Hey there, I’m currently planning next year’s trip to the sun for biking and we’re off to Finale Ligure.

Small problem, there may not be any direct flights to any airports nearby and we might have to get two flights with a transfer.

I’ve only ever done this twice but they were on really long haul flights with fairly generous turnaround times. Never done it for a quick Euro hop.

Does anyone have any experience of no go airports or minimum transfer times for bikes bags? It looks like the options are Schipol, Charles de Gualle or London (Gatwick or Heathrow).

Charles de Gaulle are the only place I’ve ever had baggage problems and I’ve had trouble there twice.

Good reason to avoid it then.

Schipol is huge, so allow plenty of time to transfer. You may have to go through security again there as well.

In order of preference I’d say :
1 Schipol
2 London
3 CDG

Depends on whether you are changing flights between different airlines / ground handlers – if you’re flying the same airline, should be less of a problem rather than relying on the ground-handlers handing off luggage to another handler.

We’d try to keep the same carrier I think. My order of preference would probably be the same. No horror stories from anyone so far, so that’s good.