I’m off to Spain in April to ride and luckily, my local airline starts its direct flights there just when I need to go. Awesome. So I thought. They do two flights out a week, on Thursday and Saturday and the same days back which means I only can get a single. No worries but it’s a bit inconvenient.

I was about to book the flight and thought I’d check the bike carrying policy. 75e to carry a bike. Oof. Never mind. But wait… what’s this in their baggage policies:

“In the event of excess weight or lack of space, Luxair reserves the right to unload any bikes, which have already been loaded on to the aircraft. Excess baggage fees will be refunded.”

So I could arrive in Spain for a riding holiday, minus a bike (without warning as they’re talking about unloading bikes) and from the context of the refund, no bike zipping out to me. Balls. Now I have to fly via Zurich, Munich or Frankfurt and spend the night in a hotel.

What a **** idiotic policy. I can understand (like some airlines) having to book ahead and if you turn up with a bike they can say “We’ll see what we can do” but offloading because some **** has too many suitcases seems a bit shit.

Pretty much every airline has that policy, even good old BA (as a mate doing l’etape found to his cost a few years ago).

up to 80% of the hold on a passenger flight can be used for third party cargo, which makes them more money than your bike does.

(I’m assuming you’re Lux based)

Get the TGV to Paris and fly from Paris or drive (train?) to Basel/Mulhouse/Freiburg and fly from there?

Yeah, I’ve taken a bunch on surfboards and had them slung off in the past. Waited 4 days to get hold of them once.

Try taking windsurfing gear .. 😆

Problem is, there’s only just so much room in the holds. If it won’t fit, it won’t fit.
It’s generally more of a problem on smaller aircraft, but it’s a problem that can appear on most aircraft from time to time. I’d be surprised if the airline that you’ve jumped to doesn’t have a similar policy, whether explicitly stated or not.

Get the TGV to Paris and fly from Paris or drive (train?) to Basel/Mulhouse/Freiburg and fly from there?

That’s the sort of options I’m looking at but it’s a right ballache. I can fly Swiss from Lux down to Zurich, kip the night in either an off airport hotel or their transfer hotel and get there the following morning. Would have been nicer to just get up and fly direct though but given Luxair’s notorious customer service quality I don’t want to risk a reasonably expensive trip with their ropey policies.

For contrast, I’ve booked the return flight with Vueling and reserved a spot for my bike. No drama at all. On a budget airline.

given Luxair’s the whole of Luxemburg’s notorious customer service quality

FTFY.

You may well be better on a ‘budget’ airline. The fact that they’re generally using A319/20 type a/c and you need to pay for checked in baggage means that there are usually far fewer bags in the hold, meaning more room for your bike

Where in Spain are you going? Is driving not an option?

Whenever we go back to the UK from Spain it’s by car. It takes much longer but there isn’t too much in the cost and I can take half a ton of bikes and kit backwards and forwards. Plus then I have transport when I get there 🙂

given Luxair’s the whole of Luxemburg’s notorious customer service quality

Ah. you’ve been here then. The only place where shops close for lunch. Even shops that sell food. There’s even a sandwich shop that closes at lunchtime.

Gave up. Booked via Zurich as at least the Swiss can (probably) be relied upon to get me somewhere efficiently.

In a new twist, Iberia changed my return flight… to the day I arrive in Alicante. They were only too happy to refund (takes 8 weeks mind you) but they honestly didn’t understand why I didn’t want to change my “arrangements”. Baffling.

Gone back to flying Lufthansa/Swiss.