Holidays abroad with the Staffy

Has anyone flown out from the UK to Spain / Portugal with their dog for a holiday. We were going to go to Fuerteventura / Egypt for the wife's 40th but the more I look at Tilly when I leave her for a couple of days the more I think I don't want to put her into kennels.
Currently got our Vet (Defra) looking into the whole Staffy / Staffy x thing as I know this can cause issues in France but we are quite seriously looking into closer places , take a villa or something and fly Tilly out with us if possible. Other alternative is for Daddy, daughter and no 2 daughter (Tilly x ) to drive out and then fly the OH out a few days after as she can't be doing with the long drives due to her own issues.
I know it's all organisable when moving house etc, emigrating but then there is more time available, I want to leave with Tilly and jump on a plane as if I were going by myself, I would normally fly from Manchester or Birmingham.

Never flown with Billy, would be ineterested to see how easy it is cause we go to Cyprus a lot

read lots tonight and it seems with a few airlines (Lufthansa etc) its quite easy if you live in Europe. if the dog is under 8kg then travels as cabin baggage plus a small fee, more difficult when they are a little bigger Tilly gives me the big sad eyes when I leave for a couple of days as I go on business quite a lot so I am getting really paranoid about kennels now, never gave it a second thought with our old Border Collie but Tilly gets so stressed when her mummy is still next to her

Do they have to be in a cage if they are under 8kg

Some european countries (france is one) won't allow staffs or staff crosses into their country unless you can produce a pedigree certificate (along with the pet passport) from the kennel club.

You'll need to check with each country you intend to travel to/through beforehand or you could be faced with a problem!

lynne wrote:Do they have to be in a cage if they are under 8kg

It talks about some kind of cabin approved bag that will fit under the seat in front of you

http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071010114901AAElGG7