Southwest Pet Policy: Cabin Only, and What That Means for You

Limits that fill up

• There is a cap per flight, commonly reported at around six pets. On a busy route in a holiday period that cap is genuinely reached.
• One carrier per paying adult passenger. Two pets means two adults, or two separate bookings.
• Book the pet at the same time as the flight. Adding it later is possible but risks finding the flight already full of animals.

Because this airline has no hold option, a full flight does not mean "your pet travels differently" — it means your pet does not travel on that flight at all. That makes booking early more consequential here than on an airline with alternatives.

Domestic only

Pets are not carried on this airline's international flights. For a trip outside the United States you need a different airline, and probably a different plan, because international pet travel brings import rules, health certificates and timelines that domestic travel does not.

One point worth knowing even if you are flying another carrier: any dog entering or returning to the United States now needs a CDC Dog Import Form receipt, must be at least six months old, must have an ISO-compliant microchip and must appear healthy on arrival. The receipt has to be shown to the airline before boarding. Dogs that have been in a high-risk rabies country in the previous six months face further requirements. That rule catches American families returning home with their own dog, which is not what most people expect.

Which animals qualify

• Small domestic cats and dogs, vaccinated.
• Trained service dogs are handled separately from the pet policy and are not subject to the carrier requirement or the pet charge.
• Emotional support animals are no longer treated as service animals by US airlines, and travel as ordinary pets under the rules above.

If your animal is neither a cat nor a dog, this airline is not the route, even for a small and well-behaved rabbit or bird that other carriers would accept.

Booking and what to have ready

• Add the pet when you book the flight, not afterwards.
• Have the carrier measurements, and your pet's weight, to hand.
• Confirm the current charge for your route. It is collected per carrier, each way.
• Ask about the per-flight limit on your specific flight if you are booking close in.
• Check your vaccination records are current and bring them, even on a domestic trip where they may not be formally required.

At the airport and on board

1. Arrive earlier than you would without a pet. Check-in with an animal is slower and the carrier may be looked at.
2. Expect to carry the pet through security. You take the animal out of the carrier, the carrier goes through the scanner, and you walk through holding your pet. Practise this at home if your cat is not used to being held in a strange place.
3. Use a harness and lead for that moment, so a frightened animal cannot bolt in a security line.
4. Keep the carrier zipped the entire time you are in the airport and on the aircraft.
5. Limit food before the flight but not water, and offer water again after landing.
6. Do not sedate without veterinary advice. Sedatives can affect breathing and temperature regulation at altitude, and most vets advise against them for air travel.

If your dog is too big: what the alternatives actually look like

This is the conversation most families end up having, so it is worth setting out properly rather than discovering one airline at a time.

• Airlines with a climate-controlled hold. Several US carriers will check a pet into a temperature-controlled baggage compartment on your own flight. That is the closest thing to travelling together with a larger dog.
• Airlines with a separate cargo service. The animal flies as freight, often on a different flight from you, booked through a cargo desk rather than reservations.
• Temperature rules apply to both. Carriers that take pets in the hold refuse them when ground temperatures at the departure, connecting or arrival airport are too high or too low — which in practice closes off a lot of summer travel to hot cities.
• Snub-nosed breeds are widely restricted. Bulldogs, pugs, boxers, Persian cats and similar breeds are barred from the hold by most airlines that offer it, because of the breathing risk. For those breeds, cabin travel is frequently the only option at all — which brings you back to whether the animal fits under a seat.
• Driving is a real answer. For a medium-sized dog on a route of a few hundred miles, it is often less stressful for the animal and simpler for you than engineering a flight around restrictions.

Preparing a pet for a day in a carrier

The rules are the part people research. How the day goes depends mostly on whether the animal has ever spent time in the carrier before.

• Introduce the carrier weeks ahead, not the night before. Leave it open at home with a blanket and let the animal sleep in it.
• Do a few short car trips in it so the carrier is not only ever associated with something alarming.
• Put something that smells of home inside — a worn t-shirt works better than a new blanket.
• Attach a tag with your phone number to the carrier and to the animal's collar, and make sure the microchip details are registered to a number you actually answer.
• Exercise the animal properly before you leave for the airport. A tired pet travels far better than a rested one.
• Offer water after landing, and expect a nervous animal to refuse food for a few hours.
• Carry a copy of the vaccination record and a photograph of your pet on your phone, which matters if an animal is ever separated from you.

What can go wrong, and how to reduce the chance

• The carrier is too big. The commonest refusal, and entirely avoidable by measuring before you fly.
• The pet cannot stand or turn inside it. A carrier within the dimensions can still fail this.
• The flight's pet limit is already reached. With no hold option, that means a different flight.
• Your dog is simply too large. Establish this first — it decides which airline you are flying, not which seat you pick.
• You assumed you could check the pet. You cannot, on any route, in any circumstance.
• You packed as though you had an under-seat bag. You do not. The pet is it.

How Fond Travels can help

• We tell you first whether your pet fits the cabin rules, because on this airline that single answer decides whether you are flying it at all.
• We find the carrier that will take a larger dog when this one will not — several run climate-controlled hold programmes, with their own temperature rules and breed limits.
• We check the per-flight pet limit before you commit to dates, so a full flight is not discovered at the airport.
• We plan the routing around the animal — nonstop where possible, earlier in the day, avoiding long layovers with a pet in a bag.
• We walk you through the US entry rules for dogs if any part of the trip is international, including the CDC form that catches returning American families.
• We are reachable on the day, which matters when a flight is delayed and you are sitting in a terminal with an animal.

To plan a trip with a pet, call +1 (323) 800 6001. A travel expert answers any hour.