you may have to steady the bike bag on the scales at check in meaning it may not weigh as much

🙂 had to do that coming out of Nepal once, they wanted a lot of $ to get it on the plane, had some kit in with my bike so had to empty it out and they stil said it was over. Had to sneakily put my foot under their scales and lift it a bit.

Might just have to hope I can sort out something when I get to heathrow. My partners dropping me off, maybe go really light and if I find out I can add some weight to my allowance have a extra bag of stuff I can bung in there. Weather looks good so shouldn’t need too much kit.

Well usual tips (some on the previous page)
Pay for the short term parking and have some “extra stuff” in a small bag with them 😉
Luggage scales at the airport – they always round down from the reading to the nearest whole number 23.9 = 23
The feel of the whole thing would say they are going to weigh hand luggage so get that spot on.
I’d risk 1 or 2 kg personally but be prepared to pay
Smile, be polite, say good morning, ask how they are doing on check in, smile and be grateful. Most check in staff will decide (consciously or not) if they are going to use any discretion in the first few moments of meeting you.
I just clip my lid to my hand luggage bag these days.
The wedge bike bag so it weighs light is a Jedi master trick 😉 can’t teach that one
I normally get there early too, find and empty check in desk and pop your bag on to check it.
Make sure you have done any visa stuff properly
If that goes well then you are off to oversized with the bike. Go say good bye to you partner and drop the extra couple of KG into the bike bag 😉 and pick up your extra hand luggage.

It just about works just don’t do it in front of check in

flying from Heathrow

I work at Heathrow. Send me an email with exactly what you’re wanting to know and I’ll try to get to T2 on Friday and speak to someone in the Air China office for you and get an answer from them.

Nearly 1,000 flights to my name and never been charged for excess baggage despite I’d say approx 50% of those flights turning up overweight. Never Air China though.

First point of call is just arrive 2-3kg overweight. Be nice to the check in girl/guy, ask them about their day, smile, act like you’re a little unsure of things. 95% of the time they’ll turn a blind eye – have even got away in the past with being 5kg over with Ryanair check in using this approach.

On the rare occasion this doesn’t work, you’ll be made to add a couple of kilos – normally a token amount to your hand luggage. Have some spare room in this just in case.

If it’s a large bike bag and you thing you can get away with it then have the very end of it overhang the conveyor, with your hand luggage, or a foot placed directly underneath supporting the end of the bag – this will remove a few kilos from the weight shown on the scales. If it’s one of those new self weigh in type check in’s then Bingo, this approach is perfect. Alternatively a strand of thin, clear, almost invisible fishing wire attached to the end of your bag and held in your hand to apply 2-3kg of upward pressure should do the trick if you think the foot thing is too obvious.

Another option is to carry all your heavy items in your hand luggage and pad the bike big out with light bulky stuff. If it’s a rucksack sling it easily across one shoulder to make it look like it’s really light. I have never ever been asked to weigh hand luggage and have sometimes traveled with 15-20kg this way.

Final option if you’re not confident with the above is just add the 2-3kg extra en-route between the check in desk and the oversize baggage. The oversize baggage guy isn’t bothered how much the bag weighs (so long as it’s not over 32kg). Having said that, I’ve got away with 37kg once, the guy raised an eyebrow but it went through none the less.

Good luck.

Thanks for the offer notmyrealname but I fly tomorrow.

I haven’t left this until the last minute I’ve been trying to contact Air China over the last few weeks so came here for any suggestions. Think I’ll be a few kilos over so just have to try some of the ideas suggested here 🙂

Hope you have a great trip. Mongolia sounds like a good destination although by all accounts you come back smelling of mutton and yaks milk from the diet 🙂
Good luck with the flights

Thanks for the offer notmyrealname but I fly tomorrow.

I’ve just spoke to a mate of mine who’s working in T2 today. He’s off to try and find the Air China office for you to see if he can get an answer.

Fantastic! .. Thanks 😀

I fly with Qatar mainly because of the generous allowance, 30kg even for economy I think. I used to have the gold card but now down to silver and I could easily take a mountain bike (boxed) with me to Myanmar this year, at zero extra cost! I do try to make sure that I use the international company to book all the way through to final destination, then domestic limits are ignored (i.e. slightly cheaper to book to Bangkok and then another flight to Yangon/Mandalay but booked together the first airline is responsible for any delays and the luggage goes straight through. Taking a fat bike next year 😀

Enjoy your hols/work

I like your style agent007. I’m not sure I’d have the balls for the fishing line trick but I’ve often stood nonchalantly whilst my 15 kg cabin baggage rucksack strap cheesewires my shoulder 😀

Fill tyres with He?

I am dreading dropping from Plat back to Goldon mine – 70kg Economy Short Haul and about 50kg long haul makes a big difference 🙂

(I was still over coming back from the states with 70Kg 😯 )

I’m not sure I’d have the balls for the fishing line trick but I’ve often stood nonchalantly whilst my 15 kg cabin baggage rucksack strap cheesewires my shoulder

It does help doing it from the Business/FF checkin line, they are a lot more relaxed up there… Manchester has a nice way to oversized where you can sort it out too. It’s all about attitude really 🙂

That’s another beauty of Qatar silver; relatively easy to get (two long haul returns a year). Business class check in and lounges and tonnes of weight allowance. Couple of years ago I had to go through with a 13kg sealed lead acid battery for a solar electricity set up. I printed off the international carriage rules and it only took about 45mins to convince all was legit.

Ah, at last! The company that I’m going with have managed to get an answer from Air China – don’t know how, but it seems I might get charged up to £95 each way, depending on how much over I am, so I’m happy with that (hopefully) 😀

I’ve just heard back from my mate at T2.
He spoke to the guys on the check in desk who told him that the 23kg for the checked bag would be allowed for the domestic flight at the other end as long as they were booked together.
They also said that they are very strict with regards the weights and it was 23kg hold luggage and 6kg carry on.
Apparently he couldn’t say what the excess charge would be as he didn’t know!

It’s also worth remembering that a lot of the baggage scales you can buy are pretty inaccurate.
Last time I flew with a bike box my scales said I was at about 27kg but the airport scales showed under 25kg.

notmyrealname, thanks for that, appreciate it.

I’m hoping any excess charges will then be based on the extra weight rather than a fixed charge, I’m likely to only be a few kg over.