I have contacted the airline but whilst I'm waiting for reply to come some time next week, I thought CD will have an answer that will allow me to start planning :).
A Puppy is flying off to Finland in mid February, neither party has never flown a dog so we are both learning...

I believe options when flying are as a Cargo or as an extra luggage (e.g. somebody flying with him instead of taking him to the airport and pick up in the other end)
Those who have looked in to it, what are people's experiences in price difference of the two options?

I remember reading somewhere there can be a massive difference and if this is likely, I'll organise myself to fly him hence it would be good to start planning now as I have more time over the weekend :).

I haven't flown a dog, but I have looked into it seriously - cargo is much more expensive than extra luggage.  As you are flying out of the UK, you'd be able to fly him as extra luggage.  (If you were bringing a dog in, it would have to be as cargo, due to the UK's Pet Passport scheme.)  The difference is something like £300 for extra luggage or £1000+ as cargo.  If I remember right!

I priced up the options in 2007.  By far the cheapest option was to fly out with the dog as excess baggage.  I was charged £8 per kilo. Dog plus crate was 40 Kg = £320.  Cargo quote was £700.  This was all one way.  Our friend abroard found a cargo flight back for a 1/3 of the UK cost. 

There is a massive difference between flying a dog Cargo or Excess baggage.

You then need to factor in the price of the person (varies hugely on tiem fo year and hwo far in advance you book) flying added to the excess charge.

One direction may still be better as Cargo or may not.

For example my recent trip with American airlines had a standard charge for the dog as excess baggage of $150 dollars, but KLM had a charge of EUR250.  Virgin Atlantic wanted to charge $800 for flying out as Cargo.  Delta $650 for flying in, and that is for 30kg dog and crate together 36 x 26 x 26 inches.

Cargo will be based on the volume/weight so bigger the dog the higher the price.

So no simple answer you have to look at each airline's policies and costs and do the math, no easy way.

if you contact Pat at Skymaster based in Manchester airport, I know from experience that they are the cheapest cargo exporters in the UK, Very professional also. Bear in mind now that no dogs can be taken as excess bagga
ge to the USA and have to go as cargo, this is as of November 10

Bear in mind now that no dogs can be taken as excess bagga
ge to the USA and have to go as cargo, this is as of November 10

Are you sure, I am positive that Brainless flew to the USA with a dog as baggage in December?

quite correct, flew out with American airlines on 9th December and flew back into Brussels on 22nd.

It all depends on the Airline if they do the Checked Baggage/Excess Baggage option.

It was Skymaster that quoted me £700 one way and also said that there was no way to fly out with the dog as excess baggage from Manchester!  All it took was a couple of phone calls to confirm that this was not the case.  As Brainless has already said, ring round and get as many quotes/options as possible.  Where there's a will, there's a way :-)

Thanks everybody

Brainless you are right, not quite as simples as I thought :) I'll just have to call all the airlines on Monday it seems as all airlines do different things and not all are clear what they allow e.g. allow them as baggage or not going out, BA will not let you book in yourselves but requires it all to be done through a pet travel agent etc. There was me contacting an airline regarding the pricing difference and I have just realised they only do it cargo anyways, oops...

Maybe I'll just get them to meet me in Europe as I know how easy it is to take the ferry :).

Check with the American airlines. There is new rules from America since 2 dogs were found dead in cargo with semtex sewn into them. I will find the link and post later.

I sent a puppy out to Finland 4 years ago. She went cargo with Finnair from Heathrow, cost £220. Whenever I spoke to their cargo dept they were very helpful. The tricky thing was calculating the eventual size of the crate acceptable to the airline at the time of travel and I took the pup to Airpets a week before and got one from them, cost £63. The puppy was less than 3 months old so didn't require a rabies jab.

From my notes I still have I'd written down the following:
Pup needs Health certificate IATA/vet certificate reqd for pups under 12 weeks old stating dog is fit for transportation (same thing?)
Microchip & I'd done the tattoo
Transfer KC reg / Export pedigree
and on the crate I had to tape on a letter stating the dogs ID, breed, breeder, saying the animal had been kept on my premises since birth and hadn't had contact with wild animals.

Evira is the Finnish website to look on for further info.

It all seemed pretty straightforward at the time, the worst bit was taking her to Heathrow at silly o'clock in the snow. Flight was on time, she travelled well & I got a phonecall when she arrived (was 1st off the plane).

As I said I only booked my trip on the 30th of November for the 9th and 21st of December.

See no changes on their website info here: http://www.aa.com/i18n/travelInformation/specialAssistance/travelingWithPets.jsp

"Acceptance Restrictions
Pets will not be accepted for flights over 12 hours or on flights traveling to the United Kingdom. American Eagle does not accept pets as checked baggage for Priority Parcel Service between San Juan, (SJU) and St. Kitts (SKB) and between San Juan, (SJU) and Nevis (NEV).

Pets not accepted at departure time remain the responsibility of their owner. "

after some scary experiences i now only use ryslip.

I have had excellent service from Overhill http://www.overhill.co.uk/exports/index.htm if exporting and not going with my own dogs.

They have also been very good with Advice when I have been doing things for myself.

Brainless, would they only be able to book flights etc for people who live near them?  As we're not in that part of the UK...

Don't know, worth a phonecall.