I recently flew as a dog in cabin as I qualified as an emotional support animal (ESA). Singapore Airlines currently allow emotional support animals and service animals to fly in cabin with their human. Lots of people have written to me since to ask how it was possible and how they could get their dog in cabin too. You can check out my other blog post on how I qualified as an ESA.
Most people given the chance would love to take their dog in cabin with them. But should it be available to all dogs? Having now had the chance to experience it, my humans would say the answer to that question is probably no. Whilst I had a ball and I was super well behaved, this isn’t the case for all dogs.
Benefits
Most of the time if flying with your dog, they need to go in the hold. This means that you are separated from each other and after check in you aren’t able to check on them to see how they are doing. Travelling for anyone is a stressful experience. So coupled with not being able to chek on your furry friends adds to that stress. You also don’t know how your dog is going to react. Couped up in a crate for hours on end it’s hard to part from each other. Some dogs just can’t cope being in a crate for that long and get super stressed and this can cause issues. Some dogs have been reported to have suffered heart attacks from such distress.
I’ve travelled in the hold twice now, both on short flights of 1 – 1.5 hours. My pawrents put a GoPro in the crate so they could see how I reacted. I’m not sure if this is actually allowed but we didn’t get stopped. I was actually super calm the whole time and just sat happily watching what was going on around me. I was handled extremely well and the staff checked on me often. You can see one of my videos of my flight on my Youtube.
Travelling in the cabin gives your humans the peace of mind. Knowing where you are, that you are safe. This is the biggest advantage of flying as a dog in cabin.
However, just because you are together, doesn’t mean that travelling in cabin is going to remove the stress of flying altogether.
Limited space
Unless you are flying as an ESA, you will be required to stay in your carrier at all times. Not all dogs can handle this and will still be stressful for the dog. In most cases, you will be required to remain in your carrier under the seat in front of your human. This means you won’t have much space and on long flights can easily become restless. Carriers for in cabin dogs give a lot less space than those for the hold.
Even when flying as an ESA and being allowed out of the carrier, space will still be incredibly limited. You are not allowed to walk around the cabin and are limited to your seat. So you are resigned to either being under the seat in your carrier or on your humans lap. This isn’t always the most comfortable, especially for long journey’s.
I was fortunate to travel as an ESA. Thankfully, I was allowed out of my carrier to sit on my humans lap. I also flew in the business class cabin on Singapore Airlines. Singapore Airlines are known for having the widest seats in their business class cabin. So actually I had quite a lot of room. I was even able to lie down next to my humans so I did have plenty of space.
Going to the Toilet
There’s also the very important consideration of going to the toilet. At the very least you will need to have pee pads and depending on your dog you may also need to have dog nappies. Especially on longer flights. It’s not only the flight you need to consider but the additional time from check in. Even after you have disembarked you will need to go through immigration, baggage collection. Also the time it takes in the quarantine/customs section to check all the doggo paperwork. This in itself can be a couple of hours depending on your arrival airport.
The airlines require you to sign a form if travelling in cabin if the flight is over 8 hours. This attests that your dog won’t use the toilet on the plane during the flight time. If they aren’t able to hold it for that long then you must put on a dog nappy. If the dog does have an accident you will be fully liable to pay all costs for cleaning, which I can’t imagine being cheap.
How I Coped
My total flight time was 18 hours and 45 minutes with transit in Singapore. We checked in 3 hours before departure and took about an hour to get through security and the checks at Amsterdam. In total it was 23 hours that I couldn’t go to the toilet.
The transit was very strict in Singapore and even the humans were restricted as to where they could go. The only place available was the toilets and they were very busy. It wouldn’t have really been possible to take me here. There were no pet relief areas at all. So it was a case of hold it or use a dog nappy.
Thankfully I have been trained really well. I will never do my business indoors unless I am really sick. Even though I now have a garden I will still only do my business when on a proper walk. So I managed to go the whole 23 hours with no wee or poop. My pawrents did come prepared with multiple pee pads, dog nappies, doggy wipes and deoderiser just in case. But we didn’t need to use them at all (other than to put down as per the airline requirements).
Food & Drink
My pawrents had some packs of small treats as didn’t want to give me a lot of food during the flight which would increase the chance of needing the toilet. For water they allowed me very small amounts at intervals throughout. However, I pretty much slept the whole journey so I wasn’t bothered about the lack of food and drinks. I do love any opportunity for a snooze!
I think I am a bit of a rare case though. Whilst my pawrents were confident I’d be OK they were still a bit worried. Especially after signing a form to say they’d be responsible for any cleaning if there was an accident. If you know your dog needs to pee or poop regularly, having them in the cabin with you is a big risk if there is an accident.
Barking/Causing a nuisance
Other passengers have to be taken into account when having a dog in cabin. Whilst there are plenty of noisy babies, children and often adults, dogs in cabin aren’t common. So if a dog were to make a noise or a nuisance it can cause a big problem with other passengers.
Again, as much as you think your dog will be OK and well behaved, you never know how it will react to being in a strange situation. If cooped up and in an unknown situation there’s every chance it will become stressed. This may lead to it barking and causing disturbance to others.
Again, my pawrents were super happy with how I behaved. I did 3 small barks throughout the whole journey. As in 3 woofs, not 3 different barking episodes. Thankfully, most people were asleep so probably thought they were dreaming if they heard me! My pawrents were super embarrassed though and instantly stopped me.
The cabin crew commented on how well behaved I was. I pretty much slept the whole way on both flights. Some passengers commented that they didn’t even know I had been on the flight.
This of course would not be the case for all dogs. There’s nothing worse than being on a flight with a screaming child. A barking dog would be right up there.
Allergies
Readong comments online, a number of people who have dog allergies complain about dogs flying in cabin. I ttoally get this, but many people have different allergies. Usually if there is a dog on board and someone has allergies, the cabin crew will move seating to ensure that you are as far away as possible from each other. In extreme cases I’ve heard of the person with allergies being offloaded as they can’t risk a medical emergency on board. In my instance the flight as pretty much empty so there was noone anywhere near us.
Doggy Section
I would love to see airlines in the future have certain cabins available for those with dogs. Or even perhaps a section of the plane where your dog can go in their carrier that you can visit them during the flight. That would be awesome and I’m sure plenty of people would pay good money for that.
The biggest issue with putting a dog in the hold is that owners aren’t able to visit their dog so can’t know how they are coping. By being able to go visit the dog during the flight would relax owners to know they are fine or be able to calm them down if they were nervous.
Having a dedicated area that dogs could go would be an amazing option. There are so many dog owners that love travelling and would love to travel with their dog. This would open up the door to so much opportunities in my opinion. I can’t really see it happening in the future, but maybe there’s some airline executive reading this that may think outside the box one day!
Conclusion
Whilst I loved travelling in cabin, I personally don’t think it should be possible for all dogs. I think the airlines like Lufthansa, Swiss and KLM have it right that there should be weight and size restrictions. These airlines have a restriction of 8kg and this is probably right for economy. In my bag, I would have struggled in that space and I am 8kg excluding bag. There should be additional allowance if travelling in business class as there is a lot more space. I’d say 10-12kg would be fair for business class.
Owners know their dogs better than anyone. They know whether they are barkers or how they control their bladders. Owners should be able to make a call as to whether they will be able to do well on a plane. Of course, until you’ve done it, you’ll never know for sure. But you can generally know how your dog acts in general so can get a good idea. It’s unfair to bring your dog in the cabin if you know it would be a nuisance just to avoid the hold. In some cases, particularly for big dogs, in my opinion the hold is definitely a better option.
I recently saw a video on Youtube of a husky in cabin in the economy cabin of a plane as an ESA. He was sat on the floor in the middle seat and was pretty squished. He was howling a lot which the pawrents commented on how cute it was he was talking. Honestly, this looked like torture. It also didn’t look comfortable for the dog at all. To me, this was an example of the owners only thinking of themselves and not really considering the well being of the dog.
Let me know what you think
Let me know if you think dogs travelling in cabin is a good idea. Or if you would you be interested to travel if airlines had a special pet area on board. Or have you managed to fly in cabin too? Let me know your experience in the comments.
Until next time, woof woof, Wylie x
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