As we taxied down the runway before takeoff, Lulu’s paw gripped my thigh and her claws dug in. She’s never much liked being in the car, but this time was different. This time, we were hitting the skies. She nestled her head in my lap, her big brown eyes gazing up at me with a look of anxiety and confusion. I kissed the top of her head and rubbed her silky, floppy ears, and cheerily told her, “it’s finally time for our big adventure!”
My stomach felt that familiar drop as we ascended into the sky, but it was hard to feel too nervous with my beloved English cream golden retriever lounging in my lap. Plus, having grown up in Virginia, we were headed to a location I’ve dreamed of visiting since I was a little girl: London. And I had my best girl beside me.
And just like that, we’d successfully taken off on our first Bark Air flight, a six-and-a-half hour journey from a private airport in White Plains, New York, to London’s Biggin Hill Airport, about 22 miles south of the city.
Photo by Sydney Lake
Bark Air isn’t some dusty old commercial airline. Launched in May 2024 after “more than 10 years of dreaming,” it was formed to create a premier experience for flying with your dog. Dogs don’t ride in cargo here; they ride in style in a 10-seater GulfStream private jet, an aircraft many dream of flying in but few get the chance to.
The airline was started by the same company that brought us BarkBox, the monthly subscription box that supplies your dogs with fresh toys and treats. To prove how truly petrifying flying in cargo can be for dogs, Bark CEO Matt Meeker actually flew in a crate under a plane for a four-hour flight and documented his experience.
It was “absolutely horrible,” Meeker tells Fortune. “It was loud, disorienting, cramped, and uncomfortable. I’m a human that knew what was going on and what I had gotten myself into. I can’t imagine how confusing, terrifying, and stressful it must be for a dog.”
Our Bark Air experience was anything but that. In fact, it was undoubtedly the least stressful—and most pleasant—airport and airplane experience I’ve had in my 27 years of life. And it all started weeks before our actual flight departed, when we were first connected with our Bark Air “concierge,” Hernán Giraldo, who guided me through the process of flying with my dog. (He calls himself “a servant of the pups and people.”)
While a Bark Air flight may be a dream for many—it is, after all, a luxury airline, where tickets cost between $6,000 and $12,000 one way—it’s important to understand that you get what you pay for here. (Our flight from New York to London cost $8,000). Bark Air is a high-end experience, for both the pups and their human companions.
Preparing for the flight
Weeks before our flight, Lulu and I met our concierge over a Google Meet video call so he could ask about Lulu’s preferences and behaviors. Does she prefer chicken or salmon? In the car, is she a windows-up or windows-down girl? Is she playful and outgoing, or shy and timid?
I adopted Lulu as a puppy back in March 2020, but despite the amount of time I’d spent with her during the pandemic, there was one thing I didn’t know about her until recently: her favorite type of music. Our concierge Giraldo wanted to know so Lulu could have her favorite music playing during our black-car ride from Biggin Hill to our Airbnb in London. While Dolly Parton and ABBA are mainstays in our Richmond, Virginia-based babe cave, apparently reggae is a popular choice for the pups, according to Giraldo.
That initial intake call was just one of the many touch points we had ahead of our June 27 flight. Giraldo was attentive to Lulu’s needs, but also mine. He addressed the anxieties many owners face having never done anything like this before: traveling a long distance with their pet. In my case, this was also the first time I had ever been to Europe, let alone traveled via air with Lulu. To say the weeks leading up to our departure were nerve-wracking would be an understatement.
Traveling domestically with pets can be challenging, especially when you consider the logistics of traveling with a four-legged friend—so flying internationally with a dog, as you might imagine, requires even more planning. The United Kingdom requires dogs undergo a thorough physical exam by a USDA-certified veterinarian, receive a parasite treatment before flying, and provide embossed documentation, which is sent from the USDA via overnight mail. Scheduling all of this is very tricky. Giraldo, thankfully, helped there, too. He scheduled Lulu’s vet appointments on my behalf to ensure they were done within the correct time frame, and made his best efforts to contact my vet and the USDA to ensure we had everything we needed before our flight.
Despite the amount of planning, taking a trip with Lulu, who I consider my heart and soul, felt like a dream come true—and it was made better by my concierge’s pleasant intake call and intermittent texts and emails ahead of the flight. I even ordered Lulu a special dog “suitcase” from Amazon: a large pink backpack with travel dishes and special compartments for toys and treats. My friends were so excited for our journey, and sent London-themed toys and accessories to Lulu.
Lulu can always tell when I’m getting ready to go away—especially since she’s particularly anxious around suitcases. The day we drove up to New York from Richmond, she was apprehensive to get in the car, although she likely thought we were just visiting our favorite local dog park or headed to Starbucks for a pup cup. Little did she know we were about to embark on a 7-hour car ride to New York that would lead to the flight to an entirely new continent.
The day of the flight
Our alarm clock rang at 4:45 a.m. I had anxiously set seven alarms within a 10-minute span since Lulu and I were alone in the hotel room and couldn’t risk missing our 8 a.m. flight. Lulu lounged on the bed, still sleepy and disoriented from our long drive the day prior; she never gets sleep in the car due to her travel anxiety. It was hard for me to sleep the night before our flight as well, reminiscent of Christmas Eve when I was a kid. I chugged two cups of mediocre hotel coffee before lugging our suitcases back to the car in the pouring rain, which miraculously cleared up as we approached the airport.
When we arrived, I could see the excitement in Lulu’s eyes—and her tail. We were greeted outside the airport lounge by Giraldo, who was wearing a matching uniform to his other Bark Air concierges: a crisp white t-shirt marked with the airline’s logo. He patiently waited for Lulu to take care of her business outside before leading us into the intimate airport lobby where a chef-prepared meal of eggs, bacon, bagels, pastries, and more were waiting for us.
Photo by Sydney Lake
The aura of the lobby was noticeably different from every other airport I’d been in. Not only was it filled with fluffy friends—but everyone seemed genuinely happy to be there. There wasn’t any pushing, shoving, dirty looks, sighs, foot tappings, or any other signs of frustration typical of an airport lobby. Pet parents happily introduced their pups to fellow passengers and compared paws-port photos and cooed over the boarding passes crafted for their dogs. Pups and their human companions are asked to arrive at the airport an hour early to allow the dogs to socialize ahead of the flight. This practice also allows concierges to assess any worrisome behavior between dogs, which influences boarding order.
As I was sitting enjoying my breakfast, I chatted with a fellow passenger, Annette Thompson, 55, who was “starting life over again” by moving to London with her rescue pup, Sam, after the end of a 34-year marriage. Thompson was originally from Texas but had been living in Mexico for the past four years. She was the director of a dog-rescue service based in Ajijic, Mexico, aptly called the Bone Voyage Dog Rescue, and she had rescued Sam from a hoarding situation, where he had been one of about 80 dogs in a “little Mexican house.”
“He was really shy, and he wouldn’t interact with the people that wanted to adopt him, and so I brought him to my house and he just flourished,” Thompson said. “I fell in love with him, and then I couldn’t give him to anyone else. He’s my baby now.”
Two other passengers I spoke with were also using their Bark Air flight as a means to relocate with their dogs, one from Canada and the other from South Carolina.
Boarding time
Bark Air concierges whisked away our checked bags, and our carry-on luggage was hand-checked by security officers (no long TSA lines here). Now, it was finally time to board the flight. Bark Air concierges had strategically assigned boarding orders based on which paw-sengers had been getting along the best in the lobby. That way, if any dogs weren’t too fond of each other, they’d have ample space from each other on the 10-seater plane.
Lulu proudly pranced across the tarmac, still unaware of the epic journey she was about to em-bark on. Bark Air rolled out a grand green faux-grass carpet that led to the front steps of the GulfStream, really emphasizing how special this flight was, so Lulu and I giddily partook in a mini photoshoot before heading up the stairs to the plane.
Photo by Sydney Lake
The flight was plenty spacious for the nine dogs and 10 human companions on our flight that day; Lulu and I enjoyed a full couch seat. We had a fairly eclectic group of pups on our flight that day, including a cavalier King Charles spaniel, a labrador retriever, a Great Pyrenees, a couple of doodles, and a couple of mixed-breed pups. As we waited on the tarmac, pups stayed close to their paw-rents, panting—but also sizing up the environment and variety of treats on board. Pups had to stay on their leashes just for taxi, takeoff, and landing, but were otherwise free to roam around the cabin when the plane reached cruising altitude, much like how humans can unbuckle their seatbelts on a commercial flight.
Ahead of takeoff, our concierges and flight attendants passed out treats for the pups to munch on to help with that annoying sensation of having your ears pop with increasing altitude (yes, dogs experience this, too).
Cruising time
Once we were in the air, it didn’t take long for the surprises to start rolling. Our flight attendant and Bark Air concierge kept the Veuve Clicquot and dog chomp-agne (turkey broth) flowing. Pups also received a fully customized dining experience full of savory treats and Barkacinos—a similar, yet elevated version of a Starbucks’ pup cup—all served on a silver platter. As Lulu’s human companion, I got a chef-prepared lunch wrap and yogurt parfait with access to an ample snack tray with some of my favorites, including Oreos.
Lulu was quite partial to our flight attendant, Kayla Iwane, not only for her kind and gentle nature, but for the snacks she stowed in the galley kitchen at the back of the aircraft. She had been working for about a year as a flight attendant through Talon Air, the private-jet charter company that paired with Bark to make the new airline possible, and had taken four flights with Bark Air thus far.
Photo by Sydney Lake
“I love flying with dogs—sometimes more than humans,” she said. “This is the dream job. I love when [the dogs] follow me into the kitchen because the pups know I have snacks. I’m the good human to them.” (It’s worth noting that Iwane owns an 18-year-old—yes, you read that right—American cocker spaniel named Princess Coco Puff, so it’s no surprise that she was so delighted to work for Bark Air.)
Again, unlike most commercial airlines, passengers—perfect strangers, prior to the flight—actually chatted with each other, sharing life stories and what brought them on a flight like this. Despite the name “Bark Air,” the pups were relatively quiet—that was until the pilot came into the cabin mid-flight, which prompted Lulu to start barking. (She was actually the only dog who barked during the flight). Unlike commercial flights where loud noises are a nuisance, the other passengers, concierge, and flight attendant laughed about the ruckus Lulu had started. It was shortly after that Lulu donned her pilot’s hat to show who was really in charge.
Photo by Sydney Lake
During the flight, I chatted with a couple from Naples, Florida, who were traveling with their cavalier King Charles spaniel, Theo, to England. Theo’s dad, Ted Pither, was from there, so they had taken the trip to Canterbury many times—but hadn’t enjoyed the traveling experience as much as they did with Bark Air. They travel from Naples each year to the United Kingdom to see his family and enjoy the English summer. Although Theo is only two-and-a-half years old, it was his third trip to the UK.
“He’s seasoned,” Pither said. For this trip, they were originally scheduled to fly with Delta, but that trip had them going from Naples to Miami, Miami to Paris, Paris to Dover (a coastal county southeast of London) for the pet reception, and then Dover to Canterbury. “It’s a long trip,” he said, so Bark Air was attractive to them for the “time and ease.”
“On the flight from Miami to Paris, [Theo] has to sit under the seat for nine hours,” Pither said. “That’s not comfortable.” But they said their Bark Air experience, in contrast, was excellent and very relaxed.
And speaking of relaxation, once we’d reached the middle of our flight, it was time for the highly anticipated in-flight spa treatment. Lulu got a full fur brushing, a wipe down with a warm cloth, and moisturizing balm rubbed on her paw pads and nose. Then she was adorned in a rubber-ducky robe before getting a toothbrush treat, ensuring she was clean, comfortable, and relaxed upon our arrival to London. Each dog got their turn for their individual spa treatment, each one as silly as the last to watch.
Photo by Sydney Lake
After her spa treatment, Lulu was ready for a nap—and so was I. We took the liberty of our large couch seat to take a short snooze while the cabin was quiet.
The penultimate surprise in store was hidden under a silver cloche. The flight attendant lifted the dome to reveal… a shoe. The dogs had plenty of things to chew on during the flight, including Bark-branded treats including Fruity Toot Loops, but the shoe was a nice, funny touch.
As we approached London, our flight attendant and concierge handed out goodie bags for each of the pups for their owners to open in an “influencer unboxing” fashion. Lulu loved snuggling her new champagne plush toy and nibbling on some BarkBox treats while we started descending.
Within moments of landing, an official came on board to scan the dogs’ microchips to ensure they matched the paperwork we filed. Then it was back to the tarmac before—what I’ve heard—is about the quickest customs process ever. (I had been out of the country only once prior to this trip.) The customs desk, despite being a one-woman show, was a breeze, and soon we were ushered to our black-car service where our bags had already been loaded. The entire process took less than 10 minutes, from start to finish. Lulu and I were greeted by our driver who was holding a sign personalized for us, and we enjoyed our 40-minute drive to our Airbnb in Clapham.
As we rode in the backseat of a black Mercedes-Benz van, I reflected on the truly remarkable and once-in-a-lifetime experience we’d just had—and how I’d have to figure out a way to upkeep Lulu’s new posh lifestyle.
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