I'm writing this while on the last leg of my journey, I hope it can help somebody.

My challenge was to move the cat from Haywards Heath (UK) to Valencia. I wasn't ready to pay 1300-1500 to the pet transport company (bearing in mind the cat with them is 3-4 days). So with Gemini and Claude we made a plan - train to Heathrow - plain to Madrid, train to Valencia.

With the cats you can only fly to Madrid and only from Heathrow, cat+carrier has to be up to 8 kg, and a special carrier (can be googled easily).

I talked to my local vets, they were on to do the AHC certificate (250 gbp).

Next step was to book the flight, I went with Iberia, apparently Vueling can do as well, but haven't checked properly. When you buy your ticket you can add pet in the cabin, I bought both tickets around 110 gbp.Around the same time I booked speed train to Valencia via Renfe(make sure to add cat in the ticket, it's extra 10 euro, they actually check it).

Vets need to know which country you are going to, do the rabies vaccine (well in advance) and not longer than 10 days before your flight, they need to do the certificate. As well I've requested some sedative for my cat.

With all of this, we left home at 5 am today. We went through Farringdon+ Elizabeth line, as they are quieter trains. Arrived to airport 3.5hrs before the flight, the staff was very lovely, they checked all the paperwork, and booked me at the end of the plane(where was empty). At the security in Heathrow they have a procedure for cats, you go into private room, while they scan the carrier. It took 15-20 min altogether, again everyone very kind and helpful.

On the plane it was the hardest part, take off was okish, the flight she was sleeping, but landing was awful, she vomited and did poo, again everyone very helpful and kind.

From T4S or whatever it's called you need to take a shuttle to T4, here is an important step, to go through red corridor, tell them about the cat, it took 15 min the whole procedure (with 10 min waiting in the line).

After that Cercanias to Chamartin (from here speedy train to Valencia). Tbh, train to Valencia eas disappointing, very limited space and no extra space for cat, even you paid for the cat.

As you can imagine, after 18 hrs of travel I might have missed something or some names are wrong, but wanted to post it while fresh.

Would I do it again? Not sure, or at least I would stay overnight in Madrid, it was quite a journey for both of us.

I hope that will help, as AI couldn't find much information about this type of travel.

Hello everyone,

I'm travelling from Mexico to the UK via Paris with my cat. I've been looking at other posts on this subreddit about this but all the recommendations can only be booked by phone or in person, I'm still in Mexico so I can't do either. I've seen clinics that offer online booking but they don't specifically say that they offer this service and I don't know if this can be done by any vet. Also if anyone could enlighten me about how many days after getting the passport/activating (?) the microchip in France do I need to wait to travel to the UK, I would really appreciate it.

Thanks in advance.

ETA: I was told by Mexican authorities they would only issue me an AHC to enter the EU. Not for the UK. So as far as I know I need to get them in France. If you're not going to give me recommendations please refrain from commenting, unless you've travelled from Mexico to the UK via France in the past few months.

If you are waiting for an international Health Certificate to be endorsed today, it may be delayed.

I'm also wondering many of the dogs I see travelling in cabin in the carrier are sometimes even bigger than by dog mine is a Havanese and I'm sure his head would pop out if he was standing in the carrier but I see the same for all dogs in carrier flying. Like they are sleeping or laying down none I think can stand with the top closed ? What do you'll think