Want to travel by air with my pet dog 60 lbs. what airline is better to trvel with my pet dog?

Question

we are traveling from Phoneix Az. to Austin TX. with pet dog well behaved 60 pounds would like to find airline and the rules of traveling with my pet recomendations please

Answer 1

It varies by airline.  If it were me, I wouldn't do it.  It's rare that things go wrong, but they can:

1) The airplane likely has 2 cargo holds - 1 pressurized and 1 unpressurized.  If accidentally they put your dog in the wrong one, it can't breathe and will die.

2) You're in the South.  It's HOT.  Many airlines refuse to take dogs when the temperature is over a certain amount, and in AZ and TX it certainly will be.  Yeah, you can find an airline that doesn't have that rule, but if the others do, they must for a reason, right?

3) This is incredibly unlikely, but I read airliners.net every day and once there was a story (with link to newspaper's website, so it was credible) about a dog being crushed when other luggage in the hold fell onto his cage and smashed it.

4) Certain stub-nosed dogs like bulldogs just really don't fly well.  So some airlines will refuse just based on breed.

If you are changing planes somewhere in between, the airline staff almost certainly will not walk your dog for you.  But if you duct tape a bottle of water or some food to the outside of the cage, they will feed and water it.  Also put "my name is..." on his cage and they will likely talk to him and call him by name, which might ease his stress level.

Current thinking is that it is a very bad idea to sedate a dog before flying.  It used to be recommended but dosage can be tricky, especially since the body absorbs things at different rates depending on air pressure.

I want to move to Europe, and I've pretty much resigned myself to waiting to do so until my dogs die of old age.