What Happens To Your Pet During Travel Delays?

Recent Travel Delays & Important Take-Aways

Recently, a technology outage turned the world upside-down. It caused interruptions in banking and emergency services, flight cancellations, and endless transactional delays worldwide. The software outage affected Atlanta International Airport and related flight interruptions continued for days. Flights were subsequently grounded and arrivals halted, which left Atlanta residents stranded throughout the globe. This chaotic situation got me thinking – what happens to your pet during travel delays? Well, the answer depends on who is caring for your pet while you’re away. Or, if you took your pet along on your trip. Let’s discuss a few scenarios!

In-Home Pet Care

With an in-home pet care company like Buckhead Pet Pals, you have our commitment to caring for your pets until you return. Say that you schedule a week-long appointment that ends on Friday evening. If you don’t get home by Friday, due to travel interruptions of any sort, you let us know and we’ll schedule additional visits as needed until you return or until your emergency contact/pet guardian comes to take over your pet’s care. More on our delay protocols below.

While, as a professional pet care company, we rely on technology to manage our sitters’ schedules and client information, we back up this information regularly, allowing us to have access to your visit schedule, pet care instructions, and contact details even if technology fails.

When you hire a professional pet sitting company like ours, one that has been around for 26+ years, you can trust that we have seen lots of unknowns and successfully responded to them. We are prepared for anything. We’re ready to employ our expertise if and when needed. Your pet(s) will remain at home and in our care until you’re home or another plan is made.

Boarding

When considering a boarding facility, it’s important to discuss these unknowns when scheduling your pet’s boarding dates. What do they do if you return is delayed? Do they ensure they have room for your pet to stay longer? Does someone have to pick up your pet if the facility doesn’t have room to accommodate additional days? Do they charge fees for extending last minute?

By asking the right questions, you’ll know what you need to do while traveling to ensure your pet’s care continues beyond the initial reservation. You’ll also know if you need to have a friend or family member ready to pick your pet up if you cannot pick them up in time. We recommend making all these plans prior to your departure and ensuring you have a few options for back-up pet care if your travel delay is significant.

Traveling with Your Pets

One of the factors to consider when bringing a pet along on your adventures is how your pet will travel and where. You’ll have to bring along extra food, meds, and supplies to ensure you can meet your pet’s needs if travel is delayed. That is especially true if your pet is small enough to join you as a passenger on an airplane.

Things get hairier – pun intended – if your pet is not small enough to join you in the cabin and has to go in the belly of the plane. Imagine traveling with a cargo pet when the world’s travel comes to a halt due to software or other outages. Who will be in charge of your pet’s safety and wellbeing? It’s a scary thought – it’s completely out of your control. Most of the time, your pet will remain in cargo hold and away from you during the outages, which can be very unnerving for both you and your pet. For this reason, we encourage you to leave your larger pets at home while you travel, unless, of course, you’re moving permanently.

Buckhead Pet Pals’ Travel Delay Protocols

At Buckhead Pet Pals, we monitor emails and texts after hours and on weekends. You can contact us directly to request extensions. You can also use our online scheduling software or app to modify your reservations.

Travel delays can be stressful. We encourage our clients to text their sitter and the office with changes and additions. We do our best to be flexible and work as a team to ensure your pet gets the coverage he or she needs, no matter what causes your travel delay.

Our last minute booking fee is $10 for one visit. For example, if you contact us tonight to add 3 visits tomorrow, we only charge $10. We do our best to maintain flexibility and pricing integrity while properly rewarding our sitters for their flexibility and dedication.

Buckhead Pet Pals offers services in Altanta, Buckhead, Sandy Spring, Marietta, and Roswell. Learn more about our service area here.