morglum

After browsing multiple blogs, I decided to go the bagged (and padded!) bike route, thinking that

1) it's quicker
2) baggage handlers won't just drop and kick a bike if they know it's a bike, right?

Turns out that 2) was false. Here is a video of what happened to my friend's bike at Montreal 2 weeks ago
What is not shown on this video is what also happened to my bagged tandem bike. The (say, 6 feet high) baggage handler lifter the (say, 7 feet long) bike over his head then smashed it on the loading ramp.

Both bikes look like they crashed at high speed on pavement.

What's worse? The tandem bike never showed up to Havana (they took it out of the plane for some reason after loading it in the plane), so we didnt even get to go bike touring. All that time and money gone to waste, and no vacation till next year.

Next time, I'll box my bikes.

Papa Tom

Did you report this to the airline/airport?

Buffalo Buff

Holy ****. I would be emailing the **** out of anyone and everyone related to the airline if I were in your shoes.

Shimagnolo

I met a guy who took his high-end CF bike on a flight in an expensive, hard case.
So the TSA opened the case, removed everything, lost the bag of small parts, then jammed the bike back in the case, breaking the frame.
When he filed a complaint about it, their attitude was: "So sue us".
I would never take a bike on an airline.

morglum

Trying to! Getting Cubana to even answer the phone when I was in Havana took 5 days. During those 5 days, my 4-persons party was stuck sleeping in a friend's living room. the second bike (my tandem) never arrived. Too bad for us, it seems.
The staff in Montreal is expecting a phone call from me tomorrow. This will be a very interesting phone call.

What, that's crazy!!

mtnroads

That's crazy and needs to be reported, and copy all complaints to senior management. I assume you have pics of the damage?

morglum

I've already shown the video toa swissport manager in Montreal yesterday when I landed. He asked me to email him the video and did agree that it is unacceptable. My understanding is that it is up to the airline to compensate me. We will see tomorrow.

spinnaker

Why didn't you get a video of the tandem? Did it's abuse cause you to video your buddy's bike?

For all the money that airlines charge to transport your bike, they should guarantee no damage.

saddlesores

how 'bout a call from your lawyer?

#tandemframesmatter

Tourist in MSN

Good job in getting the video.

There have been a few times I wished I was taking photos outside the window, but almost all my flying was for work in the 1980s and 90s, we did not go walking around with movie cameras in our pockets like is common now.

When I used to travel a lot years ago, a friend worked as a baggage handler at an airline. One time when I saw him I told him that I recently bought a new hard shell suitcase and I asked him what he thought of that make and model. He said, only get soft cases, don't get a hard case. I asked why. He said that the previous day when he drove over a hard shell suitcase with the truck, it destroyed the suitcase, but when you drive over a soft case you often can't even tell by looking at it.

Do you know anyone at a tv news show that would be interested in showing your video?

morglum

Haha! Thanks for the heartily laugh at #tandemframesmatter.

I dont think I'll want a lawyer involved. The damage to the shifters are mostly cosmetic. The wheels are way untrue from tugging to get the bikes out of the cart from behind the luggage. I can't get my rear derailler to shift into the first gear, but that might be me being a poor bike mechanic. I'll get a quote from my bike shop tomorrow and we'll see.


The worst part is really not getting the tandem to Cuba and thus not being able to do our bike tour. This is the worst part to us , but 5 days of waiting and phoning before giving up doesnt make for a good video...

If anyone knows how we could claim damage for not receiving the tandem bike, we're takers!

morglum

From what I see the Montreal convention covers up to 2000$ish of damage for itnernational travel. The damage isnt that bad as bikes are really tough, but the intent really was to harm there.

The reason I didnt get the footage is that I kept filming for 6 minutes after this and nothing happened. The tandem was out of sight and the solo bike couldnt fall further down anyway, right? Moments after I stopped filming my tandem in the field of view and *boom* it gets smashed on the ramp.

morglum

I dont normally film anything when travelling. I just want to experience and keep the memories. But these guys had been tugging at the luggage for a few minutes and I had a really bad feeling about it...

I dont think it would really be tv material, but I'll probably forward it anyway. If anyone has a contact, I'm interested!

saddlesores

c'mon......tv loves this crap. best if you can get some (staged) video of kids
crying that their puppy died because the bike needed for the charity ride to
raise funds for doggie cancer...blahblahblah....

go for oprah. or is she off the air now? ooh, fox news! they hates cuba!
they'll give you plenty of airtime. heck, i bet you could get featured on
o'reilly!

you could post on youtube.........would be a definite hit, as everyone hates
baggage handlers..........but you'd be a poor second to the videos of chinese
tourists pooping in airport elevators. (me no kidding. see youpooptube.)

spinnaker

What happened when the video got all jumbled? Did you faint?


If it is the similar law as in the US. I think those rules only cover loss not damage.

spinnaker

A local TV station might me interested. It wouldn't hurt to send to all of them.

spinnaker

As long as it was not lost, you are screwed. The airlines is contacted to get you to your destination and not the luggage. And they don't even have to get you there on time.

morglum

haha! almost fainted, but mostly had a "WTF!!!" moment and this was filmed with a 8x zoom, so I completely lost focus. There's a reason I removed the audio track.. )

According to this article from CBC , you can get damage such as ". If your bags were delayed, what expenses did you incur as a result (e.g., buying clothes or renting golf clubs for a big game)? If your flight was delayed, did you need to purchase meals, forfeit a deposit for a night at a hotel, or lose wages?

The problem is that you can't exactly rent a tandem bike in Cuba.

acantor

In the days before portable, ubiquitous video cameras, I watched a baggage handler throw my bike overhead into the cargo hold while I looked out the window of the plane. At my destination, a wheel was out of true and there was minor damage to another component. It cost $75 for a bike store to repair the damange. I sent a complaint to the airliner asking them to pay for the damage. They replied no. I wrote again, and they cut me a cheque.

DropBarFan

Bizarre. IMHO sensible thing is for airlines to have cargo area w/hooks for bikes & similar special luggage. Even though a few seconds more time for baggage handlers it might help their work go smoother by not having to worry where special luggage goes.

indyfabz

Back in '02 I watched an America West baggage handler toss my boxed bike about 6' to the tarmac from waist high. I immediately reported him to an airline agent. If you travel inn the U.S. consider shipping the bike using a service such as bikeflights.com. It's essentially a FedEx discounter. I have gotten good rates and good service the two times I have used them.

Carbonfiberboy 

We've flown with our uncoupled, boxed tandem bike twice with very good experiences. I built a custom wood box for it with casters, a combined 115" measure, and a lid that's only taped shut. The inspectors only had to lift the lid and look inside. No padding, no bags, everything visible. No problems. They just tape the lid back shut.

We put the small parts, tools, etc., in a checked suitcase. No problems there, except that they broke the wheels off both our suitcases. The airline paid for new comparable suitcases.

In Frankfurt, the baggage handlers threw all the bikes on the plane onto a luggage cart several feet away, one atop the other, including our boxed tandem, another hardcased bike, and several just in plastic bags. Our bike was of course undamaged, but we suspect that the unboxed bikes were all broken.

Thus our opinion is that plastic bags are the very worst thing to do, contrary to a lot of advice one sees, and that any kind of complicated packing system is counterproductive.

dh024

I admit, I don't know how well this actually works, but a colleague who works in the legal field explained that an incorporated business in Canada can only defend itself in a legal case using actual legal representation. However, any person can file a claim against them in small claims court without a lawyer. Given what legal fees cost, he suggested that it makes no financial sense for companies to fight a legal claim if the lawyer fees might exceed the amount of the claim, which makes a lot of sense. It sounds like procedures for filing a legal claim are pretty easy, and cost little. Might be worth investigating instead of suing -- chances are it will never make it to court if you are only asking for relatively small amount, and they will just cut you a cheque to avoid costly legal fees.

morglum

I've been in touch with the nice folks at Air Passenger Rights | This site is under construction and we are currently building a case. He has sent me some caselaw from the Quebec small claims court, and I live the interpretation on some of them. In one of them a woman was awarded 300$ for the damage of not having her baggage until she returned from Dominican Republic, which prevented here from practicting her sports since she couldnt just buy the equipment there, and 300$ for what she actually did buy there.

Getting compensation for the damage to the bikes should be easy-ish, what will be harder will be to get compensation for the delayed bike.

DropBarFan

Wooden box sounds great for protecting bikes but where did you store the box? Sad to hear Frankfurt was so bad w/bike & luggage handling esp since Germany makes a decided effort to attract int'l bike tourists.

Last time I flew I was in TSA screening line & remembered I had Swiss Army knife in carry-on--TSA guys were polite & pointed me to a little shipping kiosk a few meters away. Why couldn't airports have a little business renting out bike hard cases? Perhaps airlines could give cyclists a discount for using the rental cases since presumably less chance of damage. Flown a couple of times with S & S Surly Trucker & while saving $$ of bike luggage cost the assembly is a PITA.