Pets on planes, and points for your pooch means a new?dog fight between airline ?loyalty? schemes is breaking out.
Image courtesy Alop.org, a pet protection society in the US
Virgin Australia will announce a frequent flyer program for pets at Sydney?s T2 check in? stall hall tomorrow morning.
Am I alone in wondering whether a ?guest? horse that I have can game the scheme by trading off the cost of flying it back and forth between states once or twice a year for its real owner for the no doubt fabulous first class return tickets for two I can get with Virgin partner airlines such as Etihad or Singapore Airlines?
However horses may not work all that well as under floor carriage on a 737 nor fit the fine print of the new scheme. But what if? I borrow a few border collies and make them trans border collies for the sake of a token 100-200K points with Velocity?? (Whaddya mean, No!)
Whatever the scheme offers, and the press conference is too far away to even think of attending, it probably won?t come with great big paddock fence sized holes through which FFP gamers can shift private zoos for a net gain,? since loyalty schemes these days are about selling not rewarding.
But Dr Chris Brown, a celebrity vet, will be on hand for photo opportunities, as he tries to prise the chihuahua out of the jaws of the Rottweiler or whatever, as the canine props sort out the casting order live so to speak on morning television.
This is a hell of a brave PR event, never mind the details as to how it will work.
There are also, some more serious questions for Dr Brown.
Such as, Is frequent flying good for pets? Or how frequent would be too frequent?
It?s also a question that partners have to ask each other, because being sky warriors may not mean being married for all that long.? Business travel is the natural enemy of family life when it involves flying once or twice a week between Australian cities and longer haul frequent flying the more so.
As not so recently as the 80s contacts in TAA and Ansett ANA were counseling media to consider interstate flights for their pets carefully because of the small but perhaps unacceptable risk of them arriving dead or dying.
One of the routine jobs of one media contact in an Australian airline of the times was to break the news to people that their pet had died en route.? The causes of death included anxiety or stress, as well as heat, cold and dehydration. Pet packs got dropped to the tarmac, or were put on the wrong plane, and sometimes not found for days.
It is different now. But Dr Brown?s advice on how to stress manage a flying pet would be invaluable.
My own experience with a 15 years old and fiercely dependent cat is that separation anxiety causes him to rip chunks of his coat out with his teeth every time I leave him in care other than at home with family.
In my heart I know that neither he nor my small peke, Daphne, would survive a flight in a pet pack. Yet two of my friends overseas, one in Europe and one in the US, have cats that have travelled long distance with them since they were young, including inside the main cabin of airliners, as allowed under certain conditions by the laws applying to airlines in those parts of the world.
Domestic animals are raised accustomed to travelling with their owners on both sides of the North Atlantic,? which means that if Virgin Australia was launching such a program under those regulations it would probably be far easier to manage, and of much wider interest to its frequent flyer membership.
Should animals, in addition to guide dogs, be allowed to fly inside Australian airliners subject to some commonsense health and safety rules? Quite possibly they should,? but such reforms may take longer than the overdue approval of personal electronic devices except during cabin safety announcements on domestic flights.
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