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By Donald D. Groff

May 13, 1999 | I'm going to Paris in the fall and would like to take my small dog. I know that dogs are generally welcome in hotels and restaurants there, but what about shops, the metro, etc.? Also, will the dog be able to travel in the cabin on an international flight?

Your pet will be universally accepted in Paris, much to the amusement and occasional chagrin of foreigners. An expatriate friend of mine goes berserk every time a waiter starts coo-coo-ca-chooing some diner's pooch while ignoring the other customers. And the animal tolerance extends beyond dogs. A recent story in the Boston Globe told of a couple who toured France for months with their cat, and even in grocery stores the shoppers barely blinked except for those who asked to stroke the cat.

An excellent guidebook is "Paris Inside Out," by David Applefield (Houghton Mifflin, 3rd edition 1994); its section on pets notes: "Dogs are allowed in restaurants and most public places, although they must be leashed in parks and bagged on the metro and on trains. For an assortment of dog bags, go to Samaritaine."

You may well be able to carry your dog aboard your flight to Paris, but it depends on the airline and your timing. On domestic flights, small pets are routinely allowed in passenger compartments providing they're in a carrier that fits beneath the seat. For international flights you'll have to check on your airline's policy; if you call the reservation number, a ticketing agent will be able to tell you. Not all airlines allow carry-on pets, and even those that do have limitations.

Whether in the cabin or the cargo hold, each pet must have inoculation documents and a recent health certificate from your vet saying the dog's in good shape.

I'm getting married in September, and my fiancé and I are both travel buffs. We'd love to be able to "register" to get frequent flyer miles as gifts. Is such a thing possible?

Great idea! It would work spectacularly for newlyweds and gift-givers, especially those frequent flyers with zillions of points piling up in the mileage bank. The only hitch is the airlines, whose program rules would probably interfere with this union of gifter and giftee.

Each airline has its own frequent-flyer program rules, and as a rule the airlines do allow transferring of mileage awards. But when transferring, they usually require that you transfer an entire award, such as a domestic round-trip for 25,000 miles or so.

Some airlines do let frequent flyers donate mileage in smaller increments when they're applied to charity programs devised by the airlines. So it's technically possible, but I don't think you'll find many airlines, if any, that would allow the incremental donations for your purposes. At best, make sure your mileage-heavy friends and relatives know your desires -- and hope to hit a jackpot.

The other catch in the concept is this: Even if an airline allowed such a bridal registry of mileage, it's hard to believe it would ever guarantee when you could cash in the award. This would be a major sticking point for honeymoons, which most couples like to time rather precisely.

One of the biggest complaints about frequent-flyer programs is that members can't take their free trips when they desire because of seating limits and blackout dates.

The most authoritative Web site on the topic of frequent flyer programs is WebFlyer, which constantly fields questions such as yours. It has a good searchable database of questions and Randy Petersen is constantly accepting new ones, too.

A good wedding site that also takes questions is Weddingpages.

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