carleton

I'm traveling to race in a few weeks and I have to fly. Does anyone have any recent airline bike fee info or know where I can get such?

Any airlines I should avoid? Any picks?

Thanks.

bostongarden

For best info, check airline websites. Fees vary. Last time I flew JetBlue, in April, it was $50 each way. I just finished an international trip on Aer Lingus, where fee was $0 (as bike was counted as regular luggage with respect to fees).

king-tony

Oversize generally is what is used for a bike

https://www.airfarewatchdog.com/blog/...chart-updated/

NickDavid

It depends on the case and the person working the desk. Sometime they will overcharge you, sometimes they screw up and undercharge you. I've paid as little as $25 and as much as $100. I've seen my buddy pay $150.

botto 

merlinextraligh

Air Trans to the Tour of the Bahamas, $90 each way. They just kept stacking the fees, charged it as a second checked bag, as oversized, and as a bike.

I should have bought the bike a seat. It would have been cheaper.

EventServices

NEVER tell them that it's a bike.

It's a child car seat.
It's artwork for a presentation.
It's a musical instrument (percussion)
It's work samples.
It's a prototype that your boss has stuck you with to carry to the shareholders meeting.
It's ANYTHING but a BICYCLE.

Negotiations hit rock bottom when you utter the word 'b-i-c-y-c-l-e'.

botto 

^

sports equipment.

what kind? cardio.

bitingduck

It's getting harder to get away with the "sports equipment" or "climbing gear" line, but sometimes it can still work.

Southwest is $50, and showed up with 3 checked bags including the bike and only been charged the $50 bike fee, and not another $50 for the third bag. IIRC, last summer flying back from portland we had 2 people with 6 bags (3 of them bikes) and only paid $100 extra.

Stay away from united: $175 each way.

botto 

it was never a sure thing, but i always managed to finesse it, and i'm a crap liar.

anyway, stopped flying with my bike to the US. got sick of the airline losing it for a 2-3 days on each trip.

echappist

since the domestic airlines hiked the checked luggage fee, i believe if you ship your bike in lieu of a luggage, it gets charged whatever the first luggage gets. so for american airline, i believe it's $25 each way. hell, even a bag + bike doesn't sound so bad at a combined $60 one way

bitingduck

My GF even managed a "these aren't the bikes you're looking for" jedi mind trick once, after the checkin person at the next counter over said "look up bicycles" to our checkin person, and it worked (it wasn't quite that, but close). And that was us checking in with two bikes. I've ended up paying the bike fee on domestic flights about half the time. They're making the luggage rules so restrictive that it almost doesn't matter-- big box=$$.

carleton

Thanks, guys.

timster

When is your trip? Bikes are free on JetBlue for the month of July.

carleton

Really? Nice. Flying out on the 20th or 21st.

carleton

I just checked Delta. They want $200...EACH WAY.

Hell, my ticket is only $240!

Let's see...$240 for the ticket, $400 for the bike. No f'ing way.

carleton

Holy crap! I have a new found hatred for airlines. That $240 flight is now $318. The freaking rates changed WHILE I was searching and deciding.

Nate552

Do you travel for races much? I travel frequently and decided to invest in a case, and ship one of my spare bikes ahead of me, instead of flying with it. I can usually use Fedex ground and get it anywhere in the country for ~$35-$50.

carleton

That's a great idea. I've heard of people doing that. I'd love to ship one bike ahead and keep one back for training, but I only have one track bike.

I don't travel much. All the out-of-town races thus far have been via car.

What's worse is that Delta has the cheapest flight being that I'm flying out of Atlanta. But, they have the most expensive bike policy. I could say that it's "trade show materials" but I have to plan for the worst case of being charged the full $200 each way if I don't get away with it.

botto 

i've been flying delta for years. the "sports equipment" line always worked, even when i used a trico.

only problem with the trico: they kept on losing my bike for a few days. the stress from that, coupled with the fact that i ended up paying a chunk of change for taxis to get to/from the hotel, i decided to buy a bike and leave it in the US.

that turned out to be a wise choice, because the last time i flew with a bike bag, which had wheels in it, but no bike, they tried charging me for over-sized luggage. i ended up taking the wheels (they were in a box) out of the bag, then checking them in separately.

times are a changin'

carleton

Yeah, man. I was doing the math. This 2 days of training with my coach plus 2 more days of racing the event would cost me well over $1,200 with flight, hotel, entry fees, taxis, and misc. The destination is Seattle. Not cheap as far as hotels go.

I was really looking forward to this.

Nate552

Very true. (as an elite member of 2 different airlines I can vouch for this). With airlines charging passengers for every little item they can get away with, luggage fees, exit row seat fees, booking fees, etc. flying with a bike has become taxing, both in stress and money.

botto 

yep. fwiw i'm gold on delta (just missed out on platinum in '08 ). didn't matter.

bitingduck

The best one we did like that was in grad school-- we put big "Department of Physics" signs on the sides of the case, with the address on it. It was equipment for a demonstration or something like that. They still lost it on the return trip-- so badly that it showed up days later on a different airline, but it flew free round trip and eventually got back.

echappist

or buy a nice titanium frame & get s&s couplers. should cost ~1500 if you get a nice, used merlin or lynskey made litespeed