'll post some pics of Darcy and Odie soon.

Just a note about the change - it is a domestic-only policy right now (i.e. only flights in Canada) but I know Air Canada has asked for and is awaiting approval from the gov't agency for international flights as well.

I've heard from Claude Morin that they are operating the cargo division as though the full scope of change is already in place. I'm pretty confident the approval will be forthcoming quickly - will report back when I hear.

Caroline