Fly from major European cities to Cyprus and Greece... with your dog

Flying with your pet can be pricey. This is undeniable. But I have recently come across travel forums that are giving false advice to people wanting to travel within Europe with their pets. Some airlines insist that you organise your travel through a pet travel agency - which then charge around 250€ to be the middle man. But this is NOT true of all airlines and this is an extra cost you can safely avoid.

So, if you want to fly with your pet to Cyprus from the UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, Greece and various other locations, I would recommend trying Cyprus Airways (http://cyprusair.com)

Here is the price list for pet travel to ALL destinations, for a single ticket, with Cyprus Airways:

• Up to 8kg, a dog (or cat) may be travel with you, in a carrier case, inside the cabin. Cost - 40€

• From 9-25kg, your dog (or very fat cat??) must travel in the pressure and oxygen controlled section of the hold, in a suitable carrier case. Cost - 80€

• From 25kg and upwards, rules as above. Cost - 160€

Note: The dog owner is responsible for buying a suitable sized carrier case, pet passport, microchip etc

For flights to Greece (from UK, France, Spain, Italy, Germany and many other locations), I recommend Aegean (http://en.aegeanair.com)

Here is the price list for pet travel to ALL destinations, for a single ticket, with Aegean Airways:

• Up to 8kg, a dog (or cat) may be travel with you, in a carrier case, inside the cabin. Cost - 40€

• From 9-25kg, your dog (or very fat cat??) must travel in the pressure and oxygen controlled section of the hold, in a suitable carrier case. Cost - 80€

• From 25kg and upwards, rules as above. Cost - 150€

British Airways is one of the airlines that insist on customers using an additional 'pet travel agency' to book plane tickets for their pets. The BA website does not include prices for pet travel, and makes it almost impossible for you to contact either staff at BA or at the handlers they use IAG Cargo. I had a polite but brief response to my email from IAG Cargo, informing me that they do not deal with individuals, only with pet travel agents, so could not answer my questions (regarding regulations, price etc). I still do not know how much BA charge for a single pet ticket from the UK to Cyprus, for example, but you can bet that with the additional cost of the pet travel agency, on top of the ticket price, this is going to be quite a sum!

The budget airlines (Ryanair, EasyJet) do not accept animals in the cabins or in the hold of the planes.

Have a look at this previous post: http://bit.ly/1g3yyaN for info on the documents and health requirements etc that pets need before travel

See also my 6 reasons why travel with pets is worth the cost and the trouble: http://bit.ly/1gtbItF