Flying a Dog Within Japan: JAL, ANA and StarFlyer's Cabin Seat

On a StarFlyer flight out of Haneda, a small dog can ride in the last row of the cabin, its crate belted into the window seat and its owner in the seat beside it. That is the exception in Japan. On Japan Airlines and All Nippon Airways, the two big carriers, a pet dog goes in the hold, checked in at the counter like a suitcase and handed back to you in the arrival hall. The airline you pick decides the cost, the crate, and whether a pug or a French bulldog can come at all.

Japan Airlines: The Hold, and Two Breeds It Refuses

JAL's page for passengers travelling with pets is clear that a dog cannot be carried on board. It flies in the hold, in a bulk cargo room air conditioned to match the cabin, kept dark during the flight and pressurised to about 0.8 bar, roughly what you would feel at the top of a 2,000 metre mountain. The fee is 5,500 to 7,700 yen per crate per flight sector, varying with the route and the day you fly.

JAL refuses bulldogs and French bulldogs outright, in the hold as well as the cabin. Pugs, Boston terriers, Japanese Chins and other short-nosed breeds are accepted, though JAL asks owners of flat-faced dogs, puppies and old dogs to think hard about the date and time of a flight between 1 May and 31 October, and advises against flying in the heat of the day. The dog must be at least eight weeks old, not pregnant, and vaccinated against rabies.

Bring an IATA standard crate of hard plastic, fibreglass or wood, big enough for the dog to stand, lie down and turn round, with locking pins that reach at least 1.6 cm past the door frame; soft, folding and wire crates are refused. JAL rents crates, but holds only a few in the large sizes, so owners of a Boxer or a Shepherd should call before booking. If the dog and crate together weigh more than 32 kg, the dog travels as cargo rather than as baggage, and on flights run by the regional airlines JAC, HAC and RAC the limit is 45 kg.

Fill in the letter of consent before you travel. On the day, go to the Traveling with Pets counter beside baggage check-in at least 40 minutes before departure, and fix a leakproof water bottle inside the crate, because staff will not feed or water the dog once it is checked in. At the other end an agent carries the crate to the arrival lobby and hands it to you.

ANA: Book the Dog Online, Mind the Summer Ban

ANA's domestic pet page also puts every pet dog in the hold, and it is the stricter of the two on age and on flat faces. The dog must be at least four months old and must not be sedated. From 1 May to 31 October ANA suspends carriage of short-nosed breeds altogether, and it names them: bulldog, French bulldog, boxer, Shih Tzu, Boston terrier, bull terrier, King Charles spaniel, Tibetan spaniel, Brussels griffon, chow chow, pug, Japanese Chin and Pekingese. Over the same months it lends out cooling packs and refuses covered crates, because air cannot move through them.

You reserve the dog's place yourself, under Reservation for Pets in the Services tab of your booking on ana.co.jp, up to the day before departure, choosing your own crate or one of ANA's four rental sizes (the largest, for a retriever or a Doberman, has to be reserved by phone). To cancel, you call ANA; the website will not do it.

The fee is 6,600 yen per crate on most routes and 4,400 yen on a list of short island and Hokkaido routes, such as Naha to Ishigaki. On a connecting journey booked together, you pay once for the whole trip, unless a leg is run by Japan Air Commuter or Amakusa Airlines, which have their own rules.

ANA's weight rules mirror JAL's: dog and crate between 32 and 45 kg may be refused online and need a call, and over 45 kg the dog cannot be checked in at all and must go through the cargo counter. Only nozzle water bottles are allowed, and ANA asks you to take the lead off before check-in so it cannot wrap round the dog in flight. If your connection is longer than two hours, you may have to collect the dog and check it in again.

StarFlyer: The Seat Beside You

StarFlyer is a smaller airline flying between Haneda, Kitakyushu, Fukuoka, Yamaguchi Ube, Kansai, Chubu and Sendai. Its FLY WITH PET! service, which StarFlyer calls the only cabin pet service of any Japanese airline, now runs on every StarFlyer domestic flight. It costs 50,000 yen per animal on top of your own fare, and it is for small dogs and cats that fit a crate no bigger than 75 cm high, 43 cm wide and 55 cm long with room to stand and lie down.

The crate needs a handle the seat belt can pass through, mesh windows and a mesh door rather than bars, and room for the plastic seal locks StarFlyer fixes to every opening; if yours will not do, you rent StarFlyer's. The dog must be calm, trained not to bark, brushed against loose hair, and wearing a dog nappy. You book on StarFlyer's site up to two days before the flight and pay by credit card through the call centre, never at the airport. At check-in staff ask for proof of a combination vaccine covering at least three diseases and, for a dog, the rabies jab.

Arrive at the counter about 90 minutes before departure; if you have not checked in 40 minutes before, you may not fly. You carry the dog through security in your arms on a lead or harness with as little metal as possible, then board first. The crate is belted into the window seat of the last row, on a seat cover and cushion, and you sit next to it. The dog stays in the crate throughout; you may give it water from a bottle but no food, and you leave the aircraft last.

The Fine Print on StarFlyer

StarFlyer is frank. A pet gets no emergency oxygen, and in an evacuation the dog must be left on board. If your flight is cancelled, StarFlyer will not rebook the cabin seat onto a flight outside the service; the dog travels in the hold instead. A connection to or from another airline needs at least 90 minutes between flights, and a flight that already has a FLY WITH PET! booking may be full. For owners who would rather check the dog in, StarFlyer takes pets in the hold for a separate fee.

Before You Fly to Japan at All

These rules are for flights inside Japan. Bringing a dog into the country is a far longer job, with a microchip, two rabies jabs, a blood test and a 180 day wait before arrival, all set out in our guide to the quarantine countries.

Once you land, the cities are kind to dogs, as our Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto guides show, and as we argued in Japan is the most dog friendly country on earth. For a small dog going from Tokyo to Fukuoka, StarFlyer's 50,000 yen buys something no other Japanese airline sells: the dog in the next seat, close enough to hear you, all the way down to Kyushu.