Above is all good advice. If Qatar will really let you take 2 bikes in addition to your normal allowance for $600 then that seems like a good deal to me (it’s all relative..). When I’ve looked into air freight in the past it has never been worth it (expensive, won’t insure high value items) but maybe I didn’t look hard enough. Mike seems to have got a good deal ^.
With regards Emirates policy, it is quite hard to follow and differs significantly by route and even by ticket within the same class. Generally though, for economy LHR-AKL, it’s 30kg total, which can be a suitcase or a bike or whatever. Bear in mind that they also limit total luggage volume, which means you can take 2 small suitcases weighing 15kg each but if you take a bike you will only be able to take that one item, regardless of weight, as anything else would take you above the volume limit. Their excess baggage charges are per kg and prohibitively expensive.
Another thing to note is that for flights within NZ they will not take any bag weighing over 23kg. For example, if you fly into Auckland with your 30kg bike bag, spend a couple of nights there then try to fly to Queenstown you will get a flat refusal to check in your bike bag unless you take 7kg of stuff out. You may get away with this if you can check your bags through from UK direct to your final destination but I haven’t tried that.
World cup race teams must spend an absolute fortune in excess baggage…