Happily back in San Francisco with an undamaged Brompton and another story to tell.

Part of my philosophy has been to avoid baggage claim completely. At a large airport this is easy; I'm not checking baggage, so I simply hit the kiosk and proceed through security. At the regional I was flying out of, I was basically the only customer in the check-in area, and the lady behind the counter figured I was going to be baggage checking the bike. When I said I was planning to gate check it, she went to check with the TSA to make sure that I could carry it aboard.

She came back out and asked "Is that a regular old bicycle, or something like an assisted mobility device?" This was something I expected; the TSA and baggage handlers are always more comfortable with luggage they can categorize, and if I replied "bicycle" at this point I'd basically be forcing them to treat it like a cumbersome. I replied "Sports equipment" and she said "Aha!" and went back for another consultation; she came out and said "He says it's okay, basically like a large stroller or something". Not bad for sight unseen; it's actually more like a small stroller!

Checking onto the plane was exceptionally simple, but the flight was late arriving. I found myself doing a full-on dash through Newark Liberty to my connecting flight, alternately pulling and carrying the Brompton, cursing softly, and tweaking muscles in my neck and upper back. Look, if you're going to do this often, get the rear rack with wheels. I wanted to save a little weight, Channell recommended against it, and I wish I'd listened.

Despite that, I rolled up rather late to the gate, and got a dubious "You want to get on this flight?" from the attendant. I breathlessly showed my boarding pass, phone calls were made and I was allowed on. The bike got a brief glance and a "you need a special handling tag for that, where do you want to put it?" and was left at the bottom of the gate. When I got into SFO, it was waiting for me in the same place; it had been rained on, but was otherwise in fine shape.

This might be it for flying with the Brommie until the season turns; my remaining flights this year will be taking me into freezing rain and snow and hills, not to mention salt on the roads, and I can't bring myself to put my Brompton through that, to say nothing of myself. But I feel confident making two statements: One may safely gate check an unpacked Brompton and hence Flying with the Brompton is the easiest and most pleasant way to fly with a bicycle, period. The magic, as I've indicated before, is that the bike fits on the security X-ray; this gets past the only point of obstacle in the system.