Anyone flown American Airlines recently w/ bike?
 

Did they charge you extra for the bike? We're headed to the U.K. May24th. Wondering if they'll get us for travelling with the bikes.

Looks like their policy is:
"Oversized and Overweight Baggage
* The charge for oversized baggage and the charge for overweight baggage will be added together.
Note: Bicycle boxes purchased from American Airlines which measure 118 in/300cm will be accepted."

I.e. if you buy the box from AA, they won't get you for oversize.



Any tips?

if they do hit you with a charge, it'll be $80. a little steep, but if you're going all the way to the UK, bearable i would say.

The scoop with AA:

When I flew to Shannon, IRE last year, then toured to London, and flew home from Gatwick (in and out of Newark), this is my story:

Bike packed in normal bike box. DO NOT TAPE UP YOUR BOXES AHEAD OF TIME ANYMORE!!! The TSA will make you open them, remove the bike from the box, and they rub this wand all over the bike to inspect for explosives. AA charge me the $80 "bike fee". They no longer care about size, now if they know its a bike, its gonna be $80. I actually didnt mind paying this because I knew about this next tidbit...

After touring, when I got to Gatwick, I called ahead and asked for a bike box. They only had a few (I had a group). My personal bike, a Surly Long Haul Trucker went into a box, while some of the other bikes such as my company's rentals, got "bike bags". Now, if you show them your receipt from the first leg, and say "the gate agent at Newark (or wherever) told me this was good for round trip" they believe this and you wont have to pay the $80 back. This has also worked at Shannon Airport for return flights on Continental Airlines.

Now for the bad about AA: When I got back to Newark, the bikes were being given back to us before Customs. I was worried about the bikes that were in "bike bags." (glorified oversize trash bags). They actually came out just fine, because they were handled as they should have been. The bikes in boxes on the other hand were a mess. Many of the boxes were torn open, one of the customers bikes (a Rivendell Atlantis) had the top tube scratched up, and then last but not least, the grand prize came out. My LHT was delivered in the box, however the box was now only about 5" wide. When I asked the man bringing it out what had happened, he shrugged, said "we ran it over" and walked away as if he didnt care.

Well, it was flattened. The bike was destroyed. Miraculously, the only thing that actually survived was the frame itself. The fork was flattened, the bars were broken off at the stem, the wheels trashed, etc. The frame was scratched up, and a little bent, but some minor work with a set of Park dropout alignment tools and a ***-1 have it back to as good as new. It is due back from the powdercoater on Friday, and will be the ONLY Vikings purple LHT that I know of in existance. Pics will follow.

In the end, AA agreed to cover the bike, but not after much argument. They first claimed that they didnt cover damage to bikes. I called their BS and had a lawyer call the woman I was dealing with. Soon after, she called me back and said she "found" a rule that lets her cover the bike. Even at that, they still only gave me $780 to purchase a new fork, replace the handbuilt wheels, handlebar, shifter, brooks saddle, seatpost, blackburn racks, new stem and crankset. On top of that, they wouldnt give me the money until I drove the 70 miles back to the airport and gave them all of the wrecked parts. It was a headache.

Thanks for that advice. I thought I read somewhere if you buy their bike box, they'll most likely waive the $80 fee. Guess I'll call them and ask.

If you're lucky. When I collected my extremely carefully packed box it had been ripped open and all the bits just shoved back in haphazardly without my carefully constructed foam packaging and spacers and taped together with tape with TSA logos on it. Miraculously nothing was damaged.

I also did my best to be charming to the girl at the check in counter and she didn't charge the $80 (even though she said she should have)

This is why I have my Ironcase. They probably could run over it.
Call ahead. I know on international flights UAL counts it as just another peice of baggage (toward your limit) assuming its not bigger than thier standard bike box. This, and enough frequent flyer miles to never ahve to fly coach again, means I always fly international UAL.
Domestically, Frontier seems to tend to ignore the charges, at least at MSP and SMF. However, domestically, I've found that UPS seems to treat your bike better than the airlines. If you have the days, you'll spend about teh same or less and have it insured.

On Domestic flights I now use Fedex to move my bikes around. If you open up an account with fedex( online) you get 10% off and you print out your own shipping label. On a recent trip to the Carolinas I had my bike shipped to a Kinko's near my hotel and when I was ready to fly home I just dropped it at Kinko's again, total cost was $41

American Airlines - Baggage charges for bikes
 

No problems or extra charge for bike, May 2005, Raleigh NC to Gatwick to Madrid. Used AA bike box, sealed it before going to airport. It was not opened by TSA.

AA did not have bike box for return trip, so bought box from Air France. No charge from AA for bike as luggage. Wrapped and boxed bike at the airport.

See pg 1 and pg 28
http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/journ..._id=25463&v=bh

I printed the same AA information you have and carried it with me as proof that there would not be a charge for an INTERNATIONAL flight. Did not have to show it to anyone during the round trip.

Page 28 says you decided to use shrink wrap. Did you mean 'bubble wrap'? If not, what does the shrink wrap do?

Has anyone returned from a trip w/bike and have any recent experiences to share concerning American Airlines?

I recently flew on American Airlines from Dallas to Boston and back with two folding bikes packed in Samsonite hard sided suitcases. The suitcases are the largest size they make that are under the airline size limit and the folding bikes just fit with a bit of creative packing. I was not charged any extra fees either direction.

TSA opened both cases for inspection on the way up but not on the way back. Everything arrived fine each way. This, I believe is the best way to go if possible. Because you have a normal suitcase, there is no question about extra charges. The weight was 10 lbs below the 50 lb overweight limit so there was no problem there either. Of course, you have to find a place to store the suitcases, but in our case we were staying in a hotel and touring from a stable base so it was no problem.

I think that part of the problem is that agents have no idea about policies. I don't blame them. For example, UsAirways website says "Exception: One bicycle may be accepted free of charge on transatlantic flights. "

Just what the heck does "may" mean? To me it means it might or it might not.

I agree. IMHO the statement is confusing. I am flying USAir in September, and for this reason, I called them. Even the person on the phone wasn't sure, so, he had to read the policy. I am glad he did; and very glad he didn't try to "wing-it". I just hope that agents at check-in have access to that kind of information if they are unsure, or if they are unsure they don't charge me for it.

FYI, the policy for USAir (as-of this week) is that a bike counts as one bag and counts towards your 100lb limit for two bags. Anything over 100lb is charged at the usual excess-baggage rate. I do forget, however, if the bike must be under 50lbs.

Where and when will you be going in September? I am leaving for Milan September 14 from Pittsburgh.

I am leaving Sept 14th as well, flying from Seattle via Philly to Amsterdam. The bike route is Amsterdam to Reims, France. Who-knows-where inbetween, and, closer to Paris by bike if there's time, train to Paris otherwise.

I've flown with my bike. As long as it is under the luggage requirement for weight and size, then you should be ok. American has their linear dimensions on their website, and they list wieght restrictions (under 50 lb per bag). When you do check it, the bike counts as one piece of luggage. With two luggages as your luggage limit, you will get charged if you have a third piece of luggage. But from how I read it, it's better to have the bike charge at 80 bucks than the extra luggage charge of 100 bucks.

Call ahead- then go to the website and print out the luggage requirements and bring them to the airport. I also got the name of the manager ahead of time. She said she wasn't working the day I was going to fly out, but she gave me her home number and told me to have them call if there was a hassle. And that's exactly what I did. I was fine.

Koffee

Thanks for the information, everyone. Here's some for you.

My friend was considering American Airlines because the flight was cheapest. She took my advice and called the airlines for information about bikes before she bought a ticket. AA was going to charge her a $125 fee for the bike, both ways, completely negating any "deal" she might have had on the airline ticket.

$125! That's crazy!!! Her flight would-have-been from SF to Amsterdam via Heathrow (and perhaps one more stop in the USA, but I'm not sure). She did the numbers and it was still cheaper to take USAir, and, we end up on the flight together from Philly to Amsterdam.

Morale: don't be seduced by low flight costs...get the total cost, including the bike.


(BTW, has anyone other than myself noticed that United Airlines has really low flights but higher-than-others fees, so that even though the UA flight-only prices come up as lowest on an internet search, the total cost is in the ballpark of others airlines, or higher? Buyer Beware!)

$125 is outrageous. My guess is that they just don't want to transport the bikes so they charge a high price to transport them hoping people will rent instead of bring. Well guess what, they are going elsewhere as you did.

It would be one thing if $125 guaranteed delivery free of damage but as many of the posts here have written, the airlines want to wash their hands of any damage or lose.

If we had as many company executives that rode instead of golfed, then bicycles would be free on all airlines.

I returned from SFO to Manchester, U.K. on May 31 with my Cannondale T800 on American Airlines. I had to queue at check-in twice: (1) to buy the $20 bike box and (2) to check in :( The bike box is BIG and I didn't have to take the wheels off or any racks (O.K., the size of the bike is "Small"!). I arrived with one large roll of wide clear tape (try another type and more rolls: I used it all up) and a pack of pipe insulation both from a small hardware store. Just had to twist the handlebars around, drop the tyre pressures & remove the pedals.... That was the hard part. My Topeak Alien 2 didn't have enough leverage & getting help was unbelievable (don't expect any help whatsoever from AA or airport staff, they couldn't be less caring). I just managed to remove one and squashed the bike in the box. I put as much equipment as I could in the box with the bike (I'd just done trip down the coast from Seattle) and taped it up. It was opened by TSA but everything was fine when I got to the other side. Also, I didn't have to pay the (expected) $80 since I think it was classed as part of my allowance (I packed 2 full rear panniers into a plastic bag & had that checked in; my handlebar bag & front panniers (one inside the other) were carry-on)). Note: due to having to "check in" twice and the pedal removal problem, I missed the flight I was supposed to be on (they did put me on another 40 minutes later at no extra cost) ... and I arrived at the airport with 3 hours in hand! :(

I got some advice from another tourer, "Leave the multi-tool at home". He pointed out they have no leverage as you so painfully are aware. ;)

Just over a month ago I set off on my Europe tour (which I'm still on). My flight was with british airways, however I had a connecting flight from INdy to Chicago with American Eagle which I guess is more or less the same as AA. First off, I called twice in the weeks before I was supposed to set off asking if they would have boxes for my bike. BOth times the answer was yes. Then when I arrived at the airport, they looked at me quizzically and told me that they hadn't had bike boxes in years. I was a little panicked, unsure of what to do with the flight supposedly leaving shortly (it ended up being delayed). However, I was expecting an $80 charge, and was not charged at all for the bike, which was a pleasant surprise.

They ended up taking plastic bags intended for ski equipment, cutting them into sheets and taping them around my bike. They also put a smaller box around the handlebars. I promptly paid a couple of bucks to get extra ensurance on the bike should it get broken. When I arrived in aberdeen my bike did not arrive with me, I was quite worried. However, it arrived the next day in pretty much great condition (had to readjust a few things, didn't take long at all).

I have recently good experiences with British Airways on transatlantic flights (Mine was from JFK via Heathrow to New Delhi). Free of charge, no bag or box, just the standard procedures of turning in handlebars, removing pedals and de-flating tires. Bike arrived in excellent condition.

I did research AA and other U.S. carriers but they all stated extra charges with bikes, so I went with BA;)

I didn't know this was possible! Thanks for the tip. Oooooo, PCH, here I come!