Luxury in Chuburna Puerto

Traveling with our dog… “I am a customer and I need a favor...”

 

In the summer of 2017, we rescued our fur-baby Daisy.  My husband and I had been talking literally for years about getting our son a puppy.  Important decisions are discussed and debated to such depth and breadth, that conclusions are often years away (the great kitchen curtain debate of 2010 has yet to be resolved).  So when my son and I came home after a day out swimming in cenotes, I for one was astonished and thrilled when in our living room, tucked into a beach towel, was a tiny adorable puppy.  “Be careful, there is a wild animal loose in the house” my husband whispered, as Alexander tiptoed into the house, spotted the little brown ‘monster’ and began to quietly cry with joy.  Just 2 months old, we had to come back in September to bring her home after wonderful friends (Debbie and Darcy) fostered her with love and care.  This trip, it was just myself and my insistent-son, and this went without a hitch.

 

However, as we made plans for summer 2018 and we discussed staying much longer, we hit a snag – here was an “important decision”.  How safe would Daisy be in a kennel in the belly of a plane?  My husband dug in his heals and would not be moved from the position that it cannot possibly be safe for the dog either mentally or physically to fly in the cargo hold.  He announced he would valiantly stay behind in New Jersey while we went to Chuburna Puerto.  I dug MY heals in that no, we would be spending the summer together as a family at our beach house.  My husband parried, if I can show that our dog would be safe, then he would acquiesce. 

 

We found that Interjet would fly from JFK to Merida with a stop over in Mexico City and that they did not restrict flying animals in the summer.  I spent hours calling and re-calling their help center trying to get assurances about our dog and how they handled the transportation of animals, and specifically what would happen to our Daisy.  I can still hear their hold music over and over again.  The answers I got were consistent but were also not what I would call definite statements.  So, I searched the internet, and I found the email for the CEO of Interjet on an industry publication site.  Here is the email I wrote to the CEO of Interjet:

 

I am a customer and I need a favor...

My family is flying Interjet from JFK to Merida and we are bringing our dog.

I have spoken a few times to your customer service and they have been polite and helpful about the safety of our dog.

However my husband and our son are still very worried about "Daisy" dying.  Our Daisy is just over a year old, perfectly healthy, but the transfers, the time our dog will perhaps be left out on the tarmac, are very concerning.

Here is the favor I am asking:  We have been told that if we ask at JFK to be reunited with our dog in Mexico City, that we maybe can get her for an hour or so during that layover, maybe let her out of her crate, maybe give her water, maybe a snack.

That is too many "maybes".  Can you make these "maybes" turn into "definitlies"?

Thank you in advance for your help!  Alice O'Kane

 

Not even 30 minutes later, I get a reply… I smiled when I saw the first sentence…

 

Dear Alice,

I´m Interjet´s CEO. I´m concerned about your dog Daisy. I´m not fully aware of the case neither its circumstances but be sure that we´ll do as much as we can to help you.

I´m copying senior officers of our airline to investigate, get in touch with you and see what we can do to assist you.

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So after much back and forth with someone from Interjet named Alejandro, we thought yes, Interjet did seem to have answers, and our dog would likely be ok.

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Monkey wrench number 2 came sailing towards me from my husband about a week before we were to leave.  “Well that is all well and good for the Mexico side of things – I am not convinced that we are not going to run into issues there, but it seems like things are going to be fine – BUT we have no idea what is going to happen at JFK”.   SO, what the heck?!?!  I looked up and found the person in charge of ALL cargo for JFK, called and left a message.  Less than an hour later, I got a call back, and the person in charge of all cargo for JFK calmly and politely told me all about how pets were handled at Terminal 7 from his personal knowledge: did start off by saying that my animal was not going to be going cargo.  I had him on speaker so my husband could listen in (the cargo chief of operations did have a voice for radio!).

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I had to get a kennel that was 4 inches taller than my dog and so the resulting kennel was bigger than my first car.  After assembly, we found that the morning of our flight it would not fit through our front door, so we had to take it apart to get it out to the cab.  We sat on the tarmac for 4 hours before takeoff at JFK due to who knows what, and we missed not only our connection but the next available connection to Merida.  When we tried to put the kennel through the door at Mexico City airport, it was too big.  My son figured out how to remove the wheels while keeping poor Daisy in the kennel, so another crisis averted. We made it to Merida hours late, but much to our collective relief, Daisy was just fine.  My husband was a nervous wreck.

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Daisy was thrilled to be back, even for only 6 weeks, to her native Chuburna Puerto.  We all survived.