Airline bike baggage fees in Europe

[Norman Rohr]

Hi Eric,

Italy sounds awesome. Let's sync over lunch, I can give you a host of recommendations. Italy was basically my spring training camp when it was still too cold in Switzerland.

My recommendation for the airline would be Air Canada. 50 USD per direction is unbeatable. They are probably also the best bet in terms of service - except for the stop over in Toronto...

Cheers,
Norman

PS: i am riding home tonight. U interested in joining?

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• Airline bike baggage fees to Europe [4 Updates]
• Catching up on RBA duties [2 Updates]

 Airline bike baggage fees to Europe

Eric Altendorf <erical...@gmail.com> May 16 10:42PM -0700  

Looks like I'll be doing a 10-day tour in Italy, and I'm wondering
which airlines have reasonable fees for bike baggage. I was going to
go with United, since they're my stand-by provider, and then I
realized they charge $200 each way, which inspired me to consider
alternatives.
 
I'm having trouble finding any sort of comparison site with accurate
and up to date info. Have any of you researched this recently?
 
Thanks,
 
eric
 
PS: my Fort Bragg 4-day trip hasn't happened yet, but hopefully soon.
Congrats to all you 600k'ers!


 

Massimiliano Poletto <max.p...@gmail.com> May 17 12:00AM -0700  

I'm going too, in late June. Star Alliance and Sky Team seem to have
standardized on $200 one-way. The documentation is spotty and customer
support people are confused: if you call customer service different times,
you'll get different answers. But the worst case is always $200. Cycling is
a luxury sport, like golf and polo. :-)
 
max
 


 

Patricia Dougherty <patricia_...@msn.com> May 17 08:30AM -0700  

I think British Air is free (counts as one of your bags). I thought UA changed their policy so it also counts as one of your checked bags once they acquired United. It must be under the weight limit, of course.
From: max.p...@gmail.com
Date: Thu, 17 May 2012 00:00:56 -0700
Subject: Re: [SFRandon] Airline bike baggage fees to Europe
To: erical...@gmail.com
CC: sfra...@googlegroups.com
 
I'm going too, in late June. Star Alliance and Sky Team seem to have standardized on $200 one-way. The documentation is spotty and customer support people are confused: if you call customer service different times, you'll get different answers. But the worst case is always $200. Cycling is a luxury sport, like golf and polo. :-)
 
 
max
 
On Wed, May 16, 2012 at 10:42 PM, Eric Altendorf <erical...@gmail.com> wrote:
 
 
Looks like I'll be doing a 10-day tour in Italy, and I'm wondering
 
which airlines have reasonable fees for bike baggage. I was going to
 
go with United, since they're my stand-by provider, and then I
 
realized they charge $200 each way, which inspired me to consider
 
alternatives.
 
 
 
I'm having trouble finding any sort of comparison site with accurate
 
and up to date info. Have any of you researched this recently?
 
 
 
Thanks,
 
 
 
eric
 
 
 
PS: my Fort Bragg 4-day trip hasn't happened yet, but hopefully soon.
 
Congrats to all you 600k'ers!
 
 
 
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"William A. Monsen" <w...@mrwassoc.com> May 17 09:04AM -0700  

I think that it must be under the weight limit and the size limit to even possibly count as just checked baggage. The latter constraint is almost impossible to meet without a folding bike...
 
On May 17, 2012, at 8:30 AM, Patricia Dougherty wrote:
 


 

 Catching up on RBA duties

Don Bennett <d...@donbennett.org> May 16 10:22PM -0700  

bo...@rusa.org is moderated, but AFAIK the only msgs that get rejected out
of hand are the ones that are obviously spam. -Don
 


 

potis <jjp...@gmail.com> May 17 09:02AM -0700  

Rob, I hope you enjoyed your well deserved three day break from you
volunteer duties as a member of the RUSA board, and as our RBA. Thank
you very much for the greatly expanded responsibilities that you have
taken on this year with bicycle handling clinics, randonneuring
clinics, nearly a second SR series and a 1000k!
 
I cannot tell you how much I appreciate your hard work, but I hope
that you now have a slight impression.
 
Elmar has already taken the first step by not riding our randonnees. I
wish he would take the second by not lurking in our google group.


 

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Norman Rohr
+1 415 574 0815

[Mick Jordan]

On 5/17/12 9:31 AM, Norman Rohr wrote:
>
>
> My recommendation for the airline would be Air Canada. 50 USD per
> direction is unbeatable. They are probably also the best bet in terms
> of service - except for the stop over in Toronto...

Except... When I was coming back from PBP and got stuck in Vancouver
after missing the SFO connection at Heathrow and then missing again in
Vancouver, BA put me on an Air Canada flight and when I checked in my
S+S coupler suitcase, which is within size limits, the clerk asked me
what was in the case and wanted to charge me extra just because it had a
bike in it, regardless of its size. I was fairly pissed by the whole
process by then and pushed back very hard and he gave in quickly enough.
The message is that (a) the airlines will try anything to get more money
out of you and (b) the checkin agents are inconsistent.

I'm traveling to the UK with the same case/bike this summer on UA and
hoping for no hassles. $200 each way is a complete rip off. Another
option is to ship the bike FexEd using an AirCaddy case.

Mick

[Kurt Wallace Martin]

AirCaddy is great and has always worked for me. Negative: the bike is in transit for longer than you are, so you don't have it for a few days at each end of your trip. It really helps if the destination is a 'good' stop for the shipper. You can easily lose a day or two if the box gets stuck in some local shipping hub. Not an issue for everyone/trip.

The airlines ARE super inconsistent, so you can always get tagged with extra fees.  Sometimes the magic is a case that isn't obviously a bike, but randomness is always possible. Air Canada, Air France, BritAir all seem slightly more bike-friendly.

Because of all that, I opt for a hard case that doesn't scream 'bike' and that can take a lot of smashing around (I've seen the luggage boys at work) or AirCaddy when I'm going to a good place for deliveries.

Kurt