Fees/refunds?

Here I am still umming and ahhing over whether it's best /right to take the 12 year old dog to Australia. The pendulum swings one way then the other.

Although she seems perfectly healthy at the moment, given her age she could potentially go rapidly downhill and have passed away by the time we leave. If we were to start the process and she died before flying out , would we get any refund for flight bookings, uncompleted parts of the process?

This is a really good question.

It depends on what stage you are at really.

If you get the rabies vaccination and rabies blood sample done and then your dog does not fly you dont get a refund of that from your vets.

When you sign up with a shipper you will normally pay a deposit which covers the costs to arrange a flight - if you have to cancel after paying that then you will lose that. If you cancel about 2 days before the flight (just for example) then normally you will lose the whole amount with some shippers and some shippers (Petair for example) will give you back what you have not "used". So if you cancel 2 days before the flight, you would have done all the vet work, got permits, but wont need a flight, so we would refund you the flight part of your bill. Some shippers will keep the whole lot if you cancel late, so it is worth checking the cancellation policy before you sign up.

Best advice for you - get the rabies work done, then it is done and ready and then you dont really need to make a decision until closer to a potential flight date. But the worst scenario is you dont get the rabies work done and you want your dog to fly and your dog is stuck in UK waiting for the 6 months to pass.

Anything else you let us know

Merry Christmas

Thank you Bob. Very helpful