For cats and dogs travelling as pets. Cabin travel, accompanied checked baggage and a separate Cargo shipment need separate checks. The hold restrictions below do not establish cabin eligibility. Seasonal dates are travel dates, not booking deadlines; the cited rows do not specify an operating year.
Air Canada: confirm the actual flight. Its passenger page prohibits pet transport December 18–January 4 as both checked baggage and cargo. Cargo’s page instead gives December 15–January 12 for travel within Canada, to/from the United States, and international flights connecting in Canada, expressly including checked baggage. Both sources overlap across products: neither December 15–17 nor January 5–12 is a safe assumption of acceptance. Ask the responsible airline team to resolve your exact journey. Cargo’s wording about other direct international flights does not override aircraft or route restrictions.
For checked baggage, November 1–March 31 and other periods at or below 0°C exclude cats/dogs under 4.5 kg on every aircraft and pets on Embraer 175. A319-100/A320-200/A321-200 checked transport is not recommended in those cold periods. The Boeing 737 MAX 8 hold exclusion runs November 1–March 31. September 14–January 14 restrictions cover MEX–YYZ/YUL; the page also names AC1980, AC1982 and Rouge AC1988. Confirm your flight rather than assuming all Mexico routes are equivalent.
WestJet: the 787 distinction belongs to Cargo. Checked-pet holiday tables show no acceptance December 18–January 4, including the 787. Cargo exempts the 787 from that holiday restriction, not from other rules or its December 1–March 31 hairless-breed embargo. December 15–17 and January 5–7 also have holiday capacity limits. A permitted date or capacity ceiling is not confirmed space.
Before committing to travel
- Identify the product: cabin, accompanied checked baggage or freight. A refusal for one does not establish acceptance for another.
- List every flight, date, operating airline, exact aircraft variant and connection, including the return.
- Check animal/kennel details, route and seasonal restrictions. Ask passenger Reservations about accompanied travel, or Cargo/the required shipping agent about freight.
- Confirm the animal’s space separately from your passenger ticket and keep the reference and exact flights covered. Air Canada Cargo’s international agent wording differs between IPATA-only and IPATA/IATA/ATA; clarify the permitted category before choosing an agent.
- Record the handover location and deadlines, collection arrangements, freight/handling charges and the plan for disruptions. Reconfirm after an itinerary or aircraft change.
More detail: Air Canada reference · WestJet reference.
Source note, November 5, 2026: the passenger and WestJet checks used crawled official pages, not an origin-live guarantee. Air Canada Cargo’s seasonal section was separately checked on the live page. Its overlap with the passenger holiday window and its differing agent wording remain unresolved. This is a planning aid, not trip acceptance or a new-rule announcement.