£715 to fly cat home. Justifiable?

russellsnr

Hi, We are going to fly from Rhodes GREECE to Glagow in July (we hope) the cost for us 2x adults  incl 2 x 20KG cases under £500 to take the cat in the correct container on the same plane £715 + extra charge on arrival at Glasgow as the only plane to Glasgow arrives after 0100hrs and even with all the correct paper work someone else has to check the cat.

Cannot see a justifiable reason for this OTT charge for just the transport of a cat!!!

The wife does say TUI are rip off merchants.

Murphy_The_Cat

Either a) pay the money, b) find another way to get the cat to the UK, at a price that you're happy with, c) leave the cat behind.

TUI are offering a service and charging £715 + extra charges for their service.  You're under no compulsion to take them up on their offer.

[Deleted User]

They're purrfectly entitled to charge that amount.

bagand96

TUI don't have to justify the cost for the service anymore than Tesco have to justify the cost of the baguette I purchased from them.  As Murphy says it's a price for a service, if you don't like the price you're welcome to find an alternative.

The thing is the airline industry is set up for transporting humans (or SLF - Self Loading Freight) which is why passenger travel is comparatively cheap - there is an economy of scale.  Transporting live cargo of the non-human kind is less routine, and involves a fair bit of admin on the airline's part, it doesn't happen all that often, so it comes at a cost.

It will be a hideous experience for the poor animal.

couriervanman

As others have said......if not happy try and find it cheaper elsewhere 

unforeseen

Aegean Airlines can do it for £170. Most other airlines charge between £60 & £180. No idea where TUI get £715 from.
TUI fly the Germany bit of TUI only charge €71.4. Has TUI misplaced a decimal point

bradders1983

Either its a mistake, or its a price they quote in an attempt to put people off because they dont particularly like doing it.

Neil49

Could anyone in Rhodes take the cat to the airport to catch a separate cheaper flight which you could meet at Glasgow? Or, to put it another way, does it have to travel on the same flight as you? 

bagand96

There are no UK airlines that permit pets in the cabin (other than service animals).  It's more common in Europe, hence why TUI in Germany and Netherlands permit it and it's cheap. I've no idea why this is, but do wonder if it's because of historic reasons, perhaps CAA regulations did not permit it, and even though European EASA regs clearly do, maybe the airlines here haven't adapted? Or maybe it's just because travelling across the mainland of the continent with pets has always been more common.

Might be worth looking at https://www.petairuk.com/ who are the specialists.  They may be able to help find a better way if it's not imperative the cat travels on the same flight as you.

unforeseen

bagand96 said:

There are no UK airlines that permit pets in the cabin (other than service animals).  It's more common in Europe, hence why TUI in Germany and Netherlands permit it and it's cheap. I've no idea why this is, but do wonder if it's because of historic reasons, perhaps CAA regulations did not permit it, and even though European EASA regs clearly do, maybe the airlines here haven't adapted? Or maybe it's just because travelling across the mainland of the continent with pets has always been more common.

Might be worth looking at https://www.petairuk.com/ who are the specialists.  They may be able to help find a better way if it's not imperative the cat travels on the same flight as you.

€40 for cabin, €60 for hold
https://www.tuifly.com/en/service/tiere.html

Murphy_The_Cat

unforeseen said:

€40 for cabin, €60 for hold
https://www.tuifly.com/en/service/tiere.html

from the booking your animals on the flight section.

It is important to know that TUI fly does not transport unaccompanied animals, pregnant animals or animals less than 12 weeks old. In addition, due to strict legal regulations, animals cannot be transported from or to Great Britain, Ireland or Sweden.