You can also give him an antihistamine like Benadryl - I gave that to Tipper & Elvis when we moved and it kept them pretty calm.

ok well i'm pissed off. (not because the beatles had posh scouse accents ha ha)

the woman from conintental airlines told me so much bullshit the other day... they don't allow cats incabin on international flights he has to go through a shipping service. and it's going to cost a fuckload more than what she told me. how come people aren't fully informed who work for the fucking airline. so i've already bought my nonrefundable e-ticket to go home via newark because it was cheap... and now because i got that ticket i will probably have to pay more for max to switch planes too. can you believe the cheapest one way flight that i could find was $740 (£380)... and now with max that's going to be probably around $400 (£200) more or upwards. added on to the £200 ($400) i have to ship my things back via air frieght...it looks like this fucking trek home is my birthday present - ha ha!!

oh yeah it's my birthday on 2nd of september! woop! the way things are going i'm spending it at my moms watching comedy central staring at max.

Again, I'm super-late in on this one because Peeps hogs the computer, but I wanted to add these.

My vet in Houston strongly recommended against sedation and Lupin and Peeps did fine (admittedly, the flight was only around 3 hours and domestic). Lupin played the diva and charmed everyone. She slept most of the time under my seat. I got her a sherpa bag and unzippered it at times so she could look out. The girl in the seat next to me was thrilled. With the travel to Houston Intercontinental, the check in and the wait, as well as the wait to be picked up in Pittsburgh, the babies were away from a litterbox for about 7 hours and there was only one tiny accident (Lupin pissed a little on the sherpa shearling blanket, which I had to toss out). Sherpa bags provide a water carrier so I did give her something to drink on the flight.

Peeps was in cargo as she was/is healthier so she got the bad end of it. She wasn't happy at the end and I wasn't pleased that they just stuck her in a corner near baggage reclaim (where anyone could have stolen her) rather than placing her in a room where I had to collect her. I'd check to see what Continental will do (I was on USAirways) for pick-up.

I gave her a t-shirt I'd slept in and some worn gym socks so she had my smell near her to calm her down. She had water but no food (my vet's recommendation). Again, no sedatives were recommended, so we went cold turkey. My vet said that she'd likely sleep, and I imagine she did.

After the flight, both were fine but it took them a while to eat, drink or even use their litterboxes. I've road-tripped with cats (Peeps, Lupin and Blue) and they've generally done the same thing. It is like their digestive systems just shut down until they are comfortable again. This means they're less likely to need the toilet than you might think.

I would still check to see what British Airways would do. I know they are pioneers in pet travel and they do allow them in the cabin (last time I checked). I have had *horrendous* problems with Virgin in the past--I would never fly them again nor would I trust them with a pet. When things go well with them, fine, but when they do not, they are the worst airline I've ever dealt with. They have terrible customer service.

Good luck and please keep us posted with how it all goes.