The first time I flew with Tess, the lady who checked her in reassured me they make a priority to care for the dog. She said they had flown some hunting dogs to Alberta a few days earlier and the man said to her, "now don't get me wrong, I love my wife BUT my dog is REALLY important, you must not let any harm come to her." So it felt like she understood how important it was.

I wouldn't put my dog on an American carrier. Air Canada did ok with her to and from Greece but totally gets negative points for lack of actual reassurance to the owner.

Westjet is totally awesome. And once the dog figures out the take off and landing part, I'm sure lying quietly in the dark in the hold is much less stressful than for the people sitting in a cramped seat in the passenger part of the plane. And you get to see them quite quickly after disembarking. Dogs are the last to be loaded and first off.