We are so lucky that our neighbor’s son, Wyatt, has agreed to take us to LAX for our flight. We have done this before (taking the dogs to France) and it is incredibly stressful. So Wyatt will drop us and all of our gear (including 3 travel crates) directly in front of the international LAX terminal. It is a dream–no hassle and we are well on our way in our voyage to France.
The Air France people are wonderful. Although when we first approach the desk the AF lady tells us that we cannot bring more than 2 dogs with us. I did not break a sweat–I knew she was wrong. She thought we expected our small dogs to accompany us in the cabin but unfortunately all 3 are too heavy for cabin transport; they must fly in the luggage hold. Air France pressurizes and temperature controls the hold if dogs are aboard. We would not travel with the dogs if that were not the case. The AF lady quickly realizes our situation and for the remainder of the check-in she helps us immensely.
We are a good 1 hour ahead of the dogs’ boarding time so we are able to hang out outside the terminal where MANY people approach the dogs to give them attention. We take them on a pretty long walk around terminals 1 & 2 before they are checked in for flight. We are surprised that the crates and the dogs are highly scrutinized before boarding. We are completely prepared! Although in the past both LAX and the Paris airport have never scrutinized our paperwork or crate preparation. I should have taken a picture of the 3 dogs in their crates being wisk off to the elevator for boarding! They were surprizingly stoic.
As we boarded the plane I asked one of the flight attendants to make sure the dogs were on board and that the captain knew the dogs were in the hold. She took my name and my seat number and happily she soon confirmed that they were on board and all would be well.
Our Air France Premium Economy seats are so close to business class but so far from the high price. We paid about $500 more RT each (about a third more) for our seats and the additional amount is well worth it! We had a very nice flight. Howard slept a bit more than 3 hours and I slept a bit less than that amount.