[Izzy]

I've flown twice with Sweety, my cockatiel, and once with a pionus.

All times, the birds rode in a carrier under the seat in front of me. Sweety was fine as long as she could see me. I left some nutriberries in her carrier so that she could munch on them during the flight. She got lots of attention! On my way to Denver, she didn't have to be taken out of her carrier (they were content to simply stick a pencil in to lift her papers to make sure I wasn't smuggling anything illegal!). On my way back to Minneapolis, they required that I take her out of her carrier. I had them take me to one of their small interrogation rooms, and toweled her there so that they could go run her carrier through the xray machine.

With the pionus, I was also required to take him out of the carrier. I was in a smaller airport and he wasn't flighted, so I simply toweled him out of the carrier and walked through line with him wrapped in a towel.

Hope this helps!