Hi all, I'm moving to Warrington (near Manchester, UK) at the end of this month and my two cats will be staying with family in Porto Alegre, Brazil while I get settled. We'll be handling all the paperwork and vet requirements ourselves (RNATT, microchip, health certificates, etc.), so the question is purely about transport.

Basically I'm torn between two options: flying back to Brazil to bring them myself as checked baggage, or having my family ship them as unaccompanied cargo from Porto Alegre and picking them up at Manchester Airport.

I've looked into both and the cost difference seems significant, but so is the time cost of two transatlantic flights just to bring them over.

Has anyone done something similar, especially from a non-EU country into the UK? Rough costs, experience with unaccompanied cargo to Manchester, anything helps.