Recent direct release of pets at the airport? Please share your experience. (Honolulu: houses, buy)

[nwcountrygal]

Nope still can't rep you!! Ya I did think about it... even though I already am out a month I didn't plan on. I was able to book a flight with Hawaiian for under total $450.00 for me by Dec 14th...of course it is even cheaper before the 12th but the pup paperwork no good before. Any later I would say foget it until Jan 3rd the prices dramatically decrease. And my flight price is round trip for middle of April.

Sounds like a good plan for you Koa much easier for your wife to pick up and then you can get a direct flight if you want to Kona - it is so much easier to drive over the island and take in the beauty of landing than dealing with Honolulu and flight over. Just my opinion makes it an hour longer than I appreciate to fly. Just my opinion though!! Wait though in looking it is more expensive to fly dog over by itself unless you go through Pacific correct? Or am I wrong - really didn't look into that option.

I also am going to ship USPS my main part of clothes over for the trip ahead of time opposed to flying with computer, electronics, etc and bags. Just deal with the dog and computer until I land. FYI it is also pretty cheap to fly either direction on New Years. My aunt has been telling me for years and I said NO WAY it is your imagination but the last couple of flights I did it turned out true. Wait to book a flight after Midnight on a Tuesday - really the prices drop for us not the dogs. Good luck all.

As far as $40 a bag? Again I am only looking now at carry on and dog but I believe Hawaiian is only $15or $25 for first and increases not much for others. Will look into it when I put friend on plane in two weeks with 4 boxes of fish from Alaska. Sending fish is the only thing almost as expensive as flying a dog!!!

Pacific Flight thanks for the info again.

[kmcd23]

I brought my 2 lab mixes over in May. I chose to drive them to Newark, NJ, so they could have the direct flight on Continental, with no worries about layovers.

The staff at the Continental Counter in the Animal Office were amazingly helpful, and so were the people who answer their animal hotline. I had so many questions in the months leading up to the flight that one of them started to recognize me when I called! And he was really cool about it.

The biggest thing for me was to check every single one of those links on the main page for the Dept. of Ag. Each link, even if I didn't think it applied, ended up having valuable information.

I made copies upon copies upon copies. I kept a copy of everything with me, sent a copy of everthing with them, and mailed a copy in advance to my husband who was there ahead of me. All in addition to what I sent to the Agriculture Dept.

One dog had to go in a Giant SkyKennel, and I found that it was worth every penny. The other went in an extra large. I used the DryFur.com kennel kits - their bowls are leaps and bounds better then what you get with the crates, and Continental put ice chips in them for me. I also felt safer with large dogs having the full metal nuts and bolts, instead of the plastic pieces.

I also made a calendar in advance with everything that needed to be done and when, so I could keep on schedule.

Transportation was hard on arrival. You can't take them out of their crates until you leave airport property. My husband rented a big van and took the seats out ahead of time. There is also a service that will pick you up in a van, but if you need the seats out, you need to call ahead. The office at the airport has that info. It's taped to the door.

Oh, and for peace of mind, I called before they flew to make sure that everything was in order.

All in all, it was stressful and expensive, but worth every penny to not have them spend a single minute in quarantine!

Good luck!

[tortoise31]

Originally Posted by kmcd23

I brought my 2 lab mixes over in May. I chose to drive them to Newark, NJ, so they could have the direct flight on Continental, with no worries about layovers.

The staff at the Continental Counter in the Animal Office were amazingly helpful, and so were the people who answer their animal hotline. I had so many questions in the months leading up to the flight that one of them started to recognize me when I called! And he was really cool about it.

The biggest thing for me was to check every single one of those links on the main page for the Dept. of Ag. Each link, even if I didn't think it applied, ended up having valuable information.

I made copies upon copies upon copies. I kept a copy of everything with me, sent a copy of everthing with them, and mailed a copy in advance to my husband who was there ahead of me. All in addition to what I sent to the Agriculture Dept.

One dog had to go in a Giant SkyKennel, and I found that it was worth every penny. The other went in an extra large. I used the DryFur.com kennel kits - their bowls are leaps and bounds better then what you get with the crates, and Continental put ice chips in them for me. I also felt safer with large dogs having the full metal nuts and bolts, instead of the plastic pieces.

I also made a calendar in advance with everything that needed to be done and when, so I could keep on schedule.

Transportation was hard on arrival. You can't take them out of their crates until you leave airport property. My husband rented a big van and took the seats out ahead of time. There is also a service that will pick you up in a van, but if you need the seats out, you need to call ahead. The office at the airport has that info. It's taped to the door.

Oh, and for peace of mind, I called before they flew to make sure that everything was in order.

All in all, it was stressful and expensive, but worth every penny to not have them spend a single minute in quarantine!

Good luck!

Question: Were you able to get them through quarantine the same day as arrival? My concern is timeframe, ie how much time after that flight lands do you have and can you get them through quarantine the same day. I don't want them to have to stay overnight until quarantine opens in the morning if that flight gets in too late in the afternoon.
Thank very much for your post. It looks like you had no problems with that 767 out of Newark. That is the flight I am looking at taking with the dogs as well; my other option is a layover in LA to get them on a Pacific Cargo flight to Honolulu in the middle of the night.

[KoaKine]

Originally Posted by tortoise31

Question: Were you able to get them through quarantine the same day as arrival? My concern is timeframe, ie how much time after that flight lands do you have and can you get them through quarantine the same day. I don't want them to have to stay overnight until quarantine opens in the morning if that flight gets in too late in the afternoon.
Thank very much for your post. It looks like you had no problems with that 767 out of Newark. That is the flight I am looking at taking with the dogs as well; my other option is a layover in LA to get them on a Pacific Cargo flight to Honolulu in the middle of the night.

I have looked into this flight 1 a day they land in HNL to late to clear that day. its a 1 night stay in the AG kennel for the pups. If he time of this flight changes I'm the first booking . lol

Well off to work..

[PacificFlights]

You know, if the plane lands too late to pickup your pet, that may not be a bad thing. You arrive, pickup your luggage, spend a night at a hotel, go back to airport, check-in your luggage for the next leg of the flight, grab a cart, go to Quarantine, pick up the pet, go to airline checkin with only the pet.

Most of the problems with pets are the owners cutting things too close, or trying to shave a few dollars off a price without realizing the problems it creates. Don't build in problems, build out the problems. Give yourself time just in case something goes wrong. If you kand a 3 pm and your next flight is 4 pm, big problem if you have a departure delay at the starting point! But if you land at 6 pm and your next flight isn't until 1pm the next day, a departure delay at your starting point of 3 hours won't mess up your HI plans.

[nwcountrygal]

If I had to use the extra size crates and fly to a hub in the west coast with the information I found I would go with the Pacific Cargo myself. It just isn't in my interest to fly from Seattle to LA and then over. Good luck!!

[kmcd23]

Originally Posted by tortoise31

Question: Were you able to get them through quarantine the same day as arrival? My concern is timeframe, ie how much time after that flight lands do you have and can you get them through quarantine the same day. I don't want them to have to stay overnight until quarantine opens in the morning if that flight gets in too late in the afternoon.
Thank very much for your post. It looks like you had no problems with that 767 out of Newark. That is the flight I am looking at taking with the dogs as well; my other option is a layover in LA to get them on a Pacific Cargo flight to Honolulu in the middle of the night.

We were able to get them same day. As the next poster said, it's only a once a day flight, but we had no problems getting them before quarantine closed. It helped that my husband was already on island, but it was just a matter of going to the office with a big enough vehicle, signing for them, and waiting for them to be brought up front. He did it with plenty of time to spare!


If I were arriving on the same flight as the dogs, I would go straight to get the dogs, and come back for luggage after, or split up if there is more than one of you arriving.

They really did do great on that flight. They weren't even phased by it at all, and one of my dogs doesn't travel well.

At the Continental Office for animals at Newark, they even have an attendant from a privately owned kennel who they pay to work there and care for the animals. They let me take them out of their crates, and play with them up until the very last minute, gave them ice and dried liver treats, and generally made the dogs feel comfortable.

And they didn't have any accidents at all during the trip!

[tortoise31]

Originally Posted by kmcd23

We were able to get them same day. As the next poster said, it's only a once a day flight, but we had no problems getting them before quarantine closed. It helped that my husband was already on island, but it was just a matter of going to the office with a big enough vehicle, signing for them, and waiting for them to be brought up front. He did it with plenty of time to spare!


If I were arriving on the same flight as the dogs, I would go straight to get the dogs, and come back for luggage after, or split up if there is more than one of you arriving.

They really did do great on that flight. They weren't even phased by it at all, and one of my dogs doesn't travel well.

At the Continental Office for animals at Newark, they even have an attendant from a privately owned kennel who they pay to work there and care for the animals. They let me take them out of their crates, and play with them up until the very last minute, gave them ice and dried liver treats, and generally made the dogs feel comfortable.

And they didn't have any accidents at all during the trip!

Terrific news and thanks for the reply. I am leaning towards that flight more than ever. I am on Kauai right now, and after changing planes twice, I am thinking multiple flights will never work with the dogs. I know that Continental flight, I used to fly it many times over to Hawaii, it was my preferred flight when I used to come over once or twice a year.
Mahalo!!!

[hermandie]

Our recent experience was 11/1 from Lax > HNL > OGG. My flight landed in HNL at 12 pm, went directly to animal quarantine and 30 minutes later we were checking in out 2 chihuahuas again for our connection to Kahului. During the preparation of the requirements and documents I was extremely stressed out and called the quarantine department frequently with questions. They were very helpful and we did not have any problems at all. It just so happens that the direct release was the easiest part of our move here.

[nwcountrygal]

Good luck everyone!! I am going to go to airport next Monday to check everything out. Us that dogs on the cups for weight! That is my most important question..other than my dog can be a ass in back of truck so don't know what they will think of him in a crate. Nice dog just spoiled I give that. I can't go to the bathroom witout him trying to barge in he is used to me 34/7. Should be fine.

I never got a copy of the test results for rabies due to I did it in Alaska do you have to send a copy of htat with the cashiers check and rabies originallys? I will call tomarrow. Hope not other than have the Kansas web site. Thanks for patcients everyone who is reading! It will be all good!