Flying with large dog and American Airlines to STT

Good for all of you!
Vickie called airport at STX and was told dog no go thru custom but ours are little and not shipped as cargo and released right away....
of course you never know what top believe ....

Stiphy~ the discrepancy in the cost of shipping her had nothing at all to do with customs and excise! It was all Delta. Apparently when you book your animal , and they require an overnight stay, that cost is not relayed to you in the bottom line! The price we were quoted was for her airfare only, hotel accommodations were extra!
It was the woman at Delta Cargo who allowed us to take the dog home since customs was closed for the day. FYI all, customs closes at 330 pm except for Friday when they close at 430. You DO have to clear customs with your pet!!!! We did not have to pay anything at all for the grumpy woman at exsise to stamp the document, and the folks at customs were awesome! We did return the papers, as promised, to Delta Cargo since I would feel awful if we didnt, and that made someone else's dog have to spend the night :X

One thing that was curious to me was the "zip tie" that you have to secure the crate with while at the Delta counter. My parents brought her for us and they used a black zip tie, Delta had white ones and had them available, if needed. My dad secured the crate, which includes the door with his black zip tie. According to Delta they have a kennel area for dogs in transit, which has runs for them to move around and go potty. Well, Allie arrived with the black zip tie in place and her crate floor wet, let alone the fact that she downed at least 4 HUGE bowls of water once home. So, did they let her out of the crate to move around and be fed? What exactly did I pay an extra $140 bucks for if they didnt feed, water and let her go potty????

All in all, she arrived intact and seemingly happy. Maybe, as pet owners, we obsess about things that MAY happen to our beloved animals????

Thanks for the update, I agree that I'd be pretty pissed at Delta for baiting and switching on you. Hopefully you can recover some of those funds.

Either way, from the sounds of some of the other threads going on here on getting large dogs over it sounds like you did ok in the end, seems like getting a large dog on island is just not cheap!

Sean

Glad the dog is ok!

Anytime you get involved with Custom's/Excise etc. it is going to cost more than you think and more than the stateside vendor tells you. Most stateside vendor's have no idea how Custom's work here. I think this is the reason why many stateside companies just decide that it isn't worth doing business down here and won't ship/sell to the VI (or let us participate in contests/download netflix etc.). This is what getting a VI Constitution in place should really be about, enabling more efficient commerce, setting all the other silliness aside.

So did you really go back to customs? Thumbs up to the lady in the excise office for using some commong sense and letting you take your dog home. On the upside the ladies over there have always been very helpful when I didn't understand the system. Expensive (unexpectedly my first few times) but helpful!

If you get it sorted and figure out the discrepancy in price let us know. I'm going to guess that Delta didn't know the custom's rates for things here (which is based on Danish code) and our excise tax system. In the end, if this is the case, I think I'd begrudgingly eat the extra and just be glad SOMEONE could get you're pup here safely!

"Delta didn't know the custom's rate for things here"?Here is a little bit of info for ya!
There is no Customs Duties and other Federal taxes including any Federal Excise tax on a Pet Dog or Cat entering the USVI. Delta is not a Vendor but An Air Cargo Shipper in this case. The only dutiable Animals are "Animals and Poultry brought into the USVI for the purpose of breeding, exhibition or competition for prizes". The USA and Denmark don't have a 100 Year agreement never did. The customer was advised that customs would close at 3.30PM the day of arrival. Bait and switch don't think so. This is by Lizard!

Sean

We are going to be having the same dilema.

We have found that Continental is acutally pet friendly (heat their cargo holds) and has the only airlines pet kennel in Houston! We are going to fly on Continental to San Juan, PR and then charter a flight from SJU to STT - cost about $800 - $1000.

Pet Propel has been very helpful! (340) 626-1703

We were very happy with Continental.

While this may not help for large dogs that are too big, the new AA flight leaves Miami at 6pm and arrives in STX at 9.30pm. This may help with the heat restrictions common in the noon flight! Unfortunately, I don't think they are flying it in the summer...

I believe that Continental flies into STX but NOT STT! That was the problem here on this island for large pups when I was trying to get her here.