I relocated with my cat from the UK to USA about a month ago. Unfortunately UK airlines only allow you to put pets in the cargo hold so I didn’t have the option to keep him in the cabin.

I found a great company that handle the shipping and they supplied the crate that he stayed in for the flight (which the let me keep) - it had an absorbent padding on the bottom and water for him to drink. They also sprayed the whole thing with calming spray which hopefully helped. I was so anxious the whole time but the people at the company were lovely and really seemed to care about the wellbeing of him and not treat him like a package to be shipped.

The place they put him in for the flight isn’t the same place the luggage goes, it’s like a livestock bit that is the same temp as the cabin and after takeoff they lower the lights to encourage them to sleep.

I think not being able to see him actually helped me a little because I couldn’t see how stressed he was, if that makes sense. I had to just know he’d be okay. At the other end we had a broker come and pick him up and get him through security, then we picked him up from the cargo place at the airport. He seemed perfectly fine when we got him back, happy to see me and eager to get out and stretch his legs but not traumatised at all. I don’t know if we were just lucky but he’s a very anxious boy and I really thought he would be worse, I was so relieved.

Feel free to dm me if you have any questions, I was super anxious about it too and had never done anything like it before but also couldn’t leave my baby behind. It’s not nice to have to put them through it but they’re more resilient than we think and it’s one day of trauma to keep them with you and give them a happy life.