Well, we are now all well and truly settled back into the UK. We are so very grateful of the professional and friendly service we received and Benji is very happy running around the fields chasing his tennis ball! He has never been so happy.
Benji enjoying the English Countryside
I would like to share our story for future clients (especially for anyone planning to exit China with a dog) as I feel more people should know about the excellent service your offer. As you will see I have copied in Mary (our vets) and Layting (our relocation agents) so they can share the story too.
When we were told we were leaving Beijing, China for the UK, our first worry was how we were going to get our family Labrador Benji home safely. We already had an amazing Veterinary Doctor and team based in Beijing who helped us prepare Benji for departure. This process can take up to 6 months and it is most important to be aware of what is required. I highly recommend ICVS – International Centre Veterinary Services in Beijing. Mary Peng CEO/Founder and her team are incredible and I have to say the most trusted Veterinary hospital in the city.
Mary offers twice a month free information sessions on ‘departing China with pets’ These sessions are very informative and provide you with all the information you need from the vaccination process to the pet relocation information. We decided to use a pet relocation service to organise all our paperwork and ensure we had everything covered. We chose Beijing based – Globy Relocation. I had been at one of Mary’s sessions and one of their representatives was there and was able to answer all the questions on preparing the governmental paperwork to booking the flights. They were brilliant.
The advantage of attending one of Mary’s information sessions is that we were aware in plenty of time that our primary airline carrier, British Airways only transported animals as cargo but during the months of July and August they had an embargo period (no live cargo due to the hot temperatures) This then presented us with a problem, as we needed to exit Beijing in before the end of August.
With the help of the Pet Relocation team, we were then informed that the BA departed at 11am and due to this morning departure Benji would have had to have been collected by Pet Relocation at 2 pm the afternoon of the day before. On arrival at the airport he would be released for a quick toilet break before being placed back in this travel crate by 4PM as he would have had to have been secure before he was taken and left at the cargo holding area till departure the following day. That would mean he would have been caged for 19 hours before he even began his 10 hour flight to the UK
This arrangement was worrying me. This was far too long a journey so I started my research and found Pet Moves.
Barry at Pet Moves was brilliant from start to end. He talked me through the process over the phone and I knew immediately we would be using his services
We decided to fly Air France into Charles de Gaulle (departure time 01:00 so no embargo Beijing end) we all departed for the airport the same time and with going extra baggage we walked out lab up to the check in desk (where we were lucky to meet the actually air crew as they were also checking in along side us) We were then taken to the extra baggage area by our Pet Relo representative who was with us the whole time. He was brilliant ! Benji was then caged and they placed security tapes around the container to ensure extra safety and off he was taken to the air craft. By the time we got to the gate and boarded the cabin crew came to us and informed us he was safe on board and all was good. So easy !
At this point we sent Barry a quick text to inform him we had departed on time and on our arrival in France, we texted again to let him know we were in the baggage area having collected Benji from extra baggage (where he was already waiting for us) and made our way to the pick up point.
As we stepped out the terminal Barry was with us within 5 minutes. Very punctual.
The vehicle was very comfortable and spacious and Benji jumped up back beside us for our journey home.
Barry was brilliant, very professional and clearly very experienced and knew the first stop had to be a few minutes down the road at the fuel station where Benji was able to toilet and stretch his legs and have some water and a light snack. We then grabbed a coffee and off we went. After a couple of hours we stopped for lunch at a lovely rural location where we were able to feed Benji and take him over the canal and into fields and let him have a good 30 minute exercise. This was just the perfect location. Barry was there to help with Benji the whole time. Nothing was a problem.
The last leg of the journey to Calais was very easy and a very pleasant drive. When we arrived at the British border control Barry took us inside were they checked Benji micro chip and paperwork and we were free to go. Thank you Layting the paperwork was all perfect. We hopped back into the vehicle and because we had priority boarding (which I would highly recommend) this meant we jumped the line and went straight into the first train. We had no wait at all.
Once on the train it was 30 minutes to cross and we drove straight off and then Barry took us to our requested drop in Dover.
We had a very comfortable and pleasant journey. We are so happy that we took the decision to fly into France and have Barry drive us over into the UK. The service we received was excellent and we would highly recommend anyone to use Pet Moves.
Thank you Barry, you were brilliant! I have friends in China that will definitely be contacting you for your services when they return to the UK with their pets
Big thanks to all involved. Benji is loving the English country side.
Regards
Helen Mark and Benji
