I wanted to share this because when I was planning, it was really hard to find clear, real world info about flying with a cat in cabin from Bangladesh to the US.
Turkish Airlines is basically the only airline that allows pets in cabin out of Dhaka. When I first tried to book, the airline office flat out refused and said Dhaka airport doesn’t allow cabin pets. That’s not fully true, but there is a process.
What finally worked was getting two documents:
CAAB permission letter
NOC
For the NOC, I needed:
Microchip number
Vaccination records (including rabies)
Health certificate
Important detail: the NOC is only valid for 21 days, so timing matters a lot.
Once I had everything, Turkish Airlines allowed me to add my cat as a cabin pet. I chose to pay the pet fee at the airport.
At Dhaka airport, they checked the NOC, CAAB letter, vaccination records, and health certificate. They visually checked the carrier size but did not weigh my cat or the carrier. A quarantine officer reviewed everything and issued a clearance certificate. I did not have a rabies titer test and it was not asked for.
Onboard, my cat stayed under the seat for takeoff and landing, but otherwise I was allowed to keep him on my lap.
I had a 19 hour layover in Istanbul and exited the airport since I had the same ticket and an e visa. I stayed at a pet friendly hotel near the airport. Surprisingly, immigration only wanted to see my cat and didn’t ask for documents. Same thing the next day when returning for my US flight.
One nice thing is that Istanbul airport has pet relief rooms. I also carried portable cat litter which helped a lot during the layover.
On the Istanbul to US flight, we got lucky and had an empty seat in our row, so I could place the carrier there for most of the 10 hour flight.
Arrival in the US was easy. They only checked the rabies vaccination card and nothing else.
The prep was stressful, but the actual journey went much smoother than I expected.
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