For christmas, we usually visit our family in the midwest in the US. We thought it would be a good chance for Mocha to visit everybody, and 2022 might be the last year she was certainly small enough to fly with us in the cabin. She was surprisingly calm in the cabin and wwith a lot of preparation, we didn’t have any issues. So this post shares what we needed to do to make sure she could fly without issues. We decided not to put her in the pet cargo because she’s small enough to fit in the cabin and we feel she’s too young.

How we prepared for flying with Mocha in the cabin

Before we flew

• Because she’s a small dog (15lb at the time she flew), we knew she still fit in her soft carrier.
• A soft carrier is required by our airlines to allow our dog to fly with us and be put under the seat in front of us. The particular dimension is found on the airline’s website. For us, it was Sun Country, and their requirement is here. The max dimension for the soft carrier is 16 inches x 10 inches x 8 inches. We got our soft carrier here.
• Our flight was direct. Sun Country only allowed pets within the 48 contiguous states and only on direct flights. This was stated on their requirement page (second bullet point above).
• Sun Country listed that pets are preferred to be put under middle seats because the space under those is larger. So we picked a middle seat for one of us when booking. No exit rows allowed.
• Right after we booked and paid for our flight, we called Sun Country to add Mocha as a pet to our tickets. We did this immediately because we needed to do this way before the day of our flights. There was also a 4 dog limit / flight and we wanted to make sure Mocha was 1 out of the max of 4 dogs on our flights. For the pet addition, we paid $75/leg. Since it was a round-trip itinerary, we paid $150. They gave us an extra overhead space because our under-the-seat allowance is all used up for the pet. We did this right after our flight so that if we couldn’t get in the 4 dog maximum, we were within the 24 hours window to be able to change our itinerary without being charged.
• A couple weeks before our trip, we trained her to be comfortable in the soft carrier. We did something similar to the crate game, but in the carrier. The idea is to build her tolerance being in it with treats, increasing the time if the game is successful. A week before the trip, we did a couple of 1-hour trips in our car where she was in the soft crate.
• We went to our regular vet to get a health exam and finally a health certificate. The health certificate (issued within the last 7 days) needed to be presented when we check in for our flight at the airport. We couldn’t check in online because of the pet addition to our itinerary. We did have to spend money on the health exam. They charged a normal health exam fee, and charged separately for the health certificate. They weren’t covered by the pet insurance. So if you’re planning to fly with your pet, definitely take this extra $ into account.
• Our vet prescribed us a small dose of Gabapentin for the potential anxiety. We also paid for this. They gave us enough for 3 applications: 1 for trial before the trip (to observe how she reacted to it), 1 for the outbound trip, and 1 for the inbound trip.
• We researched whether our departure airport and arrival airport have pet relief area. This is an area within the airport where we can bring our pet to relief herself before or after the flight. We found this by searching on the official websites of the airports. Luckily, both airports do have this area.

The day of the trip

• We brought her leash with us ready, to walk her and extend her legs whenever we thought we could.
• We tried the Gabapentin once by now. She responded well, and had no side effects. That was how we knew she would take it ok. So we applied it as prescribed by our vet.
• We put the liquid Gabapentin for our return flight, which needed to be chilled, next to a disposable water bottle that had been frozen overnight, wrapped in a couple of towels. We also brought our reusable water bottle, empty. Just before we reached the security checkpoint, we threw the disposable water bottle away. During the flight, we asked the flight attendant for ice cubes that can be put in our reusable water bottle to keep the gabapentin cold for the rest of the flight.
• We needed to check in 2 hours before the flight because our itinerary included a pet. We couldn’t check in online. We drove our car to the airport and parked at the long-term parking. We tried to buy more time for her to be off the soft carrier. We walked her one last time before our flight in the long-term parking area.
• Going through security checkpoint went like this: we removed her from the soft carrier, the soft carrier went through the x-ray, we carried her to go through the metal detector with us, then after we were cleared, we put her back to the soft carrier.
• We went to the pet relief area at the departure airport before the flight just in case.
• After the flight, we went to the pet relief area at the arrival airport just in case.

That’s it. It surprisingly went better than we thought. We planned for every single thing and we were glad that the flight with her went really smoothly. For what we did to prepare for very cold wintry condition, read this post.