Pet charter flight from the west coast (Honolulu: transporting, broker)

[tjcj]

We are moving to Honolulu this summer and were wondering if we could find a charter flight for us and our dog from the west coast. Is anyone doing this or have done this in the past? Any help would be great.

[mdand3boys]

It has been done. (member jollydogs)
It is very expensive.
Your dog or cat won't know the difference.
Just put the animal on a commercial flight and save a whole of money.

[2shihtzus]

We are also looking for charter flight for us and our two shih-tzus to Honolulu from the L.A. area. Have you had any success in booking your flight?

[PacificFlights]

FYI on charter flights for transporting pets.

These flight occur often but most times they are rich people who are doing it for themself or with friends. To do it for yourself or as a group thing, there are some things you need to know.

There are no scheduled charter flights for animals. There is a scheduled cargo only flight where the dogs fly in the cabin, but you are not allowed on the flight.

Setting up a charter flight first requires you to wither find a reprutable charter broker or charter aircraft service that can work with your needs, scheduling, and with animals. Whatever quote you get, you want all inclusive to include charter, repositiong, ground fees, landing/departure fees, taxes, fuel, per diem if an overnight stay is required for the crew, and cleaning cost.

You will get an initial quote for a certain type of aircraft and certain seating. It will look like this, $46,500 (all inclusive) for a business jet with 10 seats. You will now figure out how many passenegers and pets (usually 1 passeneger and 1 pet equals 2 seats) you can handle. In this case it will be $9,300 per person and 1 pet. After getting the quote, you will do what it takes to fill the seats otherwise empty seats means high dollar per person.

If you find yourself getting lots of interest, you will speak with the broker and see what happens if you were to get another plane with a few more seats. If they quote $55,000 for 14 seats (7 passenegers and 7 pets), that now makes it about $7,500 per person. Once you have a good idea of how many real people will take the trip, you negotiate with the broker for the deatils. Stuff like using one airport where the plane is versus having it relocate to another airport can save you several thousand dollars. Taking the flight when they already have a retun trip from hawaii to the mainland will save you several thousand dollars. Even accepting cats in their crates means they only need one seat making room for more passengers reducing everyone's cost.

The main thing you have to do is get passenegers. It's your plane for the trip so you decide what and how it gets sliced up. But it's not cheap although if you have the right broker, work it right and get the deadleg of a Hawaii bound flight with the right mix of passenegers and pets, and everyone is flexible, the final cost won't be that much more than a typical premium service first class ticket.

[RockerDog]

tjcj & 2shihtzus,
Have either or you had any luck with this or decided on another way out for your pups? My husband is military & we are moving to Oahu in Sept. 2010. I've seen that the Dog Travel Company does charters for those moving to Hawaii, but they're still pretty costly unless you find others to share it with. Would love to get any advice you might have, thanks!