What is the best budget bike bag/box for airlines?

A free cardboard one from a bike shop

Wrapped completely in gaffer tape.

not sounding like a rep but over the trips my Evoc, works damm well and worth what I paid for it. If it’s a one off then look at renting.

Not used one myself but saw this one on the Decathlon website yesterday and thought it looked good VFM.

I’d take a carboard box over the decathlon one, no protection offered at all to the bike

The flight is on emirates, so a box might not be a bad idea, 30kg allowance, save 8kg on a bag.

Planet X one is good. Know a few who have them and I made two trips with mine last year.

Good packing is key. Only damaged bike I saw last year was in a box but it wasn’t well packed.

Pipe lagging on the frame, remove vulnerable bits, secure loose bits, space out dropouts, protect chainrings and I used some stiff cardboard for extra protection because I had it.

You can rent plastic boxes for a reasonable rate if you want to be more confident.

False economy maybe?

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPloIzDa6bg[/video]

The CRC one is meant to be quite good but if it was me I would buy an Evoc bag, use it and then sell it when you get back if it was only going to be a one off. I used mine from the UK to Oz, several internal Oz flights then back to the UK again with no issues.

I presume 30kg is your entire baggage allowance?

Not sure how much it cost, but Biketart used to rent Evoc Bike Bags, might be worth giving them a call.

The only time I’ve ever had a bike damaged on a plane it was in a bag. Before and since I’ve stuck to cardboard bike boxes from shops- they are hard, cheap bags are not. They are cheap, expensive bags are not. Just pack it well and you’ll be fine.

I’d go for a good box & a roll of stretch wrap.

And that’s from someone with an Evoc bag.