Kenji’s journey to Holland

I was extremely amazed that Kenji was still so active after a 13-hour flight from KL to Amsterdam. When I picked him up at the baggage area, he was happily munching his celery!!

The whole process of transferring him over took me a month! It was longer than what I expected due to the Chinese New Year holiday and mainly caused by misinformation, at least from my point of view.

The initial response from KLM airline surprised us because KLM said they can only handle dogs and cats. The reason why we called KLM first is because my hubby return flight was with KLM, and we thought since The Netherlands is known for exporting rabbits, it did not cross our mind that KLM cannot handle rabbits. So, our attention turned to MAS naturally, because my return flight was with MAS.

Hubby called up MAS Customer Service and ask them about pet handling. They passed us the number to call MAS Kargo, the air cargo division of Malaysia Airlines. So we spoke to MASKargo and MAS Pet Hotel, everything went well, till the last minute when the MASKargo staff wanted to process a Booking ID for Kenji. From then on, everything went downhill. It was only by then they realized that they cannot transfer a rabbit for us because there is no inspection facility available in Amsterdam!

It was a day before Chinese New Year. I panic, and went crazy researching online for any possible routes or other possible cargo agents that can handle a rabbit for us. Local offices were closed, I can only wait till early next week to get any possible reply. By then we were only 4 days away from finalizing the transportation for Kenji before we return to the Netherlands.

My husband had to return to the Netherlands first due to his work. I stayed, hoping that I can find a way to bring him over, if not, a new owner. Things were still dark and I was exhausted asking, repeating the same questions again and again, and I was tired hearing no. But I told myself, just give it one more try, and I bumped into a write-up about another rabbit owner having a similar experience transferring her rabbit from Singapore to Israel. Plus another one where she shared her experience transferring her rabbit to France. It was the first time I found out that Lufthansa and Air France can handle rabbit by checking them in as baggage!!

I picked this detail up and I called MAS Customer Service again. This time, I chose specifically to speak to someone under the Arrival and Baggage information. And Hola! MAS said I can check my pet rabbit in as an excess baggage and they will put him in a temperature-controlled cargo area. I was full of joy, and shocked at the same time! The only thing I need to do is to let my travel agent know so that she can write a note in the reservation system.

Well, this is MAS Customer Service having 2 different versions of story about handling pet! You can imagine how annoyed I was, not forgetting to mention the extra money I need to pay because I reschedule my flight, getting the health certificate again from the vet (each health cert is only valid for 7 days) and the stress and anxiousness that I went through throughout that 2 weeks.

It was such a relief, but I wanted to be 100% sure because I do not want to take ANY chances. So I called MAS Customer Service again, this time I spoke to a different person under the same department. She said yes. I called up a friend of mine who is a MAS pilot and he managed to speak to a ground staff in KL Int’l Airport and he said they can handle it. In fact, I spoke to another 2 staff across 3 different days. I counted, I have a total 5 yeses – talk about being paranoid and lack of trust.

Finally, the day of departure arrived. Me and my girl friend, SH brought Kenji to the check-in counter and I put Kenji on the luggage belt, and told the staff that I have noted a pet rabbit in the remarks and please help me to handle him, safely! From then on, the MAS ground staff took over the whole process and it was a breeze! I only need to pay the excess baggage charges.

Throughout the check-in process, Kenji attracted so many macho men bending over saying hello to him (can you imagine?), asking me questions about why is he so big-sized, how long have I had him etc…

Thank God that everything went well. I now get the chance to walk Kenji around my neighbourhood. It is such a joy to have him around. After we went through so much to get him over, we can’t deny that Kenji IS a precious one.