Any suggestions on the best airline and route to travel with a bike?

I know from experience that the headline fare is only part of the story.

Emirates don’t seem to cater for bikes so they look to be out.

Bike will be packed in and Evoc bag if that makes any odds and will be 23kg ish.

Any help greatly appreciated.

An aircraft…you won’t be able to build a jump big enough to do it by leg power…even a giant pump section won’t get you there…

I had got that far thanks!

With clean tyres unless you want a telling off and 30 mins scrubbing in NZ customs (it was sawdust from the garage floor but they insisted it was “seeds”).

I flew with Emirates out there last year as a bike box was allowed in your checked hold luggage allowance.

I went with advice and cleaned the bike so it looked like new, the only inspection it got was its box opened, they looked at a clean tyre and were satisfied.

No experience with a bike, but AirNZ were way more flexible and easy going than most when we had overweight luggage (and garment bags, etc) when going for our wedding.

Air NZ & Singapore are both decent ways to fly there IME.

As Mick says – if you’ve not been before then your bike, shoes and any other outdoor gear needs to be absolutely spotless for customs. Just fit new tyres and thoroughly clean the rest.

We did air NZ / Singapore (14 years ago). Was fine apart from they smashed the fork axle saver out of one bike, spearing a hole through bag and denting top tube. Probably more to do with baggage transfers somewhere on the route rather than airlines themselves.

Went via USA, airNZ about 7 years ago – no problems (having taken advice to thorougly clean bike and scrub tyres)

You get one free stopover on air nz each way. I recommend Hong Kong on way out (if you’ve never been} and the Cook Islands on the way back.

Emirates are usually the cheapest. 30kg total so you can have a bike bag and a small one. Don’t go over the limit though. £££

Have flown emirates with a bike. It just went on with the rest of the baggage.

OK I was a bit wide of the mark about Emirates. I spoke to them about the bike and luggage. You get a total allowance of 300cm dimensions and 30kg. Trouble is the Evoc bike bag with bike (Scout) inside measures 253cm and weighed 23kg on a recent trip and that leaves just 7kg of other luggage! Excess is £53/kg. Wow!

Thanks for all suggestions so far including tyre cleanliness!

on our last trip to nz we flew with Air New zealand and had no problems with substituting our bike bags for an item of luggage – we went via LA as you get 23KG per bag flying via USA , if i remember rightly if you go via singapore or other far east countries you get less allowance

If you do go via USA make sure you have at least 6 months left on your passport – i didn’t and almost didn’t get to fly home 8-;

Both our bikes survived the trip both ways with no damage with Air NZ

Emirates don’t seem to cater for bikes so they look to be out.

yes they do, Ive flown withem many times and will be again at Christmas with bike. They have the largest baggage allowence

Its 30kg, I stuff my gear in the Evoc and a carry on rucksack.

Mines evoc and it has a Bronson inside it 😉 and its been on Emirates quite a few times

Im going for 3 weeks at Xmas and can easily get my gear in, I have 35lt back pack to as carry on. If you need more Id suggest re thinking and cutting down.

leave the hair curlers and dryer behind?

If you do go via USA make sure you have at least 6 months left on your passport

not sure but think if you have a “biometric” passport that requirement has been dropped…but don’t take my word for it

Air NZ every time. They are always super helpful.

Air NZ, Virgin, both had a decent bike allowance (Air NZ paid for, Virgin was free sporting equipment).

Emirates have 30kg which most people fly with perfectly well.

Singapore I haven’t flown with but often codeshare with Air NZ.

Virgin allowed us to take our 23kg hold bag and then an additional 30kg for the bike for free last year.

BA were also cheap, £40 / each way for the bike IIRC.

Most airlines will take the bike, but it will come out of your usual baggage allowance – it depends how long you are going for, and how much stuff you need? We were going for 6 months so it was a full bag + bike each!

A lot of planes will be shared by a couple of airlines (code sharing I think its called?) so worth checking, as the baggage allowance / fees is based on the airline stated on your ticket. On our BA flight they guy in front of us in the queue at checking got stung for 100s for additional baggage, but he was on a different ticket. We turned up with 60kg each and paid £40 each!

Avoid Malaysia air, we booked with them as they were cheapest for flights+bike at the time, but between booking and arriving at the airport they changed their baggage allowance, stung us for an additional £600! And their customer service is simply terrible.

TL;DR.

We took our bikes out on Air NZ via LAX. Cost £70 return each. Had a horrendous flight round the edge of a hurricane (people praying, crying, free falling, I loved it) which resulted in a slightly bent disk on one wheel. would not hesitate to do it again.

Word of advice: make sure they are spotless, plus your riding kit. We had to unpack everything when we arrived. We’d even bought new riding shoes before we went. As soon as the customs officers saw the new shoes they zipped up the suitcases and waved us on our way. The couple next to us however…

Years ago I did it with BA/Quantas/Air NZ on a single round the world ticket. Going via LA gave us a 2X32kg baggage allowance inclusive, the bike went as one piece of baggage.

Air NZ upped their charges for bikes a few years ago. I know because the bike flew out to NZ for free, then when I got to Wellington airport to come back to UK they stung me for $70NZ to get it home, which is under my threshold for arguing about it (even though I had booked it on both ways, sometimes you just get a jobsworth, only one I have ever encountered with Air NZ he must have been new.