Shipping 100 lb dog to St Croix

Not sure where you're flying from but from here in Charlotte, US Airways has direct flights to STX. I haven't asked them about shipping dogs though...but we'll be doing the same shortly!

Amanda

Hi Beth and Amanda -

I shipped my dog to St. Croix with Delta. If the best you can do is get your dog to St. Thomas, you can then fly him over to St. Croix via either Cape Air or Seaborne Seaplane. Cape Air will charge you about $10 and Seaborne will charge you around $50, but on the sea plane, you can only fly stand-by with a dog. They planes are small and generally packed, so you would have the best luck flying non-peak times.

The Fast Ferry between St. Croix and St. Thomas does allow dogs in crates, but they only run Mid-December -May 2 They just stopped running for the season.

Also, check with the airlines on their websites about bringing dogs. Many won't let you bring them in the baggage hold during the summer months. This website (The Moving Center) has a good section on getting pets down here.

A word of advice once you get here with your pet...use a flea & tick medication like frontline and make sure to use heartworm medicine year round. The ticks are out of control on St. Croix and they have a species that is deadly (I believe it's called a bunt tick.) I used to use Frontline and then after 2 weeks do a flea and tick bath at the vet.

Good luck to both of you and enjoy St. Croix.

Thanks for the good advice. Our biggest problem is that our dog is too heavy to go as "checked luggage", since the combined crate/dog weight must be less than a hundred pounds. She won't be able to fly with us, and will have to go cargo. We are still investigating other alternatives. We aren't moving until May, 2006, so we have some time, but I want to be completely organized when we move.

Ok I know this is going to sound sketchy. BUT..... I know what you are talking about. my dog was about 5lbs over the limit for pet travel which they charge you $100, but since he was over it was going as cargo for $450 or something like that.

Well, I took my chances booked him as pet travel and showed up at the airport. Not once did they weigh him. No problems whatsoever. The people on the phone are different than the people at the gate. It is somewhat risky but since it is so close in weight they are not going to bother. the only way they can weigh him is by having the pet stand on the luggage scale and they already know that the dog is stressed so they don't bother. They have to get people through the line and its not worth it to them.

My friend is a pilot and gave me that advice.

Our only problem with that is that our dog does not fit into the size 500 crate, and must go in the 700. An American, at least, the will not even accept the size 700 onto the plane. If we could squeeze her into the 500, I would consider it. 🙂 But thank you for the advice. I will definitely try calling other airlines as well.

beth,

obviously you're aware that you won't have much luck with american with that size of dog. as has already been suggested, try delta or us airways. DO NOT stop in st thomas to try and catch a flight over. if you can organize a transfer from stt-stx on the ferry, that's a different story. i work for cape air in stx and we would not be able to accomodate a 100lb dog. if you were flying on our airline from hyannis, mass. to nantucket, we'd be able to help. but down here in the caribbean we're limited on what we can do. you might also want to look into a charter flight. it's not the cost-effective way to go, but it's an option.

-adam

Delta has a weird way of doing stuff,but it worked for me.My dog weighs 175lbs.I shipped him cargo and my female checked(as she weighed less).Their pricing was the only difference.The dogs were in the same type cargo bay(climatized) but only the pricing was actually different.Check it out.I shipped my dogs 3000 miles with no problems.I will have to ship them 5000 miles to get to VI.But expect no major problems.The baggage handlers loved the dogs and treated them as their own.Try Delta......

They did the same for my 175lb.dog.Just give yourself enough check in time to talk to the checkin people,and it will be fine....