Originally Posted by
venturi95
.... It is easier to get on a plane with a bike than Amtrak. ...
It depends on the route and the stations you are leaving from and going to. Prior to last year all my Amtrak bike trips were with a boxed bike. But last summer rode on a route that did not require boxing the bike. I pasted the below from a post I made last summer:
.Photo below is my bike and gear in the Union Amtrak Station in Chicago. The yellow duffel bag is my carryon bag, my handlebar bag (green, white and black) that is on the bike in the photo comes onto the train with me as a second carry on bag. The red mesh duffle with the four yellow panniers on the floor, that will be one checked bag. I will wear the helmet until I get on the train to avoid it being in luggage where it could be damaged. And the bike is checked baggage using the Amtrak Train Side Baggage option, I roll the bike to the baggage car and hand it to an Amtrak employee that puts it into a bike rack inside the baggage car. Much simpler than having to box the bike, which I always had to do in the past on Amtrak. A reservation for the bike is needed to make sure there was a baggage car bike rack available, which was not a problem. Scheduled departure was about 9:30pm, fortunately they were not too late.
.
Maybe you have had better luck with airlines than I have had. Photo below is in Minneapolis airport at 3am when Delta decided that I should spend 24 hours in the airport instead of get to my destination on time. If you have been in the Minneapolis airport, you probably have been where I took the photo but during normal hours that area is packed with hundreds of travelers rushing from concourse to concourse.
