Chan, a 24-year-old graphic designer, and Charlie, her 7-year-old golden retriever, lived in New York together for four years.
They loved their life there, but Chan had been in a long-distance relationship with her boyfriend for a while when 2025 rolled around, and she was ready to relocate to London to be with him full-time.
Charlie was, of course, going to come with Chan to start their new life in the UK, but Chan told Business Insider she wasn’t thrilled about the idea of taking him on a plane to get there.
“When we initially looked at how to transport Charlie to London, we were looking at several options,” she said. “I think the most obvious one was looking into flying him.”
However, because Charlie is a large dog, he can’t fit under a seat on a commercial plane and would have to journey in a crate in the cargo area.
“You hear stories here and there about bad experiences with dogs flying in cargo,” Chan said. “I’m glad for dogs that have a good experience, but if there was another option where we didn’t have to do that, we were definitely more excited to do that instead.”
