victorian

We are planning a family cycling trip (my husband, me, our two children) to Germany. We would be flying Air Canada, which has a "Star Alliance" partnership with Lufthansa. While Air Canada's baggage fee for bikes is $50, Lufthansa's is $200....each way. My understanding is that the fee you are charged is the fee charged by the operator of the first flight you check into in each direction. In other words, if our first flight out of our hometown in BC is operated by Air Canada, we would pay $50 per bike, even though Lufthansa would be operating the overseas portion of the flight. On the other hand, on the way home, if Lufthansa is operating the flight out of Germany, we would need to pay the $200 per bike. Has anyone flown Air Canada to Europe, with one of its Star Alliance partners, recently? Is my understanding correct? If so, it certainly will be an expensive proposition to transport all of our gear....

Confederate

You are correct that you will pay the fee assessed by the carrier who is operating the first leg. Just make sure you are on a true Air Canada flight and not a "codeshare" flight. Some flights are operated by another carrier and just assigned an Air Canada flight number. (Usually you can spot these because the flight number is really high--something like nine-thousand-something, 900X. But that isn't a hard and fast rule.)

If you print a copy of the fee table for Air Canada, showing $50 per bike, and purchase the tickets as AC flights, it is possible that Lufthansa would honor that rate. But don't bet on it. That is definitely a Plan C kind of option.

Look at the benefits programs of bike organizations (Adventure Cyclists, USA Cycling, US Triathlon, etc.) to see if they have any discounts available to members that would be applicable. Years ago, I remember some cycling group that provided members with two tickets annually (enough for one round-trip) that allowed them to check a bike free of charge (though it did count as one piece of luggage). That may be a long-lost dream in these days where you have to pay for each checked bag. But it would be worth checking into. A family membership to a club could be a lot less than four checked bike fees.

markf

I would scour the websites of Air Canada and Lufthansa, paying particular attention to the sections on code shares, bicycles and baggage in general. Rules and fees are changing too fast to rely on what some random stranger on the internet tells you. If you can't find the information you need on the airline's website, call the airlines you plan on traveling with, keep notes of what you discussed during the phone call, and make a note of the name of the person you talked with and the time and date you had the conversation. Anything else could result in a very expensive surprise (or, in your case, four expensive surprises) at the check in counter.

I don't know how important it is that you travel with Air Canada and Lufthansa, but I have found British Airways to be much more reasonable about bicycles than most airlines.

If the extra charges to bring your bicycles with you start to look too expensive, have you considered buying bicycles when you get to Germany and selling them or giving them away when you leave? This could be cheaper than paying all those extra fees.

Yan 

For the love of god don't fly with bikes on Lufthansa. I did this last year and they ignored their own regulations and charged me 350 dollars per bike in Budapest. Apparently it "depends on the airport". I believe Polish Airlines carries bikes for free.

spinnaker

You will get this story (or similar) from almost any airline. The ticket desk attendents don't even know the rules of their own airlines. Basically it is a crap shoot.

Sometimes it works in your favor, On a recent trip from Italy, I had two bags to check. The first bag went free and the bike I knew I needed to pay for.

I was told my fee for the bike was 125 Euro. I was flying American and at the time the fee was $100 US. I told the attendant that it should be closer to 80 Euro. He told me I would need to speak with the manager. The manager looked at my smaller bag and said that if I could get the contents of the smaller bag into the bike box, the bike box would go free! So there am in the middle of the airport stuffing dirty clothes into my bike box.

Move ahead a year and out of Spokane. I go to check my bike and was told the fee was $300. It was $100 because it was a bike, $100 because it was overweight and $100 for oversize. I was told if I could get the weight down to 50 lbs it would go for $100. I am not sure what that does to the size thing.
I got the weight down to 51lbs. and that was not good enough. I had to take more out. The case alone weighs 28 lbs. Frankly I think the woman was pissed because she did not want to lift the case onto the belt.