Touring - Flying Continental Airlines Regional or on a De Havilland Dash 8 Q400 ?

Does anyone have experience flying Continental Airlines Regional or on a De Havilland Dash 8 Q400?

I am going to call them but sometimes it is better getting the information from someone with experience.

The plane is a regional turbo prop and I am a bit worried that the bike will fit. Does anyone have experience flying regional with their bike on regional Continental or with this type of aircraft?


Found a pic here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombardier_Dash_8). Looks big enough. :)

I haven't flown Continental regional, but have flown some other regional carriers and so far always had my bike box fit inside. So sounds good to call and check, but suspect you'll be ok.

Smallest plane I had the bike on was this DC-3 flying from Whitehorse YT to Dawson City, YT.
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I flew on the very same Q400 last summer from Eugene to Portland OR on Alaska/Horizon Air. No problem fitting the bike which was in in a full size box supplied by the airline. Some airlines do say in the fine print "on a space available basis" so it's always good to check in advance.

You should be fine. I have been inside a 200 (cargo hold).

I checked recently with Delta about taking a bicycle on one of their regional jets. They said that they can only carry up to two bikes per flight. Now it's really unlikely that you'd be the third person to show up with a bike, but it's a risk (if Continental has a similar limitation).

Just show up early at check-in.

Thanks for the info everyone.


Thanks for the tip on checking for the number of bikes there might be a third going with us so we should check on that for sure. But I doubt he will go anyway. :)


Delta is a #@%$ airlines when it comes to bicycles. The fees that they are charging are outrageous.

Only thing I would worry about would be the possibility of weight restrictions. They are less common on the Dash 8's. Weather (hot, cold or bad) and/or full passenger loads can bring them on, then they will start leaving passengers and luggage behind, one of the reason I do carry on. I realize the bike is not a carry on, but just be aware of the possibility of weight restricted flights.

IMHO flying is a crap shoot these days anyway, my wife still works for a mainline carrier, been at it for 28 years and we still shake our heads in amazement every time they come up with some new revenue grab.

Aaron :)

Continentals charges were pretty bad too last time I checked. Have you explored the possibility of FedExing your bike on ahead of you?