Traveling with my cat from Saudi Arabia to Washington DC

supergirl

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Hello Cat Mommy's and Daddy's, 

I live in Saudi Arabia, and I'm going to Washington DC in about a month. My lovely six-month-old (then 7 months) Cotton, is coming with. I have checked online on pettravel.com for procedures and they said that on Saudi Airlines I need to make the booking in the airlines offices, though it says nothing about that in the pet policy. I went today to their headquarters and asked, the employee there said I dont need to do anything, as long as I have her vaccination record/passport with me, all I have to do is check with the people at the desk in the airport, a girl on twitter said the same thing, she's taken her cats on local flights, and she only paid at the airport and notified them there. 

Now, before I go ahead and do my booking online, I just want to know if anyone here has done it before?

Thanks 
 

catapault

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Cover all bases - call the USA embassy and ask what is needed to bring the cat INTO the country. You don't want to land in Washington D.C. and discover there is something that needed to be done in advance of arrival but was not done, something that will cause problems.
 

doomsdave

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Supergirl, let us know what happens!

Your experiences will be helpful for all.
 

pusheen

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This is currently a whole thing with my parents, who are moving from Saudi Arabia to Boston. I believe you need, aside from the vaccination documents, an export license from the Department of Agriculture. There are branches in multiple cities, but you need the document to be from the branch that is in the city you are traveling out of. So if you're flying out of Riyadh, you need the Riyadh branch to give you the license. You take your vaccine forms and your cat I believe, and they should give you a license. There may be a fee. 
 

itspursonal

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Can you please update us with regards to Saudi Airlines' procedures regarding this? They have guidelines online, but knowing Saudi Airlines, those don't matter as much as what individual employees think is "right". I'm interested to know because we will be taking the reverse trip, from Washington to Riyadh in several months and we are planning to take our two cats with us. Best wishes.
 

doomsdave

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Can you please update us with regards to Saudi Airlines' procedures regarding this? They have guidelines online, but knowing Saudi Airlines, those don't matter as much as what individual employees think is "right". I'm interested to know because we will be taking the reverse trip, from Washington to Riyadh in several months and we are planning to take our two cats with us. Best wishes.
​Do, please, let us all know what happens.

​It's very relevant.
 
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