SHORT ANSWER
Every dog and cat entering Australia must travel as manifest cargo — never in the cabin, and never as accompanied "excess baggage" checked in alongside your own passenger ticket. This is a firm rule from the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF), which oversees all pet imports. Your pet will travel in an International Air Transport Association (IATA)-approved crate, in the pressurized, climate-controlled cargo hold, and must be checked in at the airline's freight terminal rather than the passenger terminal. There are no exceptions for size, breed, or how much you're willing to pay for a seat — this is a biosecurity and logistics requirement, not an airline preference (DAFF Category 3 step-by-step guide for dogs).
It's a common assumption — especially for pet owners used to flying small dogs in a soft-sided carrier under the seat — that a similar option might exist for Australia. It doesn't. According to DAFF's step-by-step guide for importing dogs (and the matching guide for cats), your pet "must travel: as manifested cargo (not in the cabin); in an International Air Transport Association (IATA) approved crate" (source).
This isn't an airline policy that varies by carrier — it's a national import condition. Australia is one of the last rabies-free countries in the world, and DAFF treats every animal entering the country as a potential biosecurity risk that needs to be tracked, documented, and handled by trained animal-freight staff from departure to arrival at the Mickleham quarantine facility. Manifest cargo (as opposed to accompanied "excess baggage," which travels on your own passenger ticket) means your pet is handled under a separate air waybill, by ground crew trained in live-animal handling, and is trackable independently of your own itinerary.
You can read more about why Australia's requirements are so strict, and how the RNATT rabies titer test drives the whole import timeline, in our companion post on vaccinations and treatments your dog needs before flying to Australia.
Here's where a lot of pet owners get tripped up: on the day of travel, you won't be walking your pet through the same doors you'd use for your own flight. DAFF's guidance is direct on this point — "in most cases, you will check your dog in at the freight terminal, not the passenger terminal," and recommends confirming with your airline exactly which terminal applies to your route.
A few practical notes that follow from this:
The crate itself isn't optional either. It must meet IATA's Live Animals Regulations (LAR) container standards — often referred to as an "IATA-approved" or "airline-approved" crate. At a minimum, the crate needs to allow your pet to:
IATA publishes exact sizing formulas based on your pet's length, height, and shoulder width, and snub-nosed (brachycephalic) breeds require a crate roughly 10% larger to help with airflow and temperature regulation (IATA Traveler's Pet Corner). Your pet transport agent or Starwood's team can help you size and source the right crate — get this locked in early, since crate training needs to happen in the actual travel crate, not a substitute.
Because your pet will spend the flight — and possibly a layover — in that crate without you by their side, crate training is one of the highest-value things you can do to prepare them. Here's how to approach it:
Start weeks, not days, in advance. Bring the crate into your home early and let your pet investigate it on their own terms. Leave the door open, and don't force them inside.
Make it a good place to be. Feed meals inside the crate with the door open, and add familiar bedding or a worn (unwashed) t-shirt of yours so it smells like home. Gradually work up to closing the door for short stretches while you're in the room.
Practice movement. Once your pet is calm resting in the crate with the door closed, get them used to the crate being lifted and carried, and take them for short rides with the crate secured in your car. This mimics the jostling and engine noise they'll experience in transit and helps prevent the flight itself from being their first experience of the crate in motion.
Extend duration gradually. Build up the amount of time your pet spends comfortably in the crate, including overnight if possible, so a multi-hour flight doesn't feel unprecedented.
Never sedate for travel. Sedatives can suppress a traveling animal's respiratory system and increase the risk of complications at altitude — vets and pet transport professionals consistently advise against it.
Leave the extras at home on travel day. Remember that DAFF will not allow toys, bedding with hardware, or medication in the crate at export — so any comfort items you use during training at home should be phased out before the actual flight, or replaced with DAFF-compliant options recommended by your vet.
For a deeper walkthrough with a week-by-week approach, see our guide on how to crate train your pet for airplane travel.
The manifest cargo requirement — and the peace of mind that comes from proper crate prep — comes up constantly in pet owner communities. In a Reddit thread in r/dogs titled "Dog in Cargo - USA to Australia," one commenter who had shipped multiple dogs through cargo emphasized exactly this point: "If your dog is not already crate trained, start now. If they are crate trained, add in things like moving the crate while they are in it, so that it isn't a totally new sensation to them when they're being loaded into/out of the plane... Absolutely do NOT sedate ahead of time; this can affect their respiratory system which makes it dangerous while flying" (r/dogs discussion). Another commenter in the same thread clarified the exact distinction that trips people up: airlines "allow cargo (not connected with passenger ticket) but not as checked baggage (connected to passenger ticket)" — which lines up precisely with DAFF's manifest cargo requirement.
"The families who adjust their expectations early — understanding their pet is flying as cargo, checking in at a freight terminal, and needs weeks of crate practice — are the ones who have the calmest travel day. It's a very different mental picture than boarding with your dog under the seat, and getting comfortable with that difference ahead of time makes all the difference." -- Adam Melton, VP of Strategic Initiatives
Manifest cargo travel is just one piece of a much larger import process that includes microchipping, rabies vaccination and RNATT titer testing, an import permit, and post-entry quarantine at Mickleham. For the full walkthrough, see our complete guide to pet relocation to Australia and our Importing Pets to Australia resource page.