Flying domestically in Thailand proved once again to be a breeze, and seeing as we flew with our cat, this past flight was a particularly pleasant experience. Instead of all of the hoop-jumping we did to ship our cat in his hard-shelled crate via cargo on an international flight, it was a simple process bringing him on our domestic flight as a carry on item in his foo-foo cat carrier. Oh, the simplicity of it all!
Two days prior to leaving Bangkok, we made a reservation with Thai Airways and let them know that we would be bringing a cat. They have a 48 hour pre-booking policy when traveling with pets, and they have to confirm that no other pets are already reserved for the flight. The day of our flight, while I checked our luggage at the ticketing counter and had our boarding passes printed, Chris went to the excess baggage counter and purchased a separate boarding pass for the cat for 360 baht ($12). For comparison’s sake, Southwest charges $75 for a carry-on pet. Yeesh. Chris came back to the original ticketing counter, gave the ticketing agent a copy of the cat’s boarding pass, and we were on our way through security. We also had an oversize piece of luggage (hard shelled cat carrier) that we checked for no extra charge.
As for security, Chris took the cat out of the carrier, held him as they went through the metal detector, and then put him back in his carrier. The carrier has to be scanned separately from the cat, and although I strongly recommend putting a pet on a leash or harness as a safety precaution while going through the metal detector, our kitty did just fine being held. Once boarded, the cat stayed at our feet for the hour long trip from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. No problems to report!
