lev1234

Hey guys,

First post so bear with me lol.... Plan is to do a touring trip in late May/early June in the Baltics. First time flying overseas with my own bike. Im planning on simply packing the bike (Specialized Sirrus 2009) in shrink wrap/bubble wrap and then putting it in a large mattress bag or an official CTC plastic bike bag. Obviously will remove pedals, turn handlebars parallel to frame and deflate tires. Ive flown like this several times from outside the US to other countries but never from the US.... Should I be anticipating any problems? Tried doing some research and everyone seems to be flying with their disassembled bikes in cases from here. In Europe plastic bags are pretty common actually so that the bikes arrive fully assembled and youre ready to go right from the airport. Anyways any info you guys may offer will be highly appreciated. Thanks.

1nterceptor

I think most folks put their bikes in a hard suitcase to protect it.
Then there are those folks that are trying to beat the fees that
most US carriers charge for flying with a bike. Check with your
specific airline. I went from Newark Liberty(NJ) to China(Shanghai)
this summer(2012), I packed my folding bike in my sole check-in
luggage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUQNU2DKiWw

lev1234

Wow cycling in China sounds fascinating! Would definitely to get myself over there someday. I havent booked my tickets yet but from what I researched British Airways and SAS seem to be most bike friendly. They count it as regular baggage and you dont have to pay anything. My primary concern is basically arriving at the airport and having the check-in staff give me this look of what the heck is this and point towards my bike that is fully assembled yet carefully packed. Perhaps there may be a liability waiver I can sign or something in the worst case and in the best case they just accept the bike as has been the case overseas. Any future trips you are planning?

1nterceptor

There is a wealth of info in the touring section, from what I
read there; it seems that US airlines are not very bike friendly.
Charges for an obvious bike(soft or hard luggage has a bike logo),
over sized or overweight, etc. I'm hoping to go to South America
in the future.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fi0156wPqe0

prathmann

Yes, the unfriendly policies of US airlines led me to buy a folding bike that can be packed in a regular suitcase and therefore doesn't lead to any questions at the check-in counter.

But if you can book on a more bike-friendly airline like BA then I wouldn't expect you to have any problems - esp. if you use the CTC bike bag since their policy is to accept regular bikes in any recognized bike bag with minimal preparation (turned bars, pedals inward). It's too bad the US airlines don't adopt similar policies.