I love traveling to new places, and using my bike as a tool for adventure. Whether rome italy tours I'm racing in a far-off land or jetting across rome italy tours the country to explore some new singletrack (or for the less-romantic business meetings) I usually have my bike with me—and if not prepared, flying with your bike can be the most challenging (and most expensive) part of the trip. When I'm budgeting for a ride trip or a race, I often have to factor in what it's going to cost to take the bike with me. Compounding matters, each airline has its own bike and luggage fees. Choose the wrong airline and checking your bike could cost more than the plane ticket itself.
I try to choose this low-fare carrier whenever I travel with my bike. They have a ton of flights into and out of Denver rome italy tours and they treat cyclists right. The airline charges $20 for the first piece of checked baggage and there's rome italy tours no excess baggage fee for a bike when you buy an economy ticket. If you book an economy rome italy tours fare, and you have a bike and a suitcase, you're looking at $80 round trip for luggage. The airline also has classic-fare tickets. A roundtrip fee usually costs about $40 more, but bikes and bags fly free. Those fees allow penny-pinching riders like me to travel without busting our budgets.
Not only does this airline allow two free pieces of luggage, they charge only $50 each way for a bike. That's a steal compared to some other carriers. Southwest also allows you to change your ticket without excess fees. Just pay the difference in fares. Plus, I like that the flight attendants always tell funny, cheesy jokes.
Alaskan also charges $50 each way for your bike. But unlike Southwest, the company charges rome italy tours $20 for every piece of checked luggage. rome italy tours That can add up to $140 round trip for a suitcase and a bike. They airline has reasonable fares, but most of its routes are along the Pacific coast.
This small, regional carries typically has low fares, but its baggage policies can be tricky. They charge $75 one-way for a bike, but have a whole web of fees for luggage—and it's not cheap. Checking a piece of luggage costs $45 and there's a 40lb limit (bags that weigh between 40lb and 50lb cost an extra $25). Like some European carriers, Spirit also charges $50 for each piece of carry-on luggage that fits in the overhead bins, but there's no charge for bags that you can fit under your seat. Don't even think about trying to game the system and gate-check your bags: There's a $100 fee for that. If you're rome italy tours not careful, bags fees can climb sky high. The airline even charges $3 for water. I'm surprised they don't charge you to use the lavatory!
This major airline rome italy tours charges $100 each way to fly with a bike on top of a $25 one-way fee for the first piece luggage (additional bags cost more). rome italy tours Fly with a bike and suitcase and that adds up to $250 or more for a round-trip journey.
rome italy tours I made a terrible discovery a couple years ago. I booked a ticket on Delta to Pennsylvania for the Trans-Sylvania rome italy tours Epic stage race. Then I checked Delta's bike policy. Not only did they charge $25 for a suitcase, but they also charged a shameful $200 ONE WAY to travel with a bike. The cost for taking my bike roundtrip would cost as much as my plane ticket. Fortunately, my friend drove my bike out for me. Delta has since lowered their price to $150 each way for a bike, but checked luggage still costs $25, so you're looking at $350 round trip. To its credit Delta as a 70lb overweight limit, 20 pounds more than most airlines.
US Airways is the most expensive airline to fly with your bike. They charge $25 for the first piece of luggage, and a greedy $200 each way for the bike. We are talking $450 to travel with one suitcase and one bike. I try to avoid this carrier at all costs.
rome italy tours With prices like that (not to mention the hassle of dragging a bike case through the airport), it's understandable if you decide to skip airline rome italy tours bike fees altogether? If so, you can ship your bikes via Fed Ex or UPS for about $80-$100 each way. Several companies, rome italy tours like bikeflights.com, offer even better rome italy tours rates and will pick up your bike at your house and deliver it anywhere you like.
If you do fly with your bike, you need pack it properly and the whole package needs to weighs rome italy tours less than 50 pounds (some airlines, especially regional carriers, have size limits too, so double check before you book your ticket). Packing your ride in a standard box, like the ones manufacturers use to ship bikes to their dealers, is one economical option. But cardboard offers little rome italy tours protection. If you fly more than a once a year, I recommend a dedicated bike case. There are tons of good models, but my favorite is the $430 Bike Bag from EVOC. I bought one last year and use it at least once a month. It's a soft case (which keeps the weight down) but it has a great design and enough space to easily fit a mountain bike. It's a not cheap, but it's a small price to pay to help take the sting out of flying with your bike.
JetBlue (out of Denver) also only charges $50 for an oversized bag. However, my road bike packed so tightly rome italy tours into my travel case, the JetBlue counter at Boston rome italy tours Logan didn t even charge me an oversize bag fee last Sept coming home from a ride in Maine. It flew for free. Woo Hoo!
Some airlines will still try to charge a bike fee, even if it s in a suitcase, so I put a small part of the bike in my other carry-on bag. That way I can truthfully say that it s not a complete bike in the case, but bike parts. No extra charge.
This is great information. I am the highest level flier with Delta (Diamond) and I most always choose SouthWest when I had my bike due to fees. I heard that Delta lowered their bike fees to $65 each way not the best but MUCH better than the $150 or $200 each way.
The biggest question I have with checking a bike with an airline is what happens if it is damaged or lost. I don t know if you can buy insurance for damage or lost bikes on the airline. Double check your homeowners rome italy tours policy if you think it covers damage (think about your bike falling under the wheels of those little tractors). I prefer to FedEx or UPS my bike and insure rome italy tours it. It costs about $60 to ship it by ground and insure it for a reasonable amount. I had a suitcase lost by United once and it took six months to settle for their maximum of a few hundred dollars.
Southwest definitely for intra-US travel. Try British Airways for European travel. That s what we used when we went to France last year . . . I think it s $50 for a bike case? My husband and I were marveling that it costs more to fly with a bike case across the US (we live on the East Coast and we ve flown out to California a couple times) than it does to fly with a bike case to Europe.
If you are experienced at taking your bike a part and assembling it again, you can pack it in 2 hockey bags with wheels. The bags are undersized and you are only charged for the cost of 2 suitcases. I learned this from the Xterra pros and have successfully flown this way about 12 times. The frame goes in one bag and the wheels in the other. I remove the rotors quick releases and put the wheels in a padded wheel bag. I then place them in the hockey bag and pack my clothing around it. For the frame, I unbolt the rear derailleur, seat and post, pedals, and fork. I place tubular foam around the frame and old socks around the shift/brake levers and crank arms. Make sure to put spacers in the fork and the rear wheel dropouts. I put some foam in the bag first, surrounding the frame and then pack my clothes around the outside once the frame is in the bag. Packing takes about 45 minutes and reassembly, about 30 minutes.
rome italy tours My frame has a 52cm seat tube and a 54cm top tube. Removing the stem, headset, fork, front brake, wheels, skewers, pedals, chain rings, rear derailleur hanger, and seat/seatpost it will all fit within the Ritchey case, which measures 8.5 x 26.5 x 31.0 .
Sound complicated? Not really. My record time to assemble the bike is 15 minutes, and record time to pack is 20 minutes. No lie. Ritchey brake and derailleur cable splitters have been a nice addition.
rome italy tours Granted, the outside dimensions of the Ritchey comes to 64 inches total, 2 inches over the airline mandated 62.0 inches. But in the dozens upon dozens of flights I ve taken, only twice did a ticket agent pull out the tape measure, and out of that only one of those actually charged me the over size fee. 98% of the time, my bike travels as a suitcase just be ready to say advertisement display , archery target , engineering prototype , or my favorite (especially if the ticket agent is cute ) massage table when asked so, what s in the bag?
Flew with Delta, and I watched from the window how they slammed the bike on the bottom of the luggage cart, of course it wasnt upright, then piled suitcases on top. The box was clearly marked as Handle with care Keep Upright Bike Inside .
It was a transatlantic flight, so took over 20h to get from Europe back to California. rome italy tours Derailleur hanger was busted, so was one of the break levers, luckily I brought spare parts with me, expecting the worse. The box was a standard cardboard, heavily reinforced and bike wrapped. It is my first time travelling with a bike, after this experience, I dont think I ll do it again anytime soon.
@Shawn Burke I feel your fear. I had my new Ellsworth Epiphany one month before putting it on a flight out west. I bit the bullet and added a rider to my insurance that would cover any loss. It cost $250 for a whole year. Worth it to me as we were on a 3-week road trip.
Just a thought here if you have enough advanced planning time, wouldn t it make sense in some cases to send your bike ahead via UPS? And return the same way? This might work if you re going to be traveling to a place for more than a few days. I ve done it on a trip to California, and it worked pretty well.
Use a nondescript travel bag (e.g., I used Pika Packworks EEP standard travel case, about $359) to pack your bike. Tell the baggage people it s trade show equipment and you ll only pay
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