So I actually went to Portugal this past summer, in June and July of 2026, and flew a cocker spaniel named Sophia from Newark to Lisbon. In the cabin, under the seat, seven hours. She slept most of it. We flew United, which has no weight cap for in-cabin dogs, and that mattered more than you’d think. More on that below. Her owners had spent three months preparing for that trip and I still had to fix two problems in the final week. If a family that organized nearly hit a wall, you can guess how it goes for the person who books the flight first and Googles “can my dog fly” second.
So here’s the version I wish more people had before they call me in a panic.
The three ways a dog flies
In-cabin means the dog rides in a soft carrier under the seat in front of you. Most US airlines don’t publish a weight cap for in-cabin dogs. The real limit is a soft carrier around 18 by 11 by 11 inches that fits under the seat, with the dog able to stand up and turn around inside it. JetBlue is the exception and caps it at 20 pounds with the carrier. Flying to Europe is stricter. TAP, Lufthansa and Air France cap it at 8 kilos, about 17 pounds, dog and carrier together, and British Airways doesn’t take pets in the cabin at all. If your dog is a beagle or bigger, this option is off the table no matter how sweet they are.
Cargo means the dog rides in a hard crate in a pressurized, temperature-controlled hold. People hear “cargo” and picture a suitcase getting tossed around. That’s not what it is, but it’s also not nothing. It’s louder, the dog is alone, and there’s a lot of waiting in a crate on a tarmac. Fewer airlines do this than people think. United and Delta don’t take pets in cargo for the public anymore. American and Alaska still do, and the big European carriers like TAP, Lufthansa and Air France will take a crated dog in the hold. If your dog is too big for the cabin, your airline choice just got a lot shorter, so check that before you book your own tickets. Airlines also refuse cargo pets when the forecast at any airport on the route is too hot or too cold, usually above about 85 degrees or below 45, and some add a flat summer blackout on top of that. So a July flight through a hot hub can get refused at the last minute.
There’s also a third way: BARK Air, a charter jet built for dogs. Your dog rides in the cabin with you, no carrier and no weight limit, leashed for takeoff and landing. They fly out of New York to a handful of cities, Lisbon included. Tickets to Europe run about $9,000 to $11,000 one way for one dog and one person. It’s a splurge, but for a big dog who’d otherwise ride cargo, it’s worth knowing about.
The paperwork is where trips die
Going to Europe from the US, your dog needs an ISO microchip that was implanted before the rabies vaccine. Order matters. A rabies shot given before the chip went in doesn’t count under EU rules, and I’ve watched people find that out ten days before a flight. Then the rabies vaccine has to be at least 21 days old if it’s a first vaccine, and you need the EU health certificate filled out by a USDA-accredited vet and endorsed by USDA APHIS, with the dog arriving in the EU within ten days of that endorsement. Ten days. Not “about two weeks.”
Coming back into the US, every dog needs a CDC Dog Import Form receipt, has to be at least six months old, and has to be microchipped. If the dog has been in a country the CDC considers high-risk for rabies in the last six months, there’s more, and you need to sort it before you leave the US, not on the way home.
Every country is a little different and these rules change. And if someone other than you is flying your dog into the EU, you sign a written authorization, and the trip has to land within a set window of your own travel, or it stops counting as a personal pet move. Check the USDA APHIS pet travel page for your destination and the CDC page for the return trip, and check them again a month out. I’m not going to pretend I have every country memorized. What I have is the habit of checking.
The dog part, which everyone skips
You can have perfect paperwork and a miserable dog. The single biggest thing you can do is make the carrier or crate boring before the trip. Not tolerable. Boring. Feed meals in it for three weeks. Leave it out in the living room with the door open. Do short car rides in it. A dog who has spent 30 hours in that crate before flight day handles the airport like a long nap. A dog who met the crate the night before treats it like a trap, and everything that happens after is stress on top of stress.
Skip the sedatives unless your vet specifically tells you otherwise. Most airlines won’t accept a sedated dog in cargo, and the American Veterinary Medical Association advises against it because sedatives can mess with breathing and heart function at altitude. If your dog needs medication to get through a flight, that’s a conversation with your vet, and it might mean the flight isn’t a good idea.
Walk them hard before you go. Pull food back four to six hours before the flight (water stays). Line the carrier with something absorbent and something that smells like home.
If you can’t or don’t want to fly them yourself
This is the part I get asked about most. Some dogs can’t fly with their owner. The owner’s already overseas, or the move is happening in stages, or someone in the family is flying a route that doesn’t take pets. I do flight nanny work for exactly that situation. I fly with the dog in the cabin as the designated handler, or I chaperone a cargo shipment so a real person is tracking the dog on both ends, and you get updates and photos at check-in, boarding and arrival. I fly out of Newark mostly, and also JFK, Boston, and LAX. Bookings are usually four to eight weeks ahead, though I’ve turned trips around in a couple of days when I had to.
It’s priced per route and per dog, so it’s a phone call, not a menu. And if you just need the dog looked after while you travel without them, that’s boarding, and we do that too.
Try this today
Put the carrier or crate in the middle of the room and feed dinner in it tonight. That’s it. Do it every night this week and you’ve already done more for your dog’s flight than most people do in a month.
Sources to bookmark: USDA APHIS pet travel (aphis.usda.gov/pet-travel), CDC dog importation (cdc.gov/importation/dogs), and your airline’s live animal policy page.
Written by Ivan Rios, CDT