This is my first time owning a cat and i wanted to travel with it so i did all the necessary requirements that i was informed about (ex: vaccines) by the airlines. Everything went well and i even booked business class in order to make my cat comfortable only for the flight attendants to threaten me and tell me that the carriage for my bag was too stiff and it needed to be soft (i wasn’t informed about this) the reason for this is so incase of a crash u would have space BUT as i said before i was in business the space was huge and the seats were empty so that doesn’t make sense. They gave me two choices either the cat gets off the plane or he is sent with the cargo. At first i was hesitant but they said that they would place a seatbelt and regulate the temperature for the cat so i was reassured. The whole flight was pumpy so i was worried. When i gave them the cat they told me they would bring it to the aircraft the moment it lands but then they changed their claims and told me that i need to get it myself. I went there waited for hours only to find that they DIDNT put a seatbelt my cat was getting hit by the baggage and the carriage it was in even broke so when they opened the aircraft the cat ran away and no one bothered to follow it. The cat is only 7 moths old and is a typical home cat who can’t survive in the wild. The lack of professionalism and the way they treated the cat makes me think they see it as simply just and animal but to me it is a precious family member. It hasn’t been found yet and i don’t know what to do. 14 has alr passed and it still haven’t been found! This was on plane IST-TK 0109/02 from medinah to istanbul on 2/7/2022.
irst of all, Im really sorry your cat is missing!
Secondly: The FA was incorrect – this is what it says on their own website regarding what type of carrier (cage) is permitted onboard – it says hard OR soft as long as it doesnt exceed these dimensions: 23 cm x 30 cm x 40 cm (hwl). Thats a pretty standard carrier (its 9 inches high by 11 inches wide by almost 16 inches long).
The cat should have been secured in the cargo hold – Ive never heard of a carrier being broken, only of one being chewed by an animal (which a cat isnt going to be able to do).
This happened quite awhile ago (if it was january and february) – did you speak with the airline? You need to initiate compensation conversations with them and if that doesnt go well, you need to speak with an attorney – this is really NOT a good thing on their part.
Oh my.. poor thing. Imagine what the little cat went through the flight so that it run away like crazy… So horrible and so sorry that this happened to you. Such neglect on part of the handling staff is inexcusable. Write complaint on TK website and to Turkish CAA. Also IATA!