Airline Carry On Rules For Luggage

I am desperate for help. I want to carry my 13 pound cat onto my flight when I move from AK to FL in a month. The problem is, the only soft sided carrier I can find (the Sherpa Delta one) that he fits in and meets airline rule weighs 4 lbs on its own so he weighs 17 lbs. in it. The limit is 15 lbs and they claim (on the phone) even if it’s 15.5 he will not be able to go. I even offered to pay extra and not bring any carry on items and they said “rules are 15 lbs and that’s all there is to say. No wiggle room.” Putting him in cargo would be the absolute worst thing! He is not easy going at all and plus he would be terrified. What I need to know is has anyone had experience carrying pets on to a flight (especially a Northwest flight) and if so how strict were they to you about the weight? What type of carrier did you use? Unfortunately, since I am moving and this is the only option so please don’t respond about how cruel I am to my cat.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 18th, 2011 at 2:43 PM and is filed under Airline Carry On Rules. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.