Never Easy
We'd rather climb a 7,000' pass or do 10% grades than fly
with our bikes. Compared to flying without them, it is expensive, time
consuming, and just plain hard work. It's like planning 2 separate trips, with
the segment off of the bikes having a whole separate set of problems and
solutions from the segment on the bikes.
The preplanning for a flying leg of a trip can require days on the
internet and phone to develop a workable plan. Airlines don't like bikes. Most will
take them, but they'd rather not. Golf clubs, surfboards, and skis get more
consideration and fewer charges than bikes. And worst yet, it is extremely
difficult to nail-down packing requirements and pricing schemes until your
moment of departure. Even going to the airport a day or 2 before your flight to
chat with the counter clerks who make the decisions is no guarantee of a predictable outcome.
Careful consideration must also be given to getting the bikes
to and from the airport, especially when in boxes. And jostling the boxed bikes
through the various stages of the journey is hard on our bodies and baggage
handling practices can take its toll on the bikes themselves. Some years we pay
to stash our bikes in Europe
when we return home to avoid the hassles. Here is some of the issues to be alert to when flying with bikes:
Bikes Allowed?
Unfortunately your flight plans have to be in the final
stages to determine if your specific flight or series of flights will accept
bikes. That's never been a problem for us on the large, international flights,
but it can be on the smaller, short-hop, domestic flights. Some planes are just
too small to accommodate bikes in the hull. Especially if you are changing
planes to a smaller airport or smaller service, make sure all legs of your
journey will accept bikes on the flights you are considering.
Luggage Allowances: By the Piece or By Weight?
The bad news about the airlines standardizing their
pricing schemes is that the wiggle room has gone out for bike owners. With most
airlines, if your international ticket includes starting or stopping in the US
or Canada, your luggage for all legs of your journey go by the piece system,
which is the good news. That usually means 2 pieces of luggage weighing no more
than 70 lbs each on international flights. Our bikes, bike boxes, and luggage
weigh a bit over 100 lbs per person, so the piece system was a breeze. We just
make sure we each only have 1 piece of checked luggage plus the boxed bike and
we are set.
But nothing is constant, especially in the airline industry.
In 2006 the 70 lb rule was modified by some airlines. The 70 lb limit was still in place,
but the rising fuel costs meant that luggage weighing between 50 and 70 lbs incurred an
extra fee. Not officially the excess baggage fee, but a sort of "lot of baggage"
fee. All of a sudden, we were working hard to squeeze in under the limit,
shifting some of our load into our carry-on allowance. (Of course, when the
price of oil plummeted back down to where it had been, this extra fee structure didn't go
away.)
Almost all tickets in which none of your flights nick North America
have luggage allowances based on the weight system instead of the piece system. That usually means you are
limited to 44 lbs plus about 15 lbs carry-on. Anything over the 44 lbs gets
dinged for the official excess luggage fee.
Excess Luggage Charges
We learned the hard way that excess luggage charges can
be trip-stoppers and cancelled a trip because of it. Ten dollars or more a pound is not unusual for excess luggage
charges and they can easily be double that or more. So our excess luggage of
about 40 lbs when traveling with the bikes becomes $400 per person per leg of the flight. Some excess baggage
charges are at successively higher rates for longer flights.
If you catch one of those budget airline one-way flights
within in Europe than only cost you $20 or $50, you can afford to pay the excess
baggage charge but for most other flights it rapidly becomes prohibitive.
For big trips, we've heard that 'around the world tickets' can
ensure you more generous baggage limits, though we've never purchased such a
ticket.
Sometimes we have had to pay an extra $100 or more per
bike per flight just because they were bikes, even though we were under the
weight limit, though usually on US domestic flights and not on international
flights. It is extremely difficult to nail down the rules before you fly so keep
your credit card handy (they don't like cash at the check-n counter).
Airline Packing Requirements
There is 1 constant in the 'flying with bikes' routine
and that is that all airlines require you to deflate the tires, remove the
pedals, and turn and secure the handlebars: your box, their box, or no box,
these rules apply.
Determining a given airline's requirements for packing your bike
is another nightmare. If you are lucky, you'll find specific requirements on the
airlines webpage. If you do, print it out and follow the instructions. Take your
hardcopy with you to the ticket counter when to check your bike in because usually
the check-in clerk's understanding of the requirements will not match what you
have done. Having the hardcopy can make the difference between getting your bike
on the plane or not.
Even worse are the airlines with no written policy available
to you and they say call an agent. Of course, you will be lucky to get the same
answer twice and usually the longer the agent talks to you, the more convoluted
the requirements become.
|
Once I was able to email an airline and get a written
policy back but now that airline has dropped that contact point.
The packing requirements are a moving target. When flying
Lufthansa from Madrid one year, we went out to the airport a few days before
departure to discuss the boxing requirements. They sold boxes at the airport,
boxes were required--no exceptions. Of course, when we arrived at the airport,
they only had one box. We scrambled to protect the second bike with wads of
plastic bags and cardboard we'd brought for padding the bikes within the boxes
and they begrudgingly accepted it. Now the same airline, Lufthansa prefers that the bikes not be
boxed.
Weight and dimensional restrictions will be your main obstacles but
some airlines will not allow bikes with compressed nitrogen
shocks on board. And US security agents may confiscate your tiny tube of vulcanizing agent
for tire patches.
Types of Packing
The kind of container you use when flying with your bike
is usually determined by your ability to store your packing supplies.
Unfortunately, we've near had the luxury on an overseas trip of storing bike
boxes, so have been limited to disposable products like cardboard boxes and
plastic wrap. If you have the ability to stash a fine bike bag or sturdy,
reusable container while you tour, take it.
We did buy folding Bike Friday bikes that fit in their own
suitcases that converted to a trailer and hoped to travel overseas with them,
thereby circumventing a number of luggage-related problems. We weren't satisfied
with the bikes for long-term, loaded touring and also preferred using panniers
over trailers so went back to conventional bikes. For shorter trips, they are
probably a great solution so less of your trip is consumed by the
packaging/airlines problems.
Packing Up Your Bike
The Approach
Of course, your packing options at home and when returning home
are wildly different. At home, we take days to pack the bikes and make sure
every thing is just so. When abroad and returning home, we do what we can to
protect the bikes in the available time and hope for the best.
|
Weeks before flying either direction in the trip, we
establish what we are going to pack the bikes in. Usually that means either free
bikes shop boxes or purchased, airline boxes. Once while at home we purchased
boxes designed for another purpose and once while abroad we purchased bike bags.
And now with Lufthansa's new "no box" rule, we'll be bundling them up
with some padding but without a
cardboard shell.
About a week before flying home with the bikes, we start
trolling at large hardware and home improvement stores en route for packing supplies we
can carry with us on the road. Split lengthens of foam pipe insulation provide
light-weight padding and carton tape is invaluable for securing wadded plastic
bags used as padding and closing the box. Long cable ties are an easy way to hold wheels and other parts
secure in transit. Budget-priced rolls of kitchen plastic wrap (not waxed paper) allow securing padding and parts without the gumminess of
tape residue. Small pieces of cardboard and discarded styrofoam chunks are also
handy to use as spacers inside a bike box. Every packing job is different
depending on the box being used, the weight restrictions, and the supplies
available.
And about a week before you fly, make sure you can crack
your pedals. We carry a short pedal tool with us on the road, but it isn't always sufficient for
releasing the pedals that must be removed regardless of how the bike is packed. If we can't loosen them
ourselves, then we
still have time to stop in at a bike shop to get them cracked.
Whether flying from home or at the end of a biking trip, we
clean-up the bikes before packing as it makes the bikes infinitely more pleasant
to handle, both in disassembling and reassembling. And should you end up without
a box when you expected to have one, a clean bike will be much better received
by everyone involved. If we are on the road, we try to find a do-it-yourself car
wash with power sprayers to clean off the excess grease and dirt. When a car
wash doesn't materialize in time, we do what we can with a roll of paper towels
and some water.
Packing Containers
A favorite trick when flying from home with generous
weight allowances was to get 2 free bike boxes from the local bike shop for each
bike, getting a matched pair of the biggest boxes they had. The bike would be
packed in the upright position as bike boxes with top opening demand.
The second box would then be inverted down over the open top of the first box like a
sleeve. This system accomplished 2 things. First, almost the entire package was
double-boxed, making it much stronger and less susceptible to crush and puncture
damage. Equally important, the bike didn't have to be dismantled quite as much
and could stick out the top a bit, being covered by the second box. But getting
the boxes you want from a bike shop is always a chance thing and weight
restrictions may make this approach less attractive..
We recently bought a dozen light fixture boxes
(pictured above) from a local box seller that open from the big side of the box.
In some ways these boxes are more awkward but they just meet the airline's
requirements and are incredibly easy to pack as you can see inside the box once
the bike is in it.
Airline boxes are quite large (some of them are even larger
than their stated size restrictions.) They require the least amount of
dismantling for the bikes to slip inside, but offer the least protection as the
bike flops around. Bring your own tape to the airport if buying one of their
boxes and some padding materials to protect the more vulnerable parts.
Reusable bike bags are great if you have a place to store
them while you tour but the bikes still benefit from some extra padding from cardboard or styrofoam if you can manage. We even partially lined one
bike bag with the box for a
children's bike to give the bag some rigidity and the bike extra protection.
The Packing
When packing the bike, plan for the worst. Don't assume
it will be carefully handled and travel "This End Up". No, it's going to be
slung, heaved, dropped, and stacked upon and perhaps left out in the rain for
awhile. Use tape, plastic wrap, and cable ties to ensure that the relationship
you've established between the dismantled parts remains constant regardless of
how the box is turned or jiggled. Also think of protecting vulnerable areas from rubbing damage, like
your saddle and handle bar tape. And pack defensively for crushing impact on
delicate parts. And don't have any small, loose parts that can fall out of
tears that occur in transit or through the hand-holds you cut into the box. The
challenge is to find the perfect balance between the time you must spend packing
and unpacking the bike and giving it ample protection from damage.
The front wheel usually must come off for boxing, creating
some special hazards for the bike while in transit. When it comes time to
actually turn the bikes over to the airlines, these are the parts of our bikes
that Bill has tried to give extra protection in the latest packing strategy:
-the drop-outs on the front fork from impact damage (or slicing
through the box)
-the front wheel spokes, rim, and brake rotor from being
smashed against the bike frame
-the front axel is also vulnerable to damage if it pokes
through the box
-the rear derailleur
-the bottom brackets from force through a pedal that has
moved from the horizontal position
When the packing job is complete, including name tags on the
inside and outside of the box, cut several handholds if the box lacks them. Put a
couple on each side near the top so 1 person (often you) can carry the box while
standing at its center. Experiment to find the balance point for the weight and
comfortable spacing for your arms, with 1 hand on each side of the box.
Reinforce the hand-holding with tape. This will also make it easier for the
baggage handlers to carry your bike, possibly improving it's treatment while in
their care.
Luggage for Your Other Gear
We usually abandon our luggage and bike boxes when we
arrive at our departure point for our biking trip, so have delved into the fine
art of disposable luggage. One extreme was packing our panniers and their
contents in giant paper bags designed for curbside garden debris disposal. Three
panniers neatly fit in 1 leaf bag which we lined with a construction-weight
plastic bag for extra durability. The system worked well except that the
airlines hated it.
Our leaf bags were more durable than cheap luggage but they
weren't luggage. We had to sign special releases and disclaimers at check-in.
After September 11 and the institution of greater security checks, it became
more of a nightmare. Our leaf bags attracted too much attention and the
inspectors did a terrible job of repacking them.
Just for the acceptability factor, we switched to
budget-priced luggage. That's ranged from cheap wheeled suitcases to duffel bags
to second-hand store purchases. The trick is selecting a piece durable enough to
survive the journey yet cheap enough that you can bear to throw it away after a
single use. Just like when using the beefy paper bags, we stuff our belongings
into a construction site-weight plastic bag that's inside the suitcase or duffel
incase the luggage bursts open in transit.
We don't check bare panniers with the airlines, we always
wrap them in something. We use either Vaude or Ortlieb waterproof panniers which
have rigid plastic backs and discovered that the corners of the backs are
vulnerable to chipping and cracking. We always make sure these plastic backs are
protected in our soft-sided luggage.
And if you think you might be overweight on your luggage, try
packing 'expendables' together in a plastic bag in the corner of your luggage.
That way if you are just a few pounds overweight, you can quickly ditch those
items to avoid the penalty. We do that with some books, toothpaste, hand lotion,
snacks, and other little items that can be easily replaced for far less than the
excess baggage fees.
Transporting Boxed Bikes To And From The Airport
Make sure your logistical planning includes hauling boxed
bikes to and from the airport. The problems involved at the home-end of the trip
are generally the easiest as you are more familiar with the resources. You may
be able to call upon friends with trucks or station wagons to haul your bikes
around and if not, you know more of the in's and out's of the local public
transportation and taxis. You may be able to make test runs or careful
measurements of hauling capacity days before you go to the airport. And it's
easier to sit at home with the yellow pages in front of you to explore all the
options than when in a hotel in a foreign country.
The other end--flying in and out of your destination--is
trickier. Every city's fleet of airport transportation vehicles is a little
different. Some airports are served by vans with seats that fold down, others
don't seem to have them at all. And driver's temperaments vary on how much
effort they will expend to get the bikes into their vehicle. Some intercity
trains set-up for wheel chairs are easy to drag boxed bikes onto; others with
narrow entrances, steep steps, and tight corners are all but impossible.
We generally try to fly in and out of foreign cities during
regular business hours on week days as that gives us the greatest access to
transportation services. We usually also check for holidays before we schedule
our flight so we aren't competing with crowds for services or are looking for
help when only a skeleton crew is working.
We've even gone as far as flying with a luggage cart just for
wheeling our bikes around between legs of public transportation and then mailing
it home afterwards. Of course, the cost of the cart has to be weighed against
the considerable mailing charges. And we are reluctant to use a cheap cart and
throw it away at the end of the journey as we are fearful that cheap ones will
fail prematurely, leaving us in a bind.
Sometimes riding your bike to or from the airport is an
option. Biking to the airport with your luggage or putting your bike and luggage
on public transportation works well if you can buy boxes from the airlines and
then pack the bikes there. That of course works best with flights later in the day and starting from
a nearby hotel. With flights that arrive fairly early in the day, we've also
reassembled our bikes at the airport and biked off the grounds with our luggage
transferred into our panniers. Be sure to check
before hand if the airport has roads on which you can bike as some are only
served by freeways that exclude bikes.
When leaving Frankfurt, Germany for the US, we took advantage
of the earlier luggage check-in policy. The night before the flight we packed up
the bikes at the airport, then checked them in. That solved a number of
logistical problems and took all the pressure off our our early departure the
next morning.
The difficulties in schlepping boxed bikes around town are a
good reason to keep your travel plans simple and eliminate stop-overs.
Australia/New Zealand - November 2006/March 2007
The blind alleys and "gotchas" with going down under are the
same, it just that coming from the States you have fewer airlines to choose
from. At least from the west coast, Qantas and Air New Zealand are the 2 main
choices.
Qantas absolutely requires bike boxes. In Auckland, they sell
them for $30NZ ($20US) each and say they keep a good supply--which they did have
when we were there. Air New Zealand on the other hand doesn't sell boxes, nor do
they require them.
Our tickets from Portland to Auckland were with Qantas, but
the Portland to LA leg was actually on Alaska. So, unfortunately for us,
Alaska's 50 lb weight limit applied for the domestic leg and didn't allow us to
capitalize on Qantas's 70 limit. Our beefy 40 lb bikes with racks and other
attached items and our extra heavy boxes at 12 pounds put us over limit for
Alaska. Had we been under Qantas's rules, we would have left our panniers and
locks in with the bikes rather than tote them in our carry-on and checked
luggage.
And when flying into New Zealand, be sure to thoroughly hose
all the dirt off your bike. New Zealand has severe biohazard restrictions and
mountain bikes get extra scrutiny when you arrive (scrub up your hiking boots
and tent too.)
Please e-mail us at this site if you have questions about our packing or
transport experience or if you have some great ideas we've missed.