Service Animals on Flights: Policies on Emotional Support and Psychiatric Service Animal Travel

If you are a frequent traveler, you may have noticed a marked increase in the number of passengers traveling with emotional support animals. In the recent years, passengers have realized the therapeutic benefits of traveling with emotional support animals. But, traveling with emotional support animals requires complying with few many policy guidelines of service animal travel. Let’s take a brief look on the policy guidelines of traveling with emotional support animals in flights.

Policy Guidelines on Emotional Support Animal and Psychiatric Service Animal Travel

ESA’s why needed?

Emotional support animals or psychiatric service animals provide emotional and psychiatric assistance to individuals suffering from certain kind of psychological disorders. These animals make positive therapeutic impact on the mental health of such individuals and so they are recommended by many psychologists.  

When an individual is prescribed an emotional support animal or psychiatric service animal, he/she needs to remain in all-time companionship of those animals. But, at times of travel this becomes difficult to show the importance and need of emotional support animals. Here is when you need to make an evaluation and understanding of the policy guidelines of traveling with emotional support animals.

Policies of Psychiatric Service Animal Travel

If you wish to travel with an emotional support or psychiatric service animal, you need to ensure that you have the supporting documentation in the form of an original letter on the letterhead of a licensed mental health professional, dated within one year of your departure date. This service animal travel letter helps to verify that you have genuine mental disability issues, which is why you are prescribed an emotional support or psychiatric service animal.

The letter must confirm that:

• You have a mental or emotional disability recognized by the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)
• You need your emotional or psychiatric support animal during travel and/or at destination
• The person who is prepared the document is a licensed mental health professional. You are currently under the care of the licensed mental health professional who prepared the document
• The service animal letter must also provide information on the mental health professional’s license (i.e. type of license, date issued, and issuing authority).

Other than the service animal travel letter, it is important to make a service animal travel notice before 48 hours of the actual travel. This policy mainly implies for airline travel.

Major Benefits of Having a Service Animal Letter

Not only the service animal letter plays a vital role when traveling in flights with ESA but carrying an emotional support animal letter has many benefits, such as:

• Free Travel Allowance in Flights, Trains, Cruise Ships, Taxis, etc
• Unlike the Other Pets, the Emotional Support Animals are treated specially
• Special Tarvel Allowance in Flights
• And much more alike!