Service dog
 

I am traveling with my service dog. I have flown all over the world with a doctors note, picture identification for the dog and all the necessary health certificates that a particular country requires.

In May, I flew from the US to Manchester England on Condor and then from England to Bologna, Italy on Ryan Air. No problem. Now I want to go home, back to the US.

My problem: booked the return flight on condor. The first leg of flight is on Luthansa Airlines, from Bolgna, Italy to Frankfurt, Germany. The company will not permit the service dog because my dog does not have European certification. The US does not have certification requirements. Most of the companies that they list even have affiliates in the US. Condor has already noted my files and has permitted the dog.

Need suggestions. The crazy heat wave along with all this stress is aggravating my symptoms. All I want to do is go home.

Get "European" certification.

I'm on holiday. How do I get European Certification?

Ask the guy you got your service dog from.

So it is Lufthansa which is presenting the problem?
Ask Condor to help you with Lufthansa, or if they can't do that then see if they will exempt you from the first leg of the journey and get to Frankfurt overland.
Find an airline that will accept the dog and pay for them to take you home instead.

Service dogs, as far as travel and allowing them into shops etc at any rate, in Europe tend to be trained and provided by recognised organisations and often only those dogs which support people with certain complaints are actually accepted as service dogs.

If Lufthansa is the problem, can you reverse your incoming route... Ryanair back to London and Condor from London to home?

Check to see if there are other airlines that fly to Frankfurt from either Bologna, Milan or Florence. Even Venice or Rome are possibilities.

Also, get the US Consulate and as many Italians as you possibly can involved with your problem, and to try to do this fairly quickly since people are not going on holiday. Everyone should be emphasising to Lufthansa, to the point of exaggeration, that you are sick & need to go home.

It may be that it is not difficult to get European Certification for your dog.

Unfortunately the US Consulate governing Bologna is in Firenze, but call

Phone: (+39) 055.266.951

Maybe these people can help you

https://www.assistancedogsinternatio...s/europe-adeu/

also, just making sure you have a link to Lufthansa's assistance dog webpage

http://www.lufthansa.com/us/en/Assistance-dogs

You may be able to take a train from Bologna to Frankfurt. Here is Deutsche Bahn's pages on taking a dog on a train, in German:

https://inside.bahn.de/bahn-hund-katze/

Use Google Translate to view the page, but basically you can take a bigger dog by buying him/her a half-price ticket and keeping him/her on a leash and muzzled (entirely reasonable). I would contact the Italian railways and ask them if they are prepared to accept dogs (sorry, I only have 'menu' Italian, can't help you with that).

Lavandula

Further to that:

http://www.trenitalia.com/tcom-en/Se...with-your-pets

Lavandula

Thank you for all your replies. I have already begun contacting the US Embassy, condor, etc. I just did not anticipate this problem.

I am confused.

In theory your toughest leg should have been Ryanair which require ADI accreditation. Other than a doctors nore what accreditation does your dog have ?

You will be aware that the rules in the US differ considerably to those in Europe. In the US, as far as I am aware, a doctors note is acceptable to airlines. I am aware that this isn't sufficient in Europe.

Thank you for all the replies. I have already contacted Condor Airlines and the USEmbassy. Still waiting for their responses. I'm new to this forum and do not know how to respond to each reply. Thank you again. I will keep you posted.

To the person who suggested that I get European certification. Not feasible, I am only permitted to stay three months, certification takes six months. So, that's not feasible.

When I flew here, I was told as long as I stayed in the airport in Manchester, I was not required to have certification. Which seemed true, because I had no problem flying to Bologna Italy. I was also told by Jet Blue that they had to follow condors rules, since condor was the booking company. Well, I found out the hard way all this information was incorrect.

Personally, the trip has been too long, too crowded, too hot and the I am ready to go home.

We have decided to try a new route.

It isn't clear what this certificaiton is as I didn't think they had such certification in Europe, either, except for the pet passport which is for any animal. Lufthansa has different policies than Condor WITHIN Europe flights, that's the issue, for assistance animals. Their website details the differences to/from the US and within Europe.

I guess you have an option you are considering, but the obvious fallback would be the train, I suppose, to Frankfurt. It's a long trip, but if you have time to do it, it would work. Best one is 10 hrs with only one transfer in Munich, noon to about 10 pm. If you don't mind transferring twice, you can do it in about 9 hrs and leave at 8:40 am (transfer in Milan and Basel).

For a trip that is too long already, that may not be a desirable trip, but it would be a way to do it.

My suggestion is to contact the call center of your travel insurance, if you have any, they have experts and contacts worldwide.
Hope it can be helpful.

Service animals are certified in Europe and have to have undergone specialist training which takes time.
It isn't the case that anyone can call their dog a service dog and expect to be exempt from normal rules regarding admission and transportation of dogs. Only animals trained by special organisations can be certified as service or assistance dogs.