WestJet Pet Policy: Cabin, Hold and the Routes That Are Closed

Booking it: not an online transaction

• Call to arrange the pet. Reservations for animals are not made online.
• Notice periods differ between sources — 24 and 48 hours both appear — so treat the longer one as the minimum and book earlier anyway.
• Cabin capacity is four animals. On a popular route that fills, and the fallback is a different flight rather than a different compartment.
• Charges differ between cabin and hold and between domestic and international routes, collected per animal each way.
• Confirm it in writing, and re-confirm if you change flights.

Crossing the border

• An ISO-compliant microchip, implanted before the rabies vaccination. Wrong order means the vaccination is redone and the timeline restarts.
• A current rabies vaccination with its waiting period observed.
• A health certificate inside the destination's window, which is usually short and sometimes needs government endorsement.
• Destination-specific rules, including countries that require animals to arrive as cargo rather than as accompanied baggage.

Any dog entering the United States needs a CDC Dog Import Form receipt, must be at least six months old, must carry an ISO microchip and must appear healthy on arrival. The receipt is shown to the airline before boarding, so a missing one stops you at the departure gate. This applies to Canadian and American dogs alike, which catches most families by surprise.

A realistic timeline

• Six months out: if the destination is Hawaii, start the state's import process now — it is the longest item by a wide margin.
• Four months out: confirm the destination's rules. Microchip the animal if needed, before the rabies vaccination.
• Three months out: rabies vaccination, then the waiting period, then any required titer test.
• Two months out: book the flights by phone, with the route checked against the closed list and the season. Buy the carrier or kennel.
• One month out: start acclimatising the animal to the carrier at home, left open with meals served inside.
• Two weeks out: health certificate appointment inside the destination's window.
• The final week: documents assembled, kennel labelled, CDC form completed for a dog entering the United States.
• The day before: trim nails, freeze the water dish for a hold kennel, confirm the booking still shows the animal.

Preparing a pet for the journey

• Introduce the carrier or kennel weeks ahead, left open at home with a blanket inside.
• Put something that smells of home in it — a worn t-shirt beats a new blanket.
• Exercise the animal properly before you leave.
• Limit food beforehand but not water, and offer water again after landing.
• Freeze a water dish into a hold kennel so it melts rather than spilling during loading.
• Label everything with your name and phone numbers at both ends, and check the microchip is registered to a number you answer.
• Do not sedate without veterinary advice — sedatives affect breathing and temperature regulation, and the risk is highest in the hold.
• Use a harness at security, where you carry a cabin animal through while the carrier is scanned.

Questions to settle before you book

1. Is your destination on the closed list, all year or for your season?
2. Is the animal small enough for the cabin, or does it need the hold?
3. Is your species accepted in the compartment you need?
4. Is Hawaii involved? If so, start the state process before anything else.
5. Is the flight's cabin capacity still available on your dates?
6. Has the longest piece of paperwork been started?

What can go wrong, and how to reduce the chance

• A destination closed to animals, year-round or seasonally. Check this first.
• Assuming you can book the pet online. You cannot — it is a phone call.
• The four-pet cabin limit already reached.
• A carrier bought against the wrong published dimensions. Sources disagree; use the airline's.
• Hawaii attempted on a short timeline. The state's process takes months.
• A temperature refusal on the day, which happens regardless of the published list.
• A dog under six months, or no CDC receipt, flying into the US.

Cabin or hold: making the choice deliberately

Where an animal could plausibly go either way, the decision is worth thinking about rather than defaulting to whichever is simpler to book.

• The cabin is almost always easier on the animal — the same air and temperature as you, your presence, and no loading process to endure.
• The hold involves more ground handling and more waiting, which is the part animals find hardest rather than the flight itself.
• The route bans apply mainly to hold travel, so a small animal in the cabin may be able to make a journey a larger one cannot.
• Cabin capacity is the constraint, at around four animals per flight — so for the cabin, booking early matters more than anything else.
• Snub-nosed breeds should not travel in the hold because of the breathing risk, which makes the cabin size question decisive for those dogs.
• Raise an elderly or anxious animal when you call. It affects which routing is sensible as much as the size does.

How Fond Travels can help

• We check your route against the closed list and the season before anything is booked, which is where these plans fail.
• We make the call, since pet bookings are not an online transaction, and confirm it in writing.
• We tell you whether your species is accepted in the cabin or the hold, which is broader here than on most airlines.
• We flag Hawaii immediately, because the state's import process is months long and nothing about the flight changes it.
• We check the border paperwork together — microchip order, rabies timing, health certificate window, CDC form for dogs entering the US.
• We are reachable on the day, which matters when a flight is delayed and your animal is in a kennel.

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