PBS Pet Travel Reviews 

Reply from PBS Pet Travel

Updated Oct 20, 2021

We have contacted you directly .

We will not accept bullying , harassing or malicious social media posts.



In response to your negative comment above we have pasted our response to you for all to see. We would suggest that you re-read the email as we have already addressed your complaint on 4th October (pasted below). Please again note that the size and breed of your dog would never be allowed to travel as excess baggage. This was explained to you numerous times verbally and in writing which you accepted and proceeding with the booking. Also on the 8th October we emailed you again with the complaints procedure/email details for the airline so you can address your complaints/concerns directly with the airline, this is not passing the buck as we had already contacted British Airways on your behalf.

We at PBS have always been dedicated to making sure animal welfare is our number one priority, however we are not an airline and can only do so much once a animal/pet is in direct care of the airline, however, as you can see from British Airways response(pasted below) the situation was somewhat different to your account.

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Dear Georgina

Thank you for your email . We are saddened to hear that you are not happy with the services provided . We will try to answer your queries as best we can below and forward your complaint to the airline for their comments.
Pets Travelling as Cargo vs Excess Baggage.
To clarify, we PBS, can only book pets on flights as cargo and cannot book pets to travel as excess baggage . Your dog travelling as Excess Baggage was never an option . Excess baggage bookings need to be made directly with the airline by the owners. For pets travelling as excess baggage there are maximum weight limits and your dog exceeded those.

Having said this from the UK, pets as excess baggage are not accepted by many airlines. The IAG group which British airways and Iberian belong to do not accept pets from London Heathrow as excess baggage, especially large breed dogs. To use their flights, you have to book pets as cargo which we did for you.

From Spain the rules may alter and therefore you may find people with pets travelling from Madrid to Costa Rica as excess baggage. This is simply not possible from the UK with a large breed dog . Cargo is the only option.

Whichever mode of booking cargo or excess baggage, your dog would have travelled in the hold of the aircraft. This is the only option for a dog of her size.

Customs Clearance

As your dog travelled as cargo she needed to be customs cleared on arrival into Costa Rica . All freight must be customs cleared .

We therefore recommended a clearing agent to assist you . Using an agent who knows the clearance process at the destination makes the collection process easier. Customs clearance and collecting pets can take 3-5 hours after flight arrival. There are not always pet facilities at airports, so the cargo warehouses are used to hold the pets whilst clearance takes place.

To confirm you used the agent we recommended, and they cleared your dog as you requested, and they were in contact with you throughout the clearance process. If this is not the case, then you need to take this up with them directly as you paid them for their services separately.

Crate

With regards to the crate, the measurements you provided for your dog meant that she would not comfortably fit into a plastic kennel as they are only made in certain sizes. The largest being 122 x 81 x 89cm( externally). If your dog didn’t fit into this crate comfortably, she would have been refused for travel by the airline. Your dog and her crate must meet IATA regulations. With this in mind, we ordered a wooden tailor-made crate for you. Sadly, there was a back log as the manufacturer was on holiday. Tailor made wooden pet kennels are a niche market and are there are not many companies who supply them . The crates must meet IATA regulations which our suppliers’ crates do. We apologised to you for the delay with the crate and apologised again when DPD failed to deliver as planned. We are incredibly sorry that it did not arrive sooner, but it was due to circumstances beyond our control.

With regards to the urine-soaked crate and water bowls . Dogs are unattended in the hold of the aircraft during the flight, if they do have to relieve themselves, this must be in their crates. This is something that is unavoidable and does happen occasionally especially on the longer flights.

As for the water bowls , two water bowls are attached in case one is pulled off by the pets . This meets IATA regulations, and two bowls were attached to her crate as you can see in the image you provided.

During the flight and Transit

As for the journey itself once your dog is checked in, the airline are responsible for her care. We are a booking agent only . If you are unhappy with the way the airline looked after your dog then we will of course put you in direct contact with the airline so your complaint can be heard . We at PBS are not liable or responsible for pets once handed over to the airline. Please see our terms and conditions on the back of your quotation and on the link on our email signatures.

We have already forwarded your previous email to British Airways regarding your dog being on the airfield in the heat. We are currently awaiting their reply. We will of course pass their response to you as soon as it has been received . During transfer from the vehicles to the aircraft there can be a delay and it can take a little while especially when the pets and the crates are extremely heavy. I am sure the airline will answer your concerns once they respond.

In Madrid, your dog was looked after at the IAG pet facility between flights. The airline will respond to your queries regarding this matter as well.

To reiterate as per our terms and conditions, we, PBS are a booking agent and will only accept liability whilst a pet is in our direct care. Outside of this, liability will remain with the organization who is in direct care of your pet or in charge of transportation, transiting, handling, checking in, flights and routing – such as the airline. Any complaints regarding third party care will be directed to the relevant organization. PBS cannot arrange compensation on behalf of any third parties involved and nor are we responsible / liable for any issues arising whilst pets are in the care of a third party (Including the airline).

Cost

The cost of the relocation is higher than we expected. As your dog and her container weighed more than 64kg ,due to aircraft restrictions and weight limits , the airline charged you what is known as a pallet rate. They would not accept the booking for your dog without this higher rate being agreed . The price increase was confirmed to you by Jason and you accepted it. We are not at liberty to disclose the airline fees , but in good faith please see a copy of the email from the airline stating what the pallet rate would be .

Communication

From the initial Quotation and to the last pre-shipment email we sent you, we have provided you with all the information you required to relocate your dog to Costa Rica. We responded to all your emails, telephone calls and assisted you with confirming the veterinary requirements to make sure your dog met Costa Rica’s regulations.

We will pass on your email to the airline for their comments regarding the flights, your dog’s care and the transit in Madrid.

We will be back in touch again once they have responded.

Kind Regards

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Response from British Airways (IAG) forwarded to you on the 8th October.


Dear Georgina

I have received a reply from British Airways . They have responded with the below statements .

AWB 125- 94387834

MADRID have advised that the dog was on the tarmac for about 35 minutes, which is their normal loading time as they have to position all the freight in loading order.

The temperature that day was 21 degrees.

We have a vet that attends all transfers, takes them out, feeds, cleans them etc. They remain in our ‘pet facility’ that is located in the warehouse.

For any further information or complaints, you will need to contact IAG Cargo directly .

The complaint procedure is on the link below or on the email address BA have provided cargo.claims@iagcargo.com, steven.garrido@iagcargo.com:-

https://www.iagcargo.com/en/claims-process/

If you need further assistance from PBS please do get in contact.


Kind Regards

Reply from PBS Pet Travel

Jan 28, 2021

Dear Beau,

First of all, we are sorry to hear that you feel you had a bad experience – we understand that airports can be stressful places at the best of times, let alone when you are trying to navigate a pet clearance procedure after your own 10 hour flight, so we completely understand your frustrations around feeling like this was not a smooth or easy process.

We also welcome feedback and this includes negative feedback - there are always things that can be improved on and we strive to change and adapt to client's needs as often as we can.

That being said, we feel this is an unfair and completely inaccurate review of our services and we will explain why below.

From the outset, we went out of our way to assist you – one of our specialists even replied to your emails out of office hours in her own, personal time, to ensure you could get the travel date & flight you wanted.

All email correspondence was replied to either same-day or the next day. You sent your booking form and payment in to us on the evening of 7th Jan and the next day, we confirmed receipt, explained to you the airline booking window, advised you of the date we would be able to request the flight and organised the travel crate to be sent to you in the next few days.

Your pet’s flight was requested on Thursday 14th Jan as we had previously advised, the airline then confirmed the booking on Saturday 16th Jan and we emailed you first thing that Monday to confirm the details and to advise you to expect your ‘pre-travel’ email that week – which would be outlining everything else you needed to know.

Later that week, the ‘pre-travel’ email was sent. This included:

- Flight details – date, airway bill number, flight number, departure and arrival times

- Full address for where you needed to meet us for check in on the day and the time

- The name and mobile number for the person you would be meeting

- We confirmed the above rep would also call you the day before check-in

- A check list of everything you needed to bring with you

- Information about preparing your pet for the flight

- Full address, phone number and email address of the airline office in Houston where you would be collecting your pet

Based on the above email we sent you, your comment stating that we “explained nothing of the flight process, provided very few meaningful details on drop off or pick up” is not at all true.

After we had sent you the above ‘pre-travel’ email, you emailed us with some specific questions about the collection in Houston; our reply to this email is copied in below:

“Hi
Yes, 04.45am will be the meet time.
So you should have been contacted by the BA team in IAH to explain the pick up process, did they not contact you? If not, please contact them below and they can advise you of the procedure:

Phone
Air General: (+1) 281-443-4954
Email
iahops@airgeneral.com
Address
Air General
19175 Lee Road Suite 150
Houston
Texas 77338

Do let me know if i can help with anything else.”

Based on the above email we sent you, your comment stating that we “failed to explain the maze of steps I still needed to complete after arriving in Houston”, is also, not at all true. We explained that you needed to contact the pick up office in Houston who could advise you of the procedure.

We assume that you did get in touch with the collection office in Houston, as a few days later you emailed us asking if the fees Houston had requested you needed to pay on collection, had already been included in our quotation. Please see our response to this email bellow:

“Hi there
No unfortunately not – our quotes do not cover any handling charges on arrival as it is not possible to have these ‘pre-paid’ the airline only accept payment upon collection, sorry about this.
Please let me know if I can help with anything else”

It is also worth noting that before you submit your booking form, you are asked to read our terms and conditions (which were also outlined on your official quotation)– we see that you have checked the tick box on your booking form to confirm you had read and agreed to these, some relevant points from the T&C’s are outlined below:

“Customs clearance, local handling charges, veterinary fees/ paperwork, import/ export permits/ certificates, kenneling/ Quarantine or transport costs from/ to airport are not included unless itemized on our quotation.”


“Upon arrival in final destination your pet/ pets will need to be cleared through customs. Customs’ clearance fees or airline handling fees are to be paid by consignee upon collection unless otherwise specified on your quotation.”

On the front page of the quotation we sent you it also states “Excludes any arrival / handling fees in USA”

So based on the quote we sent you, our terms and conditions, and the specific email sent to you regarding collection fees, your comment stating we “neglected to explain fees which had to be paid in cash at the cargo offices until the night before the flight”, is again, not at all true.

We are shocked and confused that you would suggest our service was an “abysmal effort” - especially as throughout our pretty much daily communications, there was no mention from you or your husband that either of you were unhappy with our service or that there was anything you were uncertain about.

We have checked your booking form in which you specify that no customs broker would be used and that you would be handling your pet’s arrival and from what we can gather from your review above, it seems this is where your frustration lies.

You are unhappy about the clearance procedure in Houston along with the fees you had to pay – something that is not in any way related to our company or level of service and something which you elected from the outset to handle yourself.

Had you elected to use your own broker or for us to arrange customs clearance, the whole procedure would have been take care of for you - you would however, have had to pay extra for this service and the airport fees would still be applicable as these are set by the airline and paid direct to the airline - not to PBS.

We hope this helps to clarify the situation for you Beau and for anyone else who may have come across this. We would welcome a phone call or email from you to discuss things further, if you would like to get in touch at pets@pbspettravel.co.uk or 01293 551140.

We hope that Maoam has settled in well and is enjoying her new home in the USA.

Best regards

PBS PET TRAVEL