As we were prepping for our move from the US to Scotland, there were a lot of pretty big logistics to figure out. Like: applying for my spouse visa, selling our townhome in Ohio, and figuring out how to ship things to the UK. But the largest and arguably most stressful part of the moving plans was choosing how to bring our pet cat abroad with us.

We've had our cat Weasley for nearly 12 years, and leaving him behind simply wasn't an option; he's part of our family, and I'd never dream of re-homing him unless it was medically necessary. In his case, though, even though he's an old man (16 years old around the time we were planning our move), he's a very healthy old man with no major medical issues.

So obviously he was going to make the move with us. But how?

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Taking a pet abroad: the basics

Taking an animal abroad can sometimes be a tricky task. Don't assume it's as easy as buying an airline-friendly carrier and booking your ticket.

Now obviously I can't speak to ALL cross-border travel with pets. If you want to travel or move abroad with your pet, you definitely need to do your homework in advance so you know exactly what is required in your specific case.

In *most* cases, you're going to need things like:

• Vet checks
• Specific paperwork (filled out at specific times)
• Proof of vaccination (often just for rabies, but sometimes other vaccines/treatments are needed, too, especially for dogs)
• Active microchip
• An airline-approved carrier/kennel

It's not always a straightforward or cheap process, so you definitely want to look in to all of these things as early as possible.

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Moving a pet to the UK

It's also important to know that taking a cat or dog with you to Great Britain (that would be England, Scotland, and Wales) comes with different entry rules than taking a pet to an EU country elsewhere in Europe.

Pets do not have to quarantine to enter the UK any longer when coming from a country like the US as long as they meet all entry requirements, which is great news! But there are different rules for entry (and different paperwork) from the rest of Europe, so it's really important you know exactly what you need to do before making any travel arrangements.

For taking cats to the UK from the US, they need to be microchipped with a Europe-compliant chip and be up-to-date with their rabies vaccinations. You also need to have an “official vet” (in the US, this is a USDA-accredited vet) fill out a Great Britain Pet Health Certificate and then send that certificate to get endorsed by the USDA within 10 days of your pet's arrival in the UK. (More info here.)

And speaking of that arrival into Great Britain… it's NOT currently possible to fly a pet in-cabin into the UK on a commercial flight. Full stop, you can't do it no matter what size pet you're bringing.

But what you CAN do is fly a pet in-cabin on a private pet charter into the UK.

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Why we opted for a pet charter

Like I mentioned above, it's not possible to fly a pet of any kind/size in-cabin from the US to the UK on a commercial flight. Some people are happy to put their pets in cargo for travel, but it's not something I felt comfortable doing with our 16-year-old cat who doesn't even like car rides.

We looked into our other non-cargo options, which include flying your pet in-cabin from the US to an EU country and then hiring a pet transport company to take you and the pet into the UK. (A common route is to fly from the US to Paris, and then hire a pet transport company to drive you through the Chunnel into the UK.)

But doing the US-EU-UK route would have added a lot of extra steps (and stress) to our whole process. We would have had 2 flights from the US to Paris where Weasley would have to be under a plane seat, a long drive to the UK with a border crossing, and then a long train ride (or another long drive) to Scotland. And we would have needed to get the USDA paperwork done for both the UK AND the EU before traveling.

So we decided to look into pet charter flights, which would allow us to fly directly to the UK without the extra paperwork or travel stops.

What is a pet charter flight?

Pet charter flights are a growing trend among pet owners, especially for those with larger dogs that often aren't accepted on regular commercial flights, even in cargo.

It started out with pet-owners coordinating flights amongst themselves, often through Facebook groups. They would find pet owners looking to fly a specific route, and then they would charter a private jet as a group that would accept all the animals and share the total cost.

But now there are actual pet-centric airlines that do this for you! They charter the planes and sell individual seats, with each seat coming with either 1 or 2 pet berths.

Airlines currently offering pet charter flights with international routes from the US include:

• Bark Air
• K9 Jets
• Vicuna Air

All of these airlines offer pay-by-the-seat tickets where the animals travel right in the cabin with you. Dogs don't have to be crated, and can even sit on your lap if you want! It's an expensive option, yes, but it's growing in popularity as a way to travel with pets in a much less-stressful way.

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Vicuna Air + why we chose them

After dong a lot of research about our different options, we ended up settling on flying Weasley with Vicuna Air. This is a slightly newer company in the pet charter world, but maybe that's what made them stand out. I had a phone call with the owner to ask questions about how their service worked, and love their ethos about pet travel — they really seem to go above and beyond.

Vicuna Air also is happy to take cats and other small animals on their flights, AND they offer two different ways for pets to travel: either “Furs Class” with their owner, or “Biscuit Class” on their own with one of Vicuna's in-flight concierges. As far as I know, this is the only pet charter company that offers this option.

Because of everything else we had going on, we decided to send Weasley in Biscuit Class with Vicuna Air. This meant I would drop Weasley off in New Jersey, and Elliot would pick him up at the other end in London.

How much does a pet charter flight cost?

Pricing depends on several factors, including the route, time of year, and ticket type — the same as any other flight. In general, though, a Vicuna Air flight in Furs Class (where the human flies with the pet) starts close to $10,000 per seat, while a Biscuit Class ticket (where the pet travels solo) starts around $5400 currently.

Full disclosure: Vicuna Air offered me a discount on Weasley's ticket in exchange for sharing about our experience online. But I was fully prepared to pay full price for his seat!

Considering we would have spent thousands doing a US-EU flight and then pet transport into the UK, sending Weasley on a charter honestly didn't seem *that* much more expensive, and at least his travel day would be over quicker.

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Vicuna Air review

Because I know there are people out there looking for a step-by-step review of this whole process before they spend thousands on a pet charter themselves, here's how it all went in our case.

The vet prep process

Before we even booked a pet flight, we met with Weasley's vet to go over the whole process of taking him abroad. In our case, we had some additional steps to take since Weasley is an old man and did not have a Europe-compliant microchip (an ISO-compliant, European-accepted microchip needs to have a 15-digit ID number). We had to get him a new microchip and a fresh rabies vaccine (because there are rules about the chip coming before the vaccine, so we just got him a booster just to be safe).

We then made an additional appointment exactly 10 days before Weasley was due to arrive in the UK to get his health certificate filled out and submitted to the USDA for endorsement by our vet, who is accredited and able to submit this paperwork. (If you need to check whether your vet is USDA-accredited, use the APHIS database.)

Some vets are able/willing to fill out the paperwork earlier and submit to the USDA around the 10-day mark (it only needs to be USDA-endorsed with 10 days of your pet's arrival), but in our case we had to do it all on the 10-day mark. Most vets can submit the paperwork electronically now, along with a pre-paid, self-addressed FedEx Overnight label for the USDA to send your signed form back to you.

The Vicuna booking process

Booking a flight with Vicuna Air is extremely simple. You can search for flight routes and options and book everything online — just keep in mind that they run flights based on demand, and many of them do sell out months in advance!

I was able to book Weasley's Biscuit Class seat fairly late in our planning process (we couldn't plan his travel until we had a place to live in Scotland set up, which took longer than expected), but this is mostly because I was in regular contact with Vicuna's owner, Jamie, and he assured me that he could fit a cat on most any flight with enough notice.

If you're booking a regular Furs Class ticket, though, definitely plan to book at least a few months in advance, if not sooner. Most of Vicuna's flights are confirmed and guaranteed to fly before they're even listed on the site.

Pre-travel documents and emails

After booking, we got some helpful emails from Vicuna about everything we'd need to do before Weasley's flight. There was a checklist online of everything I needed to submit pre-flight, including info about us and Weasley that Vicuna's team used to pre-fill the Great Britain Pet Health Certificate for us. I was then able to take the pre-filled form to our vet appointment, which was really useful.

I did have some questions along the way (especially since Weasley was flying on his own, with one of us dropping him off and the other picking him up). And every question I sent to Vicuna via email was answered usually in less than 12 hours.

Vicuna's problem-solving

The booking process and our vet's submission to the USDA went smoothly. The USDA even endorsed our paperwork early, and I had the signed forms back to me 2 whole days before our flight!

However, the morning that I got our USDA forms back, I also got a call from Vicuna. They do pre-clearance with UK Customs for all the pets flying with them to ensure that everyone will have a smooth entry into the country (I LOVE this, as it means there's zero stress about whether you messed something up).

In our case, *we* hadn't messed anything up, but the UK wanted us to change a name on one part of our USDA form. I of course started freaking out since I had less than 48 hours until I was supposed to fly Weasley to New York.

Emily from Vicuna was incredible, though. She explained how we could deal with this (basically our vet just needed to go back into his USDA system and make the update and sign off on it), but when she could tell over the phone that I was stressing about it, she offered to call our vet and sort it herself. And she did! Within an hour she called back and said I'd have the new copy of the forms emailed to me, and that Vicuna even covered the fee our vet charged for making the amendment.

This level of service and problem-solving is exactly what you should expect from a premium product like this — but that doesn't mean every company would do this for a customer.

The travel experience itself

We booked Weasley on an overnight flight from New Jersey to London with Vicuna Air. This meant I would fly him to New Jersey the same day as his overnight flight, and Elliot would meet Weasley in London the following morning and drive him back to Scotland. (Most of Vicuna's flights from the US to Europe fly during daylight hours, but every once in a while they'll have an overnight option.)

Weasley has (to our knowledge) never been on a plane before, and has certainly never traveled so far or long before! To say I was stressed would be an understatement — but everything worked out fine in the end!

Getting to New Jersey

Pre-travel, I talked to Weasley's vet about travel anxiety medication options, and we ended up going with Bonqat (a cat-specific pregabalin med) to give him for the travel day. I also bought him a brand new travel carrier with expandable sides (this one, in case you're curious) in hopes that his travel day would be as comfortable as possible*

*We tested the Bonqat at home before our trip to make sure Weasley reacted to it okay, and I also left his new carrier out for about a week — and hid the occasional treat in it — so hopefully it wouldn't be as scary.

I booked our flight to Newark on United Airlines, who make it easy to add a pet to any flight for $150.

On the day of the flight, we got to the Cleveland airport a few hours early to check in and get a tag for Weasley's carrier. I also asked for a private screening at TSA Pre-check so I wouldn't have to take Weasley out in the terminal, and the TSA officers were happy to oblige. The security process was seamless and didn't take long at all.

Once in the airport, we found a quiet corner and I popped out the “porch” of Weasley's carrier to let him stretch out while we waited to board. And once on board, I stowed Weasley at my feet and he didn't make a single peep the whole flight! (The Bonqat honestly worked so well! It calmed him down without zonking him out.)

When we arrived in Newark, I then called an Uber to take us to Teterboro, where the pet charter leaves from. (If you're flying Furs Class with Vicuna, though, they include chauffeur service to/from the airport.)

Pre-flight at Teterboro

We got to the correct spot at Teterboro and then had some time to wait again. Vicuna Air very smartly asks everyone with dogs to arrive at least an hour before their flight for last walks and some socializing so they can get an idea of which dogs do/don't get along. They base their seating arrangement on each dog's personality.

Since this wasn't important for us, we were able to take Weasley to a quiet room (in one of the pilot lounges) to let him out of his carrier for a bit. We offered him a litter box (we traveled with this travel litter box), some water, and a small amount of food and treats (including a treat laced with another dose of Bonqat). He ate a little bit and explored the room and honestly seemed quite chill!

When it was time to board the plane, they had Weasley board last. This is probably ideal for cats who are afraid of dogs, but luckily Weasley quite likes dogs and isn't bothered by them at all.

They allowed me to carry Weasley out to the plane myself, and they seated him towards the front of the aircraft. And while dogs don't need to be in carriers/crates on these flights, smaller pets do. They let me pop out Weasley's “porch” for his flight, though, and we set him up in a comfy spot.

And then I had to say goodbye!

They flew overnight (a quick 6 hours and 15 minutes on a Gulfstream GV) to London, but while I was asleep Vicuna owner Jamie sent me a couple messages and one video saying that Weasley was doing great and mostly sleeping.

And I woke up to the message that Elliot had successfully picked him up!

Arrival in London

Because Vicuna Air gets pre-clearance for all the pets on their flights, Elliot didn't have to wait long at all for them to bring Weasley to him straight off the plane. At London Stansted, they once again let Elliot and Weasley use a small room so the cat could take a carrier break before the onward journey to Scotland.

And then Elliot and Weasley spent the day driving home to Edinburgh, making a couple stops along the way for food, water, and litter box breaks.

Our cat is NOT a traveler, but he did surprisingly well on this whole journey, which took nearly 24 hours from start to finish.

Overall verdict

Now, is this an option for every pet owner? No. I'm well aware that we're very privileged to even be able to consider flying our cat on a private jet. But, in our case, it made the most sense for our cat and our timeline, and we could fit it into our moving budget. And in the end I'm so glad we decided to send him with Vicuna Air.

While we don't plan to make Weasley move anywhere ever again, I would not hesitate to use Vicuna Air again, or to recommend them to any other pet parents who would never dream of sending a family member in the cargo hold.

Check out Vicuna Air here

And for anyone curious, Weasley has settled into life in Scotland just fine. I do feel bad that we had to put him through the stress of moving, but I don't regret not splitting up our little family.

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What other questions do you have about moving a pet from the US to UK?