This was an email that just came in from Amy. She wants to fly her Great Dane dog to Hawaii and isn’t confident about shipping it in a large jet airliner’s cargo compartment (and who is?). She came up with a work-around that involves finding a few other pet owners to share a private charter plane to Hawaii – so the pets can fly in the same passenger cabin. Good idea, right?
If you know someone flying to Hawaii in May or June that has pets and might consider going in on the private plane share – write me here quickly so I can pass it on to Amy.
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Hi Vern,
My name is Amy and I was wondering if you might have any info that could be helpful to me. I actually wrote you last year about moving to Kauai and my husband and I have been working very hard to make that dream a reality. We’ve paid off our debit and built a nice cushion in our savings account. We’re planning on making the move this May or June. Here’s where I could use some help, we have a Great Dane that will be making the move with us (don’t worry, he’s already met all Hawaii quarantine requirements). We hate the thought of shipping him cargo and have been looking into sharing a private charter plane with other people moving to the islands with their pets. We plan on leaving from Southern California – LA or San Diego. Although I thought this would be a long shot I’ve actually found three other people willing to share a plane. My questions for you are, do you know of any other people who may be interested in sharing a charter with us (one or two more people could really help us cut costs) and do you know of any charter companies that are pet friendly? I really appreciate any help you could offer. I also want to thank you for your website. It’s always a place of great information. I’m sure I’ll be emailing you for more info as the moving date gets closer.
Mahalo,
Amy
P.S. I love your book too.
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Great idea Amy. I’m not sure we’ll be able to find anyone else to go – but worth a try. Do you have any idea of the costs of the flight and how much it would be for someone and their pet to join right now?
I don’t know any private charters flying to Hawaii. However, I know a helicopter pilot living in San Diego that used to live in Hawaii – so he might know how to find other charters. I’ll ask him.
Best of luck to you on your trip. Hope you fill the plane.
Aloha,
Vern
About Vern Lovic
Aloha! I'm "Vern". I created this site to focus on Hawaii - all the islands - Oahu, Maui, Kauai, Big Island and even Molokai and Lanai and Kahoolawe when I can find information on them. I love living in Hawaii, and I think you would too. I hope you come away with something positive as a result of visiting Aim for Awesome. Feel free to add comments or contact me through email. All written content on this site by Vern Lovic. Contact me at Google+. Best of Life to You in 2013 - Aloha!
Hi Jennifer. Sorry for the delayed response. It would be great to have another person on the flight. Our timeline for the charter would be around mid June. Here’s the problems I’m facing though. We can only afford a charter if we get an empty leg flight (this is an empty plane that is scheduled to fly to Hawaii to pick up passengers and fly back). All the companies I’ve talked to don’t seem to think it will be hard to find an empty leg but the problem is they don’t usually get scheduled until a week or two before the travel dates. That puts us in a bad situation for getting the dogs over if a flight doesn’t become available as the cargo flights fill up a month or more ahead of time. Unfortunately I dont think a charter will work. What I’ve decided to do is book a flight for my dog to go cargo and then hope a charter becomes available. I can always cancel the cargo flight if needed. I hope this helps. Good luck.
I was wondering if you need anyone else for your charter and what is your current timeline? Since you have to go through HNL, does your charter then take you to Kauai?
Thanks Vern. I’ll check those sites out.
Amy, I see I have my work cut out for me. I’m interested in finding other individuals to share charter costs too. My time frame is behind yours as I am just now starting the dogs medical requirements and paperwork. I know you have put a lot of work in research so any tips you can share would be greatly appreciated.
Good luck Wanda. We’re just beginning the charter research but I’m sure we’ll be posting things here as we find out more.
Amy-Thanks for reaching out to this website. It would be wonderful to get another family or two. There must be others out there like us. Saying a prayer this works out.
Thanks Vern. I really appreciate you posting this for me. I think social media is the only way this will ever work. I didn’t mention it before but we’ll be leaving from Southern California. It will most likely be a June timeline since some of the other dogs won’t be done with quarantine until then but if we have enough interested parties maybe we could do a May flight and a June flight. No harm in dreaming big. We don’t have a firm price range yet but have been give estimates of everything from $35,000-$60,000. We’re all doing more research now and hope to have a more solid price soon. If we catch a break and find an open leg flight the price will be more like $35k which would be about $7000 each if we have five people sharing. Considering the cost to ship a pet cargo plus our individual ticket costs that price isn’t too bad. Not to mention the peace of mind of having our beloved pets with us on a private jet. I could think of worse things.
Yep, no problem. I hope someone can help. I won’t be much help other than posting it. I did change the original post to include that you were thinking to leave from LA or San Diego. Good Luck! Aloha, Vern
Have you seen these, or, which companies do you know about already?
http://www.newportjets.com/private-jet-charter-honolulu/
http://www.stratosjets.com/featured-jet-charter/Air-Charter-Flights-in-Hawaii.php