Beware the Hidden Fees

So, remember how I said that Ev was told he would have another 120 EUR to pay to spring the cats from the airport in Frankfurt? Try 283 EUR. That's right, it cost him about $415 to get them out of the airport. He had to pay a 110 EUR storage fee (why, I have no idea, since he was there before the cats even got off the plane) and a 183EUR vet fee (again, no idea why, since they were fully examined and documented before boarding the plane). Luckily, he had a military ID, so he didn't have to pay the customs fees. Note: if you have a military ID, ask for the military customs form when importing your pets. I think he said it would have been another 150 EUR or so for that.

Another note - if you have a Visa card, try to change it for one with a chip. Our cards are older, and don't have a chip, and so they aren't accepted in many places overseas, the Frankfurt Pet Lounge included. So, he had to pay cash.

Had those fees been included in the Barthco payment, I would have rescinded my complaint. The flight plus the airport fees would have been pretty close to that $800.

I also believe that we should have been warned that we would incur these fees. It seems reasonable for them to say, "That will be $800 for the flight, and be prepared to pay another $400+ when they get to Frankfurt."

So, I had originally budgeted about $1000 for shipping the cats, after I got the $800 estimate from Barthco.

$800 flight
$200 health certificates

Instead, I ended up with this -

$800 flight
$200 health certificates
$100 USDA certification
$155 "storage" fee
$258 FRA vet fee

So, a full $500 over what I had expected. That's ridiculous.