Aero Pets

We were really unhappy with the service Aero Pets NZ provided and here’s why. We were relocating to America and decided to use them to transport our dog, Zoe, to San Francisco. We, of course, had no issues with meeting Monique at MPI and dropping Zoe off at AirNZ cargo since she was there to handle the process and paperwork. As we boarded the plane, we were left with the impression that we’d simply meet Zoe on the other side of our flight. Instead, when we arrived, we sat at the «Animal Pick-​up» section of baggage claim for an hour as we waited for Zoe to be brought out — but this didn’t happen. We finally were able to ask a Customs agent walking out of the office where our pet was — she replied that we had to go to an off-​site AirNZ location to get her but she wasn’t sure of the details.
Then, it took us an additional two, very frustrating hours of speaking with multiple customs agents who had conflicting parts of our necessary instructions to finally reach an AirNZ agent who was able to help us (and we only got lucky in reaching him because a Customs agent was kind enough to make calls on our behalf to try to find us the right information). From the airline rep, we learned that we needed an Informal Entry Form 3461 to get a Customs authorisation to bring her into the country. To get this, we had to first drive to an off-​site location several kilometers away to get the form from AirNZ cargo (who charged us a $ 45US handling fee). We then had to drive to a different several-​kilometres-​away US Customs building to get that authorisation and then GO BACK to AirNZ cargo with the signed documents to have her released to us. Because we were not advised of any of this other-​side process, our plan to simply use the hotel shuttle for transportation was impossible and we ended up having to go to the car rental centre to hire a car at an additional $ 120US). In the end, after five stressful hours, we were finally able to collect Zoe.
Yes, there are certainly the NZ and US sides of this trip, but we were under the impression that AeroPets was being engaged to ease our minds because of their experience with shipping pets and would have disclosed all the information/​processes we needed to collect Zoe at SFO. However, this was not the case at all. As these procedures are part of AirNZ’s processes for transporting pets, we thought we were paying AeroPets for this knowledge and for the handling of the WHOLE process by informing us what to expect on the other side so we could have properly prepared. We contacted Monique afterwards to explain the ordeal and she responded by saying that she «did complete the service per our quote». That’s a really poor response considering that we paid several thousand dollars for her service.
We would not recommend using Aero Pets NZ and would also suggest that you do your homework to understand the procedures to collect your pet at your final destination.