Has anyone here traveled with their pet in ANA’s Cargo hold? I am moving from Okinawa to an island in Portugal and have to fly ANA from Okinawa to Haneda and Haneda to Frankfurt with ANA Airlines. Their policy seems to be cargo only for traveling with pets. It’s around a 14-hour plane ride from Haneda to Frankfurt and I am worried for my cat. My cat is always super uncomfortable being in a kennel and going to the vet, I can only assume being in a dark cargo hold with a bunch of luggage for 14+ hours is going to traumatize him. I have also seen a ton of nightmare stories about pets travelling in the cargo hold in airlines in America, but I do not know any stories from Japan or EU countries. I love my cat so much, but It makes me regret getting a pet when I move around so often.
I am just looking for some past experiences, tips, or anything really.
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They definitely do get stressed, there’s no getting around that. Talk to your vet and see what medication is safe to help calm them for the trip, and try that medication before the trip if possible so they know they will be okay if they feel that way/you can monitor how they do. You can also work on crate training at home by giving treats/toys/other motivating things in there so he can associate it with good things and not just the vet/scary new situations. There’s some other good starting advice [on here](https://www.vetstreet.com/our-pet-experts/tips-to-help-your-cat-love-being-in-his-crate).
It reads as if you want to sit with your cat in the cargo hold…
The noise is more frightening than the dark, I think. They go under the plane but not with the luggage, they go in a separate hold that’s pressurized and heated to about 50F/10C and I believe they also leave the lights on dim if there’s animals. The pilot of an airliner gets a cargo manifest and any live cargo is mentioned right at the top, so they know to pressurize and heat that compartment. The places where fuck-ups happen is usually at loading and unloading: paperwork errors, being left in the sun, carrier door not locked securely before hand-off to the airline, etc. So if your paperwork is good, it’s not the height of summer, and you remembered to cable-tie the door of the carrier, it’ll be okay for a one-time trip.
If you must do cargo and can’t find an airline that will let you bring him in the cabin, is there any possible way for you to fly Lufthansa instead of ANA? They codeshare with ANA but they have one dedicated flight out of Haneda every afternoon. Frankfurt is Lufthansa’s hub and it has a special animal reception area because Lufthansa transports so many animals–they’re the preferred carrier of many zoos, and most recently they flew in all the horses in for the Tokyo Olympics. When my three birds came from the US they had to go JFK->FRA->HND because there was no nonstop and they couldn’t go through any regions with bird flu. They all came through okay, even the parakeet!
Can’t give you ANA tips as we did United to move our pets specifically because they allow cats in-cabin. But yes, you’re right — ANA is 100% cargo only for cats and dogs, even domestically.
What I can tell you is that animals are pretty resilient. Our dog went cargo and he was fine. Animals aren’t put with luggage; they’re in a separate cargo area that’s pressurized.
What worked for our cats was putting pee pads in their carriers. However, because they were in-cabin, I was able to change them during the flight. (Each cat peed once.) I would definitely recommend putting them in your cat’s carrier. Also, you can buy travel litter boxes at pet stores here — so I would get one for your cat to use between the domestic flight and the international flight.