Max our not very bright, but very enthusiastic cat made it to Hawaii.
Just to re-cap. We went from Syracuse, NY to Hawaii with our Cat. We prepared for about 8 months to do that. Max first needed to Micro-chipped, then have a rabies vaccine. Then have another rabies vaccine, then be tested to verify that vaccine was effective. We were doing the Hawaii Kona Direct Release program, so we needed to contact a specified vet, share our paper work. Pay her. Get pre-approved for Max to come. Pre-approved is nice, and I would prefer that over the Honolulu plan. Then on travel day he would be checked over for “bad stuff”, by the vet that met Max and our plane. and directly released to us in a matter of 10-15 mins. Max was done as soon as our baggage was done.
The whole thing was pretty easy. Lots of steps and there is a timeline you have to keep. Not too early and not too late. The vet was awesome. She really loves animals and treated Max very well and made sure he was ok after the flight. VERY COOL! She is in it for the animals not just the money.
We used united Cargo. They needed our Hawaii paperwork when we dropped Max off to be shipped. This all with originals. Very scary. We decided to break up the journey, and stop in Los Angeles. We checked Max’s big pet crate as luggage. Syracuse Airport was nice enough to let it go even though it was a bit big. Max rode in the cabin. He was a perfect gentlemen the whole time. We spent two days in LA, to make sure his crate arrived and was not lost. We could take not chances. We did some site seeing in LA and went to Universal Hollywood. It was a pretty good day.
Max then went via United Cargo, AKA PetSafe. The women that helped us at LAX was awesome. She also really did a thorough job. She took her time and really set the bar quite high. She really took care of us and made us feel comfortable leaving our cat with her. Kudos to United. I do not say that much.
On the trip back, we do the exact reverse of it. Other carriers allow pets leaving Hawaii in the cabin, but not United. So he has to go cargo back to LA. We will only spend overnight in LA. Max will ride with us in the cabin from LA to Syracuse. Max has shown he can hold it for 15 hours. He is quite a good trooper.