Flying With a Dog on Delta: Fees, Carrier Size and Where Your Dog Cannot Go

Delta is the airline Americans ask about most when it comes to flying with a dog, and its policy is one of the clearer ones in the business. If your dog is small enough to ride in a carrier under the seat in front of you, Delta will take it on most of its routes for a fixed fee. If your dog is bigger than that, Delta is simply not an option for an ordinary passenger, and it is better to know so before you start comparing fares. This guide sets out what the airline allows and what it does not, taken from Delta's own pet travel page as it stood in the autumn of 2026, along with the practical advice that the page leaves out.

What Delta Allows, in Brief

Small dogs travel in the cabin, in a kennel that stays under the seat in front of you from boarding to landing. The fee is $150 each way on flights within the United States and to Canada, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, and $200 each way on international flights, so a domestic return trip costs $300 for the dog. Delta sets no weight limit, which surprises people, and judges instead by whether the dog fits its kennel and the kennel fits the space. What it does have is a list of places where no pet may travel in the cabin at all, and that list includes Hawaii and the United Kingdom, two of the destinations people most want to reach.

Will Your Dog Fit?

Because there is no weight limit, the whole question turns on the kennel. Delta's rule is that your dog must be small enough to fit comfortably inside, with room to move around without touching or sticking out from the sides, and that the kennel must fit completely under the seat in front of you. The airline recommends a soft sided kennel no larger than 18 by 11 by 11 inches, because a bag of that size goes under the seats of most of its aircraft. In practice that means a dog of somewhere up to 15 or 20 lb, depending on its build. A long, low dachshund of 16 lb will usually manage where a leggy 16 lb terrier may not, so measure your dog standing and lying down and compare it honestly with the bag.

The space under the seat is not the same on every aircraft, and Delta says so, advising you to check the dimensions for the aircraft on your flight. If your kennel is at the limit, choose a soft one with a little give in the top, since a rigid box that is half an inch too tall will be refused at the gate. The kennel must be leak proof and ventilated on three sides for domestic travel and on four sides for an international flight, so a bag bought for domestic trips may not do for Europe. Only one pet may travel in each kennel, with exceptions for a mother and her unweaned litter and for two very young animals of the same breed, and you may carry one kennel on board.

Age, Seats and Baggage

Your dog must be at least 8 weeks old to fly within the United States. The limits rise for international travel: a dog must be at least 15 weeks old to enter the European Union, and at least six months old to be brought into the United States from abroad, which catches out people returning home with a puppy they bought overseas. Delta allows up to four pets in its main cabin and Comfort seats on each flight and two in domestic first class. It takes none at all in Delta One, in international business class or in its Premium cabin, because those seats have no space beneath them.

Where you sit is restricted too. With a pet you cannot choose a bulkhead seat, an emergency exit row, a seat marked as having no stowage or any seat with a flat bed, and on a few aircraft types certain rows are excluded as well. A window seat is usually the best choice, because your dog is out of the way of the aisle and less disturbed by people passing. The kennel counts towards your cabin allowance, so you may bring it plus either one personal item or one carry on bag, not both. Pack accordingly, and keep anything you will need during the flight in the smaller bag at your feet.

Where Delta Will Not Take a Dog in the Cabin

This is the part to check before you buy your own ticket, because no fee and no paperwork will get round it. Delta does not allow pets in the cabin on any flight to or from Hawaii, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Iceland, Jamaica, Barbados, South Africa or the United Arab Emirates. Pets cannot travel at all from Brazil, Colombia or the Dominican Republic. Most of these reflect the rules of the destination, not a whim of the airline. Britain, for instance, requires every pet arriving by air to travel as cargo, and Hawaii has strict quarantine laws, which we explain in our guide to taking your dog to Hawaii.

On other international routes a dog may travel in the cabin provided you hold every document the destination requires, and Delta staff will check them before you board. For Europe that means a microchip, a rabies vaccination and an endorsed health certificate, which we set out step by step in our guide to taking a dog from the US to Europe. For Mexico, Delta notes that since 3 August 2026 a dog needs a screwworm inspection certificate from an accredited vet, issued no more than five days before arrival, and that it will be verified at check in. Our guide to Mexico covers both that certificate and the one you need to come home.

If Your Dog Is Too Big

Delta's page for the public offers the cabin and nothing else. Pets checked into the hold are accepted only for active duty military personnel and State Department Foreign Service officers travelling on transfer orders. For everyone else with a Labrador or a spaniel, the answer is another airline or another way of travelling. Alaska Airlines is the main American carrier that still takes larger dogs in the hold for ordinary passengers, and our guide to flying with a dog on Alaska explains how. If you are weighing up whether the hold is right for your dog at all, read our guide to flying a dog in the hold first, which looks at the official safety figures.

Booking and the Day of Travel

Places for pets are given on a first come, first served basis, and with as few as four on a flight they do run out, particularly at holiday times. Book your own seat, then contact Delta's reservations team straight away to add the dog, with the length, width and height of your kennel to hand, because they will ask. Do not leave it until the week before. If the pet places on your flight are taken, you will have to change flights, and it is far easier to discover that on the day you book.

At the airport you cannot use a kiosk or check in online. You go to the special service counter, where an agent checks that the dog and kennel meet the rules, takes the fee and gives you a tag for the kennel, so allow a good deal of extra time. At security you will be asked to take your dog out of the kennel and carry it through the metal detector while the empty kennel goes through the X-ray machine, as the TSA requires, so have a lead or harness on your dog before you reach the front of the queue. After that your dog goes back in the kennel and must stay there throughout the airport, in the lounges and on the aircraft, apart from visits to a pet relief area. Delta is firm about this, and warns that passengers who do not keep to the rule may lose the right to travel with a pet on future flights.

Getting Your Dog Ready

The dogs that fly well are the ones for whom the kennel is already a familiar place. Buy it several weeks ahead, leave it open at home with your dog's bedding inside, feed your dog in it, and build up gradually to an hour or more with the top zipped while you go about your day. Our guide to training your dog to travel explains how to do this without frightening the dog. On the day itself, give your dog a long walk before you leave for the airport, feed it lightly some hours beforehand, and use the pet relief area before you board. Do not sedate your dog, because sedatives affect breathing and balance at altitude, and if your dog is an anxious traveller, talk to your vet well in advance about what is safe.

If you are flying home from abroad, remember that your dog needs a CDC Dog Import Form to enter the United States, must be microchipped and must be at least six months old. Delta will ask to see the receipt before it lets you board. For everything else about air travel with a dog, from choosing a carrier to coping with a long flight, see our complete guide to flying with a dog.

A Closing Thought

Delta is a sound choice for a small dog on a domestic flight or a trip to continental Europe, and a non starter for Hawaii, Britain or any dog that cannot fit under a seat. The rules are few and they are applied consistently, which is more than can be said of some airlines. Measure your kennel against the 18 by 11 by 11 inch guide, check your destination against the list of exclusions, book the dog on the day you book yourself, and spend the weeks before the flight making the kennel a place your dog is happy to be.