Originally Posted by
alan s
I used bikeflights recently and other than the extra day to deliver, which didn’t make any difference, I had no problems. $38 and done. However I couldn’t figure out exactly what the company does. Is it cheaper to ship by UPS through them rather than just going directly to UPS? Basically all bikeflights did was provide a UPS label, and I (and UPS) did the rest. Got the box, packed the box, and brought to the UPS store. UPS delivered.
Yes, as mstateglfr and indyfabz indicated, bike flights gets a volume discount so even with the increase in pick up fees, I'd expect it's still substantially cheaper than going to UPS directly.
When I moved from OR back to DE, I shipped several boxes via UPS. They indicated that they could ship my bikes, but estimated shipping at about $250 each. Bike flights was about $75-80 each. REI in CA packed bikes for shipping and normally used UPS; their quote for shipping was about $260-270 shipping for a touring bike (in addition to the packing fee). When I explained that I'd prefer to have bike flights pick it up at the store (about $85 including pick up), REI was naturally fine withe letting Fedex (Bikeflights) pick up the bike at the store.