RedStater

Has anyone experience of checking a disassembled, boxed bicycle as luggage? Anyone know what the airlines are charging to do this? Are some airlines more bike-friendly than others?

kkukura

I would like to know this also. My son would really like to bring his bike on trips, but I have been leery of doing it.

hetismij

KLM is, as you would expect, bike friendly. I believe BA is also.

willit

Individual airlines have differing policies. It has been a while since I have read them, but the last time I did so, several airlines diid not require major disassembling of bicycles - normally they requred that seat be lowered, the handlebars be loosened,
rotated through 90 degrees and strapped to the main frame, and that the pedals were removed.

This article may be of help
http://preview.tinyurl.com/yryco3

hetismij

This is the KLM site for info on bikes:
http://tinyurl.com/5c86n4

Most airlines will have something similar on their site.

Flame123

WARNING - BE VERY VERY CAREFUL when sending a bike a checked luggage. Several years ago my son did this using Continental and the bike arrived trashed and broken. He boxed it the way he was supposed to according to their airline but they still smashed it. It took me forever to get compensation for it (not money in cash but money towards the purchase of a future ticket). It was a nightmare and he was very upset.

scotlib

Somewhere I read about bikes that fold and fit a suitcase.

The article mentioned that the bikes are Not cheap, but good because they fit a suitcase and you have your own bike when doing bike tours.

Rather than a regular bike and its size, perhaps that would be something to investigate for you?

blackduff

I have taken bikes on Swissair (now called another Swiss name) as well as transporting with Scandinavian Airlines. No problem.

I removed the wheels and packed adjacent. I dropped the seat, turned the handle bar and removed the pedals.

The boxes I used were that what the airlines provided. In one case, it was just a thick plastic sac. I used bubblepack to help protect the bike.

The fork is delicate for travelling, so pack this carefully. Give lots of bubblepack.

There are good fiberglass suitcases for bikes. They're not cheap but they do protect the bike. If you're going to travel often, buy the suitcase.

I own a heavy plastic sac too but I only use this for transport on surface methods.

Blackduff

Gretchen

If you are going to check a bicycle you would be advised to purchase a hard plastic case designed to do so.

chcl

I am bringing a bike frame for a friend on our trip to London in two weeks. We're taking American Airlines and asked for the cost of checking it it. I was told it will be between $90-$180 because it exceeds the size limitation.

I am now wondering whether they'll allow me to hand carry the thing as the frame is very lightweigh >10 lbs.

Celticharper

On International flights our bike in it's hard plastic bike box counted as one of our checked pieces of luggage. We've flown BA, Alitalia, Air France, American (partnering with BA). On American we had to show them the print out from their web site saying our bike was without extra fees if we were flying internationaly. On any of the european airlines, they take a bike as a matter of course because it is so common for Europeans to bring a bike with them on vacation.

Domestic flights are a much different matter, the fees are riciculous, so for intra-USA flights we have found that packing the bike in the same manner as for flights and sending it UPS was a great saving. I think we paid $45 to ship one bike to Florida From NH in February of 2008.

You may be able to rent a hard plasitic travel box from your loval bike shop.

Another alternative is to ask the local bike shop for one of the boxes that bikes are shiped in. Bike shops usually must smash these sturdy cardboard boxes for disposal in their dumbpster. Our bike shop was great, they gave us their sturdiest box, and even instructed my husband on how to disassemble the bike for transport. This was merely removing the pedals, seat post and lifting the handlebars off the fork and turning them sideways.

We reassembled the bike at Milpensa airport in Milan in about 15 minutes. All the while an italian man was admiring my husbands "bella" French Look bike.

Celticharper

Sorry forgot to add, we have done this on 8 flight to Europe without any serious damage to the bike, even using the cardboard box method 3 times before we bought the hard plastic case. The only damage we experienced was a broken computer mount on the handlebars, that we replaced for 5 euros at a sports store in France.

Celticharper

>>>Author: chcl
I am bringing a bike frame for a friend on our trip to London in two weeks. We're taking American Airlines and asked for the cost of checking it it. I was told it will be between $90-$180 because it exceeds the size limitation.>>>>

Please check their web site, as Bikes were considered free on an international flight. We were hassled at the gate on two flights on AA, but we had the print out from the web site and insisted that we talk to a supervisor, to straighten out any confusion.

We were not charged, and that time we had 5 people all traveling with their bikes, but a supervisor was able to clear up the discrepency between a domestic flight which carried a charge and an international flight in which the bike was included in our luggange allowance.

Make sure you don't take the check in clerks information alone, have the back up of the printed allowances from the airlines website to back you up. We had to argue with them for 15 minutes before they would accept that the information on the web site was accurate. But in the end we saved $180 for each of the bikes.

bilboburgler

Choices
Folding bike in a hard bag. No issues but someone like Ryanair will take no responsibility if anything goes wrong

Hard bag and semicollapssed main bike, probably ok but see above

Soft bag getting dodgy

Plastic bag (yep a big one) and a semicollapsed bike which is what I do but I have a very cheap bike and if it does not make it so what

chcl

Thank you Celticharper!

When I called AA I was very specific that I am flying "international" and I am only checking "one" luggage and "one bike frame - and she still quoted me a $90-$180 excess baggage charge!

Another question - does bringing a bike in a box a problem for TSA inspection? Are they likely to open the box to make sure you are indeed just shipping a bike and nothing else?

adrienne

If you pack a bike in a hard case what do you do with the case at your destination? Where do you store it for the return flight?

bilboburgler

I tend to book myself into the same hotel for the first and last night and then ask them to store it (never been a problem)

adrienne

Thanks bilboburgler! That makes sense.

leonorek

Celticharper, can you direct me to the section in the AA.com site that says transporting bicycle on international flight is free?

My friend's son is spending 6 months in UK as a student, leaving next month. He wants to bring his bike but hesitated because of the cost. I told him according to a Fodor's thread it's free. But we've been searching the site and couldn't find the section for transporting bike for travel from US. This is the all we can find regarding sports equipment baggage check-in:
http://tinyurl.com/37jsev

thank you.

leonorek

Forgot to mention that we've called American Airlines and they said the charge is $100. When I told them that their website says it's free, was told that there is no such thing in their website.