Bike Boxes/ Bags for airlines?
- Thread starter wyno70
- Start date
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canadiense
Active Member
- Location
- Vancouver Canada
I recently toured SE Asia using Cathay Pacific Airlines. I can't say anything bad about them especially since they took my bike for no additional charge.
I went to my local bike shop and got a bike box for no charge and packed it myself. They will do it for a fee but as you say it is your pride and joy so you will probably want to do it yourself. The first time took a long time.
In China I went to a bike shop and bought a box for 10 yuan (what's that 1 pound?) I measured my box before I discarded it in Bangkok just in case the boxes are different sizes. They were so it was a good thing.
In both cases the bike arrived without a scratch so I would repeat that approach. Others say they have good success just with the plastic bags that airlines provide holding to a theory that the baggage handlers willl be able to see that it is a bike and won't stack anything on top. That makes sense since they don't want your bike to damage other cargo.
I went to my local bike shop and got a bike box for no charge and packed it myself. They will do it for a fee but as you say it is your pride and joy so you will probably want to do it yourself. The first time took a long time.
In China I went to a bike shop and bought a box for 10 yuan (what's that 1 pound?) I measured my box before I discarded it in Bangkok just in case the boxes are different sizes. They were so it was a good thing.
In both cases the bike arrived without a scratch so I would repeat that approach. Others say they have good success just with the plastic bags that airlines provide holding to a theory that the baggage handlers willl be able to see that it is a bike and won't stack anything on top. That makes sense since they don't want your bike to damage other cargo.
bike boxes are big items and you should check with the airline to see how big of an item you can put in the hold.
I hired a bike box from Brixton Cycles. Given the damage to the outside of the box, and the clear attempt to get at the bike, it was worth it.
I hired a bike box from Brixton Cycles. Given the damage to the outside of the box, and the clear attempt to get at the bike, it was worth it.
hubbike
Senior Member
- Location
- Edinburgh, Scotland
i've just got my bike boxed up by my LBS for £25 seems to be a good job.
Hi all,
I have only used plastic bags as I found the boxes from the lbs were always to short for my tourer...Have flown it a lot of times abroad, have had the odd damage but nothing to worry to much about...am touring the baltics next Jul and will be using plastic bag again...but this year on my tour abroad, a guy at gatwick said they may be stopping the use of plastic bags because of a new conveyer belt...but I will phone nearer the time....oh one last thing...using plastic I dont have to strip the bike too far down
I have only used plastic bags as I found the boxes from the lbs were always to short for my tourer...Have flown it a lot of times abroad, have had the odd damage but nothing to worry to much about...am touring the baltics next Jul and will be using plastic bag again...but this year on my tour abroad, a guy at gatwick said they may be stopping the use of plastic bags because of a new conveyer belt...but I will phone nearer the time....oh one last thing...using plastic I dont have to strip the bike too far down
CopperBrompton
Bicycle: a means of transport between cake-stops
- Location
- London
Ho ho ho!canadiense said:
Baggage handlers have zero interest in whether your baggage or anyone else's baggage gets damaged.
Amanda P
Legendary Member
- Location
- York. Well, York-ish...
We've flown with our bikes a number of times. Each time we've taken plastic bags in case the airline insisted on them, but they never have. We put foam pipe lagging on the frame tubes, remove rear derailleurs and so forth, and seen baggage handlers wheeling them about and putting them on the top of stacks of luggage rather than in the middle.
It's true that we've also seen them putting one bike on top of another, and detected the odd scratch afterwards, but so far no serious problems.
If the airline doesn't insist on bikes being boxed, they'll usually be too big to go through regular check-ins, and sometimes too big for the special one they use for surfboards and the like. They'll be swabbed to check for explosives (don't keep them in the same shed you keep your shotgun cartridges in!), and wheeled through the security point where airline staff go airside.
Much better than being dumped on a conveyer.
Wideroe were even happy to carry my recumbent with no packaging whatsoever - outstanding!
It's true that we've also seen them putting one bike on top of another, and detected the odd scratch afterwards, but so far no serious problems.
If the airline doesn't insist on bikes being boxed, they'll usually be too big to go through regular check-ins, and sometimes too big for the special one they use for surfboards and the like. They'll be swabbed to check for explosives (don't keep them in the same shed you keep your shotgun cartridges in!), and wheeled through the security point where airline staff go airside.
Much better than being dumped on a conveyer.
Wideroe were even happy to carry my recumbent with no packaging whatsoever - outstanding!
Tollers
Guru
- Location
- San Francisco, California
CopperBrompton
Bicycle: a means of transport between cake-stops
- Location
- London
CopperBrompton
Bicycle: a means of transport between cake-stops
- Location
- London
Most bags contain more than just clothes.
I've been bored at a great many airports, and seen countless baggage-handlers at work. With a handful of exceptions, I travel handbaggage-only. These facts are not entirely unrelated.
On two of the occasions on which I was forced to travel with hold baggage, I witnessed the baggage-handlers offload my bag. Both bags were marked Fragile in huge lettering, both were thrown from the aircraft to the cart. In one of the two cases, a prototype product was badly damaged despite masses of padding.
I've been bored at a great many airports, and seen countless baggage-handlers at work. With a handful of exceptions, I travel handbaggage-only. These facts are not entirely unrelated.
On two of the occasions on which I was forced to travel with hold baggage, I witnessed the baggage-handlers offload my bag. Both bags were marked Fragile in huge lettering, both were thrown from the aircraft to the cart. In one of the two cases, a prototype product was badly damaged despite masses of padding.
Ben Lovejoy said:
Airports are about shifting thousands of people and their baggage in and out every day. Bags get thrown about - what do people expect? Sorry, but I can't feel much sympathy for people who put fragile items into hold baggage.
At the same time plenty of people do travel with bikes either unwrapped or in plain plastic bags which suggests to me that the thinking that 'if they can see it's a bike then they'll handle more carefully' has something to it.
Not that I'm about to try it myself...
CopperBrompton
Bicycle: a means of transport between cake-stops
- Location
- London
Your optimism seems to desert you in the final sentence :-D
