International Pet Shipping: What It Actually Costs (and Who’s Worth Calling)

International Pet Shipping: What It Actually Costs (and Who’s Worth Calling)

Moving abroad is stressful enough without wondering whether your dog is going to be okay in the cargo hold of a plane for fourteen hours. If you’re relocating internationally — especially somewhere with strict import rules like Japan — figuring out how to move your pet safely, legally, and without draining your moving budget is its own project.

This is one of the most common things people ask about when they start planning an international move with a pet: do you need a full-service relocation company, or can you handle it yourself? And if you do hire someone, which one? The honest answer is that it depends on your destination, your pet, and your tolerance for paperwork. Below is a breakdown of five real options — four professional pet relocation services and one do-it-yourself route — based on what each company actually publishes about its pricing and process, plus the official Japanese government requirements if Japan is your destination.

Who this article is NOT for

If you’re flying domestically with a small dog or cat that fits under an airplane seat, none of this applies to you — that’s a simple in-cabin pet fee set by your airline (rates vary by carrier, so check yours directly), and you don’t need a relocation company at all.

This is also not the article for you if you already have a move booked through your employer’s relocation package that includes pet shipping — check with your HR or mobility provider first, since duplicate services waste money.

And if your destination doesn’t require quarantine paperwork, microchips, or import permits (a short list — most countries do require at least some of this), a lot of what follows about compliance and lead time won’t be relevant. Always check your specific destination’s requirements before assuming any of this timeline applies to you.

How we chose what to compare (3 criteria)

1. Experience with complex, high-compliance destinations. Anyone can ship a cat from New York to London with minimal paperwork. Shipping a dog into Japan — which requires a multi-month vaccination and blood-test sequence before the animal is even allowed to board a plane — is a different skill set. We prioritized companies that publish destination-specific guidance for demanding countries.

2. Pricing transparency. Some companies publish real numbers on their websites. Others require a call before you learn anything. Both models are legitimate, but we think it’s worth knowing upfront which one you’re dealing with.

3. Door-to-door service scope. A “pet shipping” company can mean anything from “we book your dog a seat in cargo” to “we handle pickup, boarding, customs, and delivery to your new front door.” We looked at what’s actually included, not just what’s advertised.

Quick comparison

Two of these five don’t publish a specific number anywhere on their own websites, and we’re not going to make one up to fill in a table — if a range mattered to your decision, get a live quote before you commit.

The reviews

PetRelocation

PetRelocation is the most transparent of the group on pricing, and that alone makes it worth a look if you’re the type who wants a ballpark before you pick up the phone. Their published breakdown is genuinely itemized: a $2,000 flat service fee for the coordination work, then separate line items for pickup and airport delivery ($500–$2,500), airport check-in ($450), international airfreight ($1,100–$3,000+), customs and import processing ($550–$750), and destination delivery ($500–$1,500).

Separately from that line-item table, PetRelocation’s site quotes an estimated door-to-door total of $5,500–$10,500 for one small pet. Worth knowing: that figure isn’t just the line items above added together — a plain sum of the table comes out lower on both ends — so treat it as PetRelocation’s own modeled estimate for a typical move rather than a number you can double-check by doing the addition yourself. Either way, it’s before you factor in your own vet visits and travel crate, which aren’t included.

What stands out for a Japan-bound move specifically is that PetRelocation maintains dedicated resources walking through Japan’s import process, including the notoriously confusing 40-day advance notification requirement (more on that below). That’s a good sign they’ve actually handled this route before, not just listed Japan as a destination on a dropdown menu.

Pros: Real, itemized pricing; Japan-specific guidance; clear breakdown of what’s included.
Cons: Even the low end ($5,500+) is a meaningful expense; itemized costs mean the final total can still shift based on your specific route and pet size.
Who it’s for: Owners who want to know roughly what they’re signing up for before requesting a formal quote.

Starwood Pet Travel

Starwood structures its service around three tiers rather than one flat package, which is a genuinely useful way to think about the decision: Economy gets you a coordinator, airline booking, airport pickup, and customs clearance — the essentials. Business adds tracking updates and home delivery instead of just airport pickup. Premium adds a pre-flight vet check at a USDA-accredited clinic, several nights of boarding if needed, and handling of the USDA endorsement paperwork and fees.

The catch is that Starwood doesn’t publish specific dollar ranges for any of these tiers — pricing depends on destination, pet size and breed, and which tier you pick, and you get the real number through their online estimator or a call. They’re upfront that this pricing “excludes quarantine costs,” which is worth remembering if your destination (Japan included) can involve mandatory holding periods.

Pros: Clear tier structure makes it easy to match service level to budget; explicit that quarantine costs are separate, so no surprise there.
Cons: No published pricing means you can’t comparison-shop without contacting them; total cost still depends heavily on your specific route.
Who it’s for: Owners who know they want full-service help but aren’t sure yet how much hand-holding (home delivery vs. airport pickup, boarding vs. no boarding) they actually need.

AirPets International

AirPets is more of a build-your-own-quote experience. Rather than a single service fee, their published cost guidance breaks the move into components: the airline’s own cargo fee (roughly $300–$1,500 for a US domestic flight, and typically two to three times that for international routes), a health certificate ($75–$1,000 depending on where you get it done), and a travel crate ($100–$875, with custom-built crates for large breeds running as high as $2,800).

This is useful if you want to understand where your money is actually going, but it also means AirPets doesn’t hand you one clean number the way PetRelocation does — you’re assembling the estimate yourself from ranges, then confirming with a consultant.

Pros: Transparent about what drives cost, which is educational even if you end up booking elsewhere; flexible cabin/cargo options.
Cons: No single total estimate, so budgeting requires more of your own math; no dedicated Japan resources found on their site.
Who it’s for: Owners who want to understand cost drivers in detail, possibly to sanity-check a quote from another company.

Jetpets

Jetpets is based in Australia and has been an established name in the region for pet transport for decades, and it shows in how specific their Japan page is: they explicitly walk through the fact that pets coming from Australia can enter Japan without quarantine, provided the import conditions are met — which lines up with Japan’s own “designated region” rules (see below). They also hold IATA CEIV Certification for live animal logistics, a credential they say only a handful of companies worldwide have.

Like Starwood, Jetpets doesn’t publish price ranges — you request a custom quote based on your pet’s size, route, and service level. Their door-to-door service includes home pickup, comfort stops in transit, in-house vet and export paperwork, and pre-flight updates from a dedicated handler.

Pros: Strong specific expertise for Australia/NZ/Asia-Pacific routes into Japan; notable certification; clearly explains the no-quarantine pathway for eligible pets.
Cons: No pricing published anywhere; less obviously suited if you’re moving from outside the Asia-Pacific region.
Who it’s for: Owners moving to Japan from Australia, New Zealand, or elsewhere in the region, especially if avoiding quarantine matters to you.

DIY: booking directly through your airline

Here’s the option none of the relocation companies will tell you about: you can, in many cases, just book your pet directly with your airline and handle the compliance paperwork yourself. ANA, for example, lets passengers check pets in as baggage on ANA-operated international flights, provided you register your pet’s crate dimensions and weight in advance and book at least four days before departure. It’s genuinely the cheapest path if your case is straightforward.

The tradeoffs are real, though. ANA’s own policy notes that passengers flying to (and subsequently entering) the UK, Hong Kong, or Australia can’t check pets in at the airport at all — you’d need to arrange cargo shipping through a separate agent instead. And critically, you are entirely responsible for getting the export/import paperwork right yourself; the airline transports the animal but doesn’t manage your compliance for you the way a relocation company does.

Pros: Meaningfully cheaper than a full-service company in straightforward cases; you stay in control of the timeline.
Cons: Zero hand-holding on paperwork — if you get a step wrong, your pet can be denied boarding or held at customs; not available at all for some destination countries; final pricing isn’t published, so you won’t know the exact fee until you call to book.
Who it’s for: Confident, detail-oriented owners moving to a destination with straightforward requirements, who have the time to manage the paperwork themselves.

If you’re moving a pet to Japan specifically

This is worth its own section because Japan’s rules are stricter, and more precisely timed, than almost anywhere else — and getting the timeline wrong is the single most common (and expensive) mistake people make.

Japan’s Animal Quarantine Service splits import rules into two tracks, based on where your pet is coming from.

If you’re coming from a “designated region” — currently Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Iceland, Hawaii, or Guam — and your pet has lived there continuously for at least 180 days (or since birth), the process is much faster: a compliant microchip, a pre-export vet check within 10 days of departure, and notifying Japan’s Animal Quarantine Service at at least 40 days before arrival. Meet all of that, and your pet can clear quarantine at the airport instead of being held.

If you’re coming from anywhere else — including the US and most of Europe — the timeline is longer. Your pet needs a compliant microchip implanted before their first rabies vaccination, then two rabies vaccinations at least 30 days apart, then a rabies antibody (titer) blood test showing a result of at least 0.5 IU/mL, and then a mandatory 180-day wait counted from the date that blood was drawn — not from the test result date, and not from the vaccination date. You also still need to notify Japan’s Animal Quarantine Service at least 40 days before arrival. Miss any of these steps or get the sequence wrong, and your pet can be held in detention quarantine for up to 180 days at your own expense once you land.

In other words: if you’re planning a move to Japan from the US or Europe, you’re looking at a roughly six-month lead time before your pet can travel, and that clock starts the day blood is drawn for the titer test — not the day you book your flight. This is exactly the kind of detail a good relocation company earns its fee by managing for you; it’s also exactly the kind of detail that’s easy to get wrong doing it yourself.

Recommendation by use case

If you want to know the cost before you call anyone: PetRelocation is the only one of the four professional services here that puts real numbers on its own website.

If your destination requires a mandatory quarantine stay or complex documentation, and you’d rather not manage any of it yourself: a full-service company (PetRelocation, Starwood, or Jetpets, depending on your route) is worth the premium — this is exactly the scenario professional coordination earns its fee.

If you’re moving from Australia, New Zealand, or elsewhere in Asia-Pacific into Japan specifically: Jetpets’ explicit experience with the designated-region, no-quarantine pathway is a meaningful edge.

If your case is simple and you’re comfortable with paperwork: pricing it out yourself through your airline (like ANA or JAL for Japan routes) will almost always be cheaper — just budget real time for the compliance research, and confirm early which requirements apply to your specific route.

Conclusion

There’s no single “best” pet shipping company — there’s a best fit for your route, your pet, and how much of the process you want to hand off versus manage yourself. What matters most is starting early, especially if Japan (or any country with a titer-test requirement) is your destination: the six-month compliance clock is unforgiving, and no amount of money spent on a relocation company can shorten a mandatory waiting period set by a foreign government.

If you’re just starting to plan, the first move is simple: confirm your destination country’s exact import requirements from its own government source, work backward from your target moving date, and then decide whether you want a company to manage that timeline for you or you’re comfortable owning it yourself.