Bike Box allowance

Moonfruit

Just a heads up to anyone travelling overseas to events with aerlingus and availing of the bike box service charged at €50 per flight prebooked over the phone.

Weight limit is 23kg

Extra kg is charged at €10 per kg

On a resent flight with AL to Europe the bulky baggage attendant weighed the bike box's of all our group and quite aggressively insisted we must pay extra as much as €90 for one of the guys and between €40 and €50 for some.

As we were about to processes this it was brought to our attention by another Triathlete on the same flight that the weighing scale around the corner was weighing 6kgs less.

It took a lot of discussion and much stress but we eventually avoided this payment.

So advise would be to:
1. Weigh box at home before going to airport
2. Get a second opinion if threatened with excess charges

Hope this helps some people

MojoMaker

Interesting. I thought the weight limit was 30kgs? Makes a difference alright, especially with hard luggage.

Moonfruit

MojoMaker wrote: »

Interesting. I thought the weight limit was 30kgs? Makes a difference alright, especially with hard luggage.

I believe that ryanair is 30kg

Enduro

Worth buying extra weight in your check in bags. I've had them total up all "purchased" weight accross all bags, so had no issue with 30kg bike bags as a result. (But as ever, it probably all depends on luck of the draw with the check in staff)

iAcesHigh

Taking this into account would you prefer having a bike bag instead of bike box as a rule? something like this http://sciconbags.com/aerocomfort-triathlon (I think TRIMAX team uses these hence the price) - or bike box is simply more safe?

peter kern

i tend to pack my bikes very little but take care of the key parts. and tend to repair bikes of the people that carry them in heavy bike boxes and dodnt know what they are doing ;-0
so i think the best thing is to know what you are doing. then box or softsheel or carboard box is secondary.

iAcesHigh

peter kern wrote: »

i tend to pack my bikes very little but take care of the key parts. and tend to repair bikes of the people that carry them in heavy bike boxes and dodnt know what they are doing ;-0
so i think the best thing is to know what you are doing. then box or softsheel or carboard box is secondary.

I used carboard until now but had few issues like broken cables and similar small issues due to "gentle" use by airport stuff so was just in the middle of buying a box, but with kg in mind bag could be a better way to go - still deliberating how safe it is (+don't feel like paying €400 or so for something that doesn't provide a certain amount of safety)...

Moonfruit

I still think the bike box is ok as a choice for carriage. But I and many were a little outraged with the fact that the aerlingus baggage staff or one in particular was rude, aggressive and unapologetic of the fact he was about to overcharge us for the fault of his weighing scales weighing 6kg more than they should.

My box weighed in at 20kg when I weighed it myself afterwards and not 26kg as the aerlingus staff member insisted.
I have not heard any complaints regarding bags v boxes but I am able to carry a bike and wheels that weigh 8kg, a tool kit and pump that weigh maybe 2kg and bike shoes& helmet which can't be more than 1 kg + a trisuit and socks.
All came to 20kg give or take a kg which is well below the 23kg limit

Just bubble wrap the delicate parts and it should be ok

It's still cheaper than shipping ones bike😉

iAcesHigh

Moonfruit wrote: »

I still think the bike box is ok as a choice for carriage. But I and many were a little outraged with the fact that the aerlingus baggage staff or one in particular was rude, aggressive and unapologetic of the fact he was about to overcharge us for the fault of his weighing scales weighing 6kg more than they should.

My box weighed in at 20kg when I weighed it myself afterwards and not 26kg as the aerlingus staff member insisted.
I have not heard any complaints regarding bags v boxes but I am able to carry a bike and wheels that weigh 8kg, a tool kit and pump that weigh maybe 2kg and bike shoes& helmet which can't be more than 1 kg + a trisuit and socks.
All came to 20kg give or take a kg which is well below the 23kg limit

Just bubble wrap the delicate parts and it should be ok

It's still cheaper than shipping ones bike😉

feel for you .... I'll take two scales with me to prove my pint and ask them to weight on different scale if that happens - easier when somebody prepares you so thx

yeah, I was under 20 kg using cardboard box so I'll probably go with a box>bag since it, at least just looking at it, box provides > safety for the bike itself ---

peter kern

iAcesHigh wrote: »

I used carboard until now but had few issues like broken cables and similar small issues due to "gentle" use by airport stuff so was just in the middle of buying a box, but with kg in mind bag could be a better way to go - still deliberating how safe it is (+don't feel like paying €400 or so for something that doesn't provide a certain amount of safety)...

i would suggest broken cables can be easily prevented with good packing takes around 30 sec to fix a hadlebar well with some bubble wrap and shoe laces.

joey100

One of the lads in our club is an ex baggage handler for one of the air lines and he recommended a bike bag. Said it's harder to throw and stack a bag rather than a box that has edges and is easy to rest things on top of. I've seen the luggage come out a few times when I've been on the plane and normally the bike boxes are on the bottom with suitcases on top of them, anytime I've seen my bag it's been on the top of the pile. I've used a big planet x bag a few times and have had no problems at all. Like Peter said it's all about how you pack it. I added a piece of wooden flooring to the bottom to add more protection and make sure I put the spacers that came with the frame in the front and rear dropouts to try to stop the frame being squashed.

peter kern

One of the lads in our club is an ex baggage handler for one of the air lines and he recommended a bike bag. Said it's harder to throw and stack a bag rather than a box that has edges and is easy to rest things on top of. I've seen the luggage come out a few times when I've been on the plane and normally the bike boxes are on the bottom with suitcases on top of them, anytime I've seen my bag it's been on the top of the pile.

that is more often than not correct from what i see. and boxes tend to get thrown around more and while they are indeed stronger thats why there is more likelyhood that bike gets damaged if not packed right.

at the end of the day there is a risk and the bigger the airport the bigger the risk something goes wrong. i would never fly heathrow or charles de gaul and if for those i would use a hardshell. not heard of many problems in frakfurt but the 2 former are notorious bike graves ( damage and connection flight misser) .

ps i hate to give my money to airlines for a bike Id much rather give it to the luggage handler if they do a good job ( and if you stick a chocleate on the bike box i never think i lose out ;-)

iAcesHigh

peter kern wrote: »

ps i hate to give my money to airlines for a bike Id much rather give it to the luggage handler if they do a good job ( and if you stick a chocleate on the bike box i never think i lose out ;-)

which luggage handler you would use?

peter kern

iAcesHigh wrote: »

which luggage handler you would use?

i think the bike charges are very arbitrary by the flight companies
like brit airways ( the same group as aer lingus ) not charging at all if it stays in the 23 kg .
i dont think much money stays with the luggage handler at all that does the work ( who deserves the money handling it ) its pretty much pure profit for the flight company.
ie person with bike usually lighter than the fatso without the bike ie same petrol costs. and I do not think the baggage handling companies get more money for a bike than a pice of lugage ( i might be wrong butif its certainly only marginal )

and ps i would use the guy who is in active multisport and apreciates a bike as a lugage handler and rather pay him a 10er than the company to make sure all is right with the bike

MojoMaker

The trouble is he doesn't work on the other end of the route, where you have just the same chance of a fcuk up and a bad treated badly.

I've cringed looking out the window of the plane at some smaller European airports watching the completely disinterested baggage handlers throwing bike bags and boxes from the plane to the luggage carts and vice versa - they really don't give a sh1t.

myate

Flew to San Francisco last year for Escape with AL and a Scicon Aero tri bag....highly recommended - non-carbon bike weighed in at 19kg. Baggage handlers in Dublin were great. Even better in San Francisco where the bike bag was wheeled out by a porter after all the other bags had arrived! I think it helped the Tour of California had passed through the airport a few weeks before!