I've just discovered that United no longer allows large pets. Northwest is prohibitively expensive ($225 each way!) and USAir seems reasonable ($75 each way). Any advise on the best way to fly across country with my lab?
Thanks in advance

Do you want to fly the dog in cargo or inside with you?

A large dog has to go in cargo. You might try checking with Delta. I flew from Atlanta to Honolulu and my cats flew Delta cargo for the same route. Delta has a special program for dealing with traveling animals. I was very happy with their service. It isn't cheap - but I'll assume that you want your dog well cared for rather than seeking out whoever can do it cheapest. You might check some of the animal message boards at the Acme pet webstite (part of petsmart, I think) - if you post a question there you might also get some useful information.

If this is for a vacation (rather than for a move) you might consider traveling closer to home or boarding your dog. Air travel can be pretty stressful on animals.

I hope this is helpfu.

A friend of mine who is a professional dog breeder swears by Delta Dash whenever she has to ship a dog. They are very used to shipping dogs all over the country, so I'm sure they will do a good job with yours, too.

Deborah, this is just an FYI in case you didn't know this, but Best Friends Animal Sanctuary published a little article on flying animals and it turns out that the most common cause of harm to pets that fly was overmedication before the flights. A lot of people have their vets give their animals anti-stress medication before they fly and apparently this is very tricky business in terms of dosages. If you plan on giving your pup some anxiety meds, be very cautious and conservative and discuss it very thoroughly with your vet.

Just to keep a running total of the situation - Delta ($75) is instituting an embargo on all checked pets from 5/15-9/15. I could take my dog East, but he'd have to stay there! Thanks for the responses so far.

Deborahr,

All of the airlines have restrictions on animals traveling by cargo during the summer. Some, like Delta have specific dates blocked out, others will not take animals when the temp is over 80 or 85 degrees at any point in the route (departure, layovers, etc.). A possible way to manage that is to take a very early morning flight or a late evening flight on a carrier with a temp. only restriction. You don't mention why you want to fly your dog - but it sounds like you a doing a pretty good job researching it.

In regards to sedation - I think most vets now recommend not sedating animals traveling in cargo.

My husband works for a major airline and recommends not to fly with your dog. They can get overheated, stressed, etc. and could possibly die. Is it worth it? Is this a vacation or a permanent move? If just a vacation - hire a pet sitter, much better than a kennel.