Going to Van this weekend
 

I'm off to Vancouver this weekend, what LFS I should check out. Also, will airlines alow me to have corals in my carry on?

Hi danny,

I work for WestJet as a ground handler. I don't know about the upstairs procedures 100% but I think you may have a little trouble with security and bringing a coral as carry-on. However, a good way to assure the coral is treated well when being stored below is to place it in a cardboard box and have the customer service agent (check-in) mark it as a live animal (I'd put fish because some people may not understand how delicate a coral is). The box should then be placed in it's own pit (maybe with a couple other animals or fragile items, but it won't have anything placed on it).
I hope that helps,

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Thats cool, I was just thinking ahead just in case I buy something. So you might know my future sister-in-law Adel, who also works for WJ.

Why would an airline have any concerns with someone travelling with a small bag of water with coral in it? The water? It can't be any worse than travelling with a bottle of booze or drinking water.

If you're coral shopping, check out Ocean Aquatics and JL Aquatics.

It's not so much the water, it's that the chances of the person checking your carry-on will actually know enough about corals to completely understand what it is. I can definately see someone, who's only seen Finding Nemo, think only the worst if someone tried to bring an anenome as a carry-on. Nail clippers for instance are not allowed as carry-on. A corner of one of my books can do more damage than one of those things :).

And, I don't recognize the name of your future sister-in-law. What department does she work in?

Danny,

Give me a call if you want when you come to Vancouver. I live in Burnaby. Do you have a place to stay while here. We have room here if you need a place to crash. We might be going to visit LFS on Saturday, if you're interested. PM me for contact info if you want.

Anthony

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Actually I'll be staying at my sis-in-laws place in New Westminster. I'm hoping to get out one day during the weekend to check out the LFS while my fiance' looks for dresses. Anthony, you should pm me your phone number, and thanks for the offer. I take it I can just look up the addresses to the LFS in the phone book?

Joel, she's an attendant.

I tried checking in coral once with WestJet. Had a huge foam box that they refused to check in. After they found out there were live animals in the box, they said, for sure 100% that it would not be allowed onto the flight even as cargo. If I wanted to take it home, I HAD to use the WestJet cargo service :rolleyes: (which of course was not available that day).

Long story short, I ended up having to call Chin Lee to help pick up the corals and hold them for a month before shipping it down to me in Edmonton.:mad:

That's quite strange that you weren't allowed to check them. Ocean's aquarium, here in Calgary, uses us to ship their fish quite abit. I've done many flights that have had live fish on it. I'm sorry to hear that. Unfortunately, sometimes it depends on the person doing the check-in.

On an international Flight my friend showed customs, the attendants and baggage check in her Betta in a cup of water and they were fine with it. She carried it in her lap.

now I can't see a domestic flight being much more strict than an international...