I actually have some experience with this so I thought I'd share it.
I live in a FFZ but I bought my last two weasels in Seattle while on
a visit and I flew them back.  I hadn't been too concerned about
getting them home since I was flying alone and my boyfriend was
driving back down the following week (and it's very easy to drive
them into FFZ's) and that was good because it almost didn't work out.
 
Our idea was to tire them out so they would want to sleep for the
duration of the flight, bring them into the airport as legal pets in
a carrier (after all, we could have been flying to another
ferret-zone), and to just zip them into a tote bag and secretly take
them on the plane.  We had transported cats before so we thought we
had known the animal procedure pretty well.  It had seemed that the
only people who really cared about what went on to the plane were the
people at the front desk (requiring health certificates, etc.) and we
planned to check in at the gate, with ferrets already ensconced in
bag.  At the security x-ray machines, all you had to do was open the
pet carrier and show the pets (so that they didn't go through the
machine);  the people there previously hadn't cared about bringing a
pet in.
 
Two hours before we were supposed to be at the airport we woke our
weasels up and let them tire themselves out.  Half way to the
airport, our little ones were tired and wanted to sleep (they were
still babies) but we managed to keep them up (this is no easy task!).
Anyway, when we transferred them from car to carrier they fell fast
asleep.  We made a bee-line for the x-ray booth.  When we opened the
carrier up for examination, the guy asked us which airline we were on
(Alaska) and then told us that they didn't allow weasels.  (PANIC!)
I handed the carrier over to my boyfriend, consigned myself to not
seeing my new babies for a week, and I went through security and on
to my gate by myself.
 
Meanwhile, (unknown to me) boyfriend and weasels ran to another
security check point.  When asked about the weasels, my boyfriend
nonchalantly told them that they weren't actually going on the
plane...they were just coming to meet me at the airport and welcome
me home.  And they let him through (go figure!).  He raced up to me
we pulled a quick ferret transfer behind a phone booth and I took
them home.  They slept the whole way home.
 
Angelique,
Miss Lily and Gilbert (members of Alaska's Gold Coast club)
and Grendel (who still only dreams of flying)
 
[Posted in FML issue 0658]