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Copyright 1996-2004 Elliott Publishing. All rights reserved.

Flying Fido
Fix My Trip · November 25, 1999

Q: My friend and I are planning to travel from Tampa, Fla., to Manchester England this winter. I am going to be bringing back a very small dog to be traveling with me in the cabin. Some of the discount airlines such as Virgin Atlantic do not allow animals in the cabin. The cheapest fare I have been able to find is on Delta Air Lines. Would you have any tips or sites that I might be able to knock off $100 or more? (I have tried all of the obvious sites that I am aware of) Or should I just bite the bullet and book it?

-- Sharon M. Thrasher

A: Do your dog a favor and leave it behind. I know it sounds heartless to suggest that you should deprive man’s best friend of human companionship. But I have my reasons.

I've written about this issue several times and always seem to arrive at the same conclusion. In an earlier ABCNews.com column and a controversial follow-up, I found that pets have absolutely no place on planes. This is one of the few instances where I respectfully disagree with my colleague, the Occidental Tourist, who thinks that traveling with a canine companion is OK.

Sharon, like hundreds of thousands of other pet owners, you probably believe that 1) the animal can’t live without you; and 2) the animal is so well-behaved, it won’t be any trouble at all if it flies in the main cabin.

Let’s take a look at both of those deeply flawed statements. First, the “Fido-can’t-live-without-me” argument. It’s nonsense. Your dog isn’t attached to you. You’re attached to the dog. You – and I mean “you” in the generic sense – are using the animal as a substitute for a healthy relationship with another human being. And that’s certainly your right, but do you have to subject an animal to 12 hours of confinement to a small cage in order to indulge your anthropomorphic delusions?

Ask any veterinarian, and you’ll get more or less the same response: Pets don’t like to travel. Specifically, they don’t enjoy air travel, which often sends them into the refrigerated underbelly of an aircraft where their every need is neglected.

In the main cabin, it’s even worse. Your animal companion can freak out and run amok in the aircraft, gnawing on crewmembers, passengers and inflicting the wrath of its fur on those unfortunate travelers with allergies.

To say that your dog won’t be any trouble is a false assumption. You don’t know what your pet will do until it’s stowed under your seat. Go crazy? Bite other travelers? Yelp for the duration of the flight? There’s no telling.

Many pets need to be sedated if they travel with the other passengers, which can be dangerous to the animal. Feed Fluffy one tranquilizer too many and it could put him to sleep – permanently. Hey, this isn’t me just spinning my wheels, here. The Air Travel Association’s own guide to traveling with pets sides with me on this one as well.

When I write about this topic, it usually comes down to the same thing. Travelers know that animals don’t belong on a flight, but they believe their pet deserves a waiver. That’s because people don’t think rationally when it comes to their pets. They ascribe human emotions and thoughts to a creature with the IQ of, well, a dog.

If your canine companion could talk and think like a person, he’d ask to stay at home. Trust me.

Christopher Elliott is a travel commentator based in Key Largo, Fla. All e-mailed questions may be edited, condensed or republished at the site's discretion. Fix My Trip appears weekly on this site.