Try­ing to get your dog cross-country in a plane comes with many com­pli­ca­tions. Some air­lines don’t accept dogs as pas­sen­gers, some will only let them ride in the cargo hold area. For French Bull­dogs, and other short-snouted breeds, add to that a (wise) tem­per­a­ture restric­tion for any cargo flights. They vary per air­line, but once the ambi­ent tem­per­a­tures rise, no flights out or in until the weather cools off. (And per­son­ally, we can’t get too excited about fly­ing a Frenchie in the cargo hold, no mat­ter the temperature.)

Next month, there will be a new air­line ser­vice who ONLY cater to pet pas­sen­gers (or “pawsen­gers” as they call them.) The new com­pany is PetAir­ways. They promise all pets fly in-cabin and never in cargo, accom­pa­nied by a Pet Atten­dant. They also offer an online track­ing ser­vice so you can see exactly where your pet is dur­ing his/her jour­ney. To see which air­ports they fly to/from click here.

Also com­ing online for pet pas­sen­gers is South­west Air­lines. Their first date to accept pets begins this week: June 17, 2009. Click here to see their pet policy.

If any­one uses PetAir­ways or South­west to fly a pet, let us know how it goes. We’d be curi­ous what you think of them.

Happy and Safe Trav­els to you and your pet!

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