T’Way Air is a pet friendly airline in Asia operating from South Korea. On 27th March 2023 they began allowing pets to fly on international flights. This was not widely announced. Even now, the English version of the website still shows pets are not allowed on international flights. However, on the Korean version of the site, it gives the full set of rules for flying with a dog internationally on a T’Way flight. If you have your language set to Korean but put Google translate on, you will see all the rules and information which I will show below.
Requirements
In short;
- Only dogs and cats are allowed
- Can only fly in economy section
- Max weight including bag is 9kg
- Max height of container is 26cm (total size of 115cm is allowed)
- Must add pet at least 2 days before flying*
- A fee of up to 200,000 KWN will be charged each way
- Can take 1 pet stroller for free in checked baggage
- Pet must be kept fully inside the container at all times
- Only certain seats can be assigned
- No online check in is allowed
*When I called to check about adding to the booking, the staff informed me I could only be added to a flight which was 40 days in advance. I had planned to book one that was 39 days from the date I was booking, but because of this I changed dates to the next day. So it seems a bit of discrepancy in this area from what is mentioned on the website.
The biggest downside at the moment is that they don’t allow pets on transit flights. Nor do they allow in business. Which is a big shame as it could be the perfect route for us to go back to Bangkok. I also know many people from Singapore that wish to go to Japan. This could also be a great option. It doesn’t seem to make any sense as both Korean Air and Asiana both allow pets in transit. So it’s definitely just a T’Way rule. Hopefully they will change this in the future.
Adding to Booking
When I booked our flight you could only add a pet online for domestic routes. I had to call the call centre to add the pet. I’ve noticed since you can now do this online for international flights also. However, it only seems to work if you are on the Korean page with Korean language. However, you can simply turn on your translate function on Chrome.
There is a section to tick if you are travelling with your pet. Once you choose this it shows the number of available spaces for pets. You then enter the type of pet, the name and which passenger the pet will travel with. You can also choose to apply for a pet carrier as well. After that you need to agree to the pet transportation rules and then your pet will be added. Simple.
Once the pet is added to the booking it shows this cute symbol next to our name to show we are travelling with a pet!
Choosing Seats
When travelling with a pet, you are only allowed to sit in certain designated seats. This is to ensure that if there are other pets travelling on the same flight, there is sufficient distance between each one. The call centre lady told us we would have to sit at a window seat also and not in an extra leg room or emergency exit seat.
Once I had been added to the booking, we could then choose which seats we wanted. When mammy was highlighted, it really restricted which seats we could choose. Our first flight was on an A330 aircraft with a 2-4-2 layout. On this flight we could only choose an aisle seat in the middle 4 seats starting from row 18. From then on you could choose the opposite aisle seat with a 2 row gap in between. Ie if I chose 18C the next choice would be 21F then 24C etc. All the other seats were blocked out even though when we changed to daddy, pretty much all seats were available.
The return flight was a 737 which is set out in a 3-3 configuration. On this flight we could only choose a window seat from rows 3 onwards. Strangely, you could choose seat 3A or 3F so a pet could be sat on the same row but at either window. As with the other flight, you could then only choose seats with a 2 row gap in between ie window seats on rows 6, 9 etc.
Our Seats
We ended up changing our flights so both flights ended up on the 737 aircraft so I didn’t get to find out why the 737 had you at the aisle! On both occasions we chose seats 3A for me and 3C for daddy. We always choose a window and aisle seat when travelling in the hope that if it’s quiet we get the middle seat free as a bonus. We also like to sit near the front to get off quickly so we are happy to pay extra for the front seats. These cost us an extra 12,000 KWN (US$9) each for each flight.
Paying For Extra Seat
I asked if it was possible to pay for an extra seat but was told it wasn’t possible. However, I did see they offer a ‘side seating purchase‘ option. This allows you to pay for the seat next to you if there is availability on the flight. This is only available on the day of the flight, and you can do this at check in only. For our flight, this cost 18,000 KWN (US$13.50). So for the little outlay for a guaranteed space next to us we would always do this where we could. This means we can put my carrier under the seat in the middle so both humans get full leg room. Whilst we often just risk choosing seats A&C in the hope the middle one will be free, for peace of mind travelling with me, it just makes sense to pay the small amount for the guarantee.
Full Rules
It’s therefore quite self explanatory all of the rules and regulations.
My Trip
Let’s see how my first trip with T’Way went;
If you are interested in flying with your dog, check out all my other posts on this subject here. My blog covers many different airlines that we’ve flown with, and others we plan to in the future. If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments below.
This post was updated on 24th March 2024. However, airlines can change their policies at any time. Always check directly with the airline before booking your ticket for the current details.
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Woof woof, Wylie x
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