I’m currently trying to sort out my flights for a trip I’m doing in July to Peru and Bolivia for which I’ll be taking my own bike.
Basically, my trip starts in Lima, Peru and ends in La Paz, Bolivia with flights needing to be in and out of those places.

The outbound part of the flights I’ve been quoted for, which incidentally are horrendously and surprisingly to me, very, very expensive (£1295) are operated by one airline (American Airlines) with one change via Miami.
The return flight changes via Boston, and then again in Miami however, this time the airline also changes, to British Airways I think.

A few questions if anyone has experience….

Presumably the outbound flight, operated by one airline, I should only get charged bicycle passage once right? Or would they want to charge me twice for two planes?

The return flight, changing planes three times and airlines once, would I likely get charged a bike carrying fee at the least for each airline, or the worst for each leg of the journey?

I’m trying to book the flights through STA travel who say that they don’t deal with booking the bike on and that I’d have to sort that out myself…

When I’ve booked bikes on flights or kayaks on flights before, I’ve never had to change planes before and have just paid an each way cost, so don’t have any experience here…

Also, American Airlines state in their baggage t&cs that if the bike is under 50 pounds and less than 62 dimensional inches, then it can go on as a normal piece of checked baggage (otherwise $150)
Anyone taken advantage of this? I’ve no idea if this is even realistic (it’s a steel hardtail)

Any help anyone can offer I’d be very grateful…

Get in touch with your nearest Trailfinders. They will sort you one ticket for all your flights and their special handling dept will get the bike booked on. Any additional charges will be paid up front so you won’t get any surprises. It’s rubbish for STA to say they won’t sort your bike if you are getting your ticket from them. Go elsewhere that’s a shocker. I’d also recommend that you don’t fly via USA as it can be a much longer route. Try Iberia or Klm via a European hub.

Edit- that’s also a very expensive price

My folks did south America couple of years back. Less than complimentary about Iberia. But the thing to watch for was luggage allowances dropping the further in they got. Last internal was 15kg.

AA/BA are a codeshare. Worth checking which is best to book on as a “single” booking and then go from there.

I get the same baggage allowance on AA as I do on BA (Which is a very large allowance 🙂 ) as well as any other BA codeshare/alliance partners. You will usually find that the allowance from one will be honoured by the other, so pick the one with the best allowance, and book with them! Oh, and join their frequent flyer scheme as well, even if only for this trip, it makes them like you a teeny bot more for every level you go to on the scheme. Especially so at the shiny end of
the scheme! 8)

So, in essence, pick the best allowance, book that airline, and then pick which metal you fly on. Many AA flights are “operated by” BA and vice versa. If choosing between those two, go for BA every time!

You should get 30kg minimum for those flights id imagine so you may cut it

Thanks all, I’ll certainly look into all that. The price does seem crazy. I’ve flown to Uganda, India and California with kayaks before and these prices make them look very cheap!

I’ve flown from Edinburgh to the West Coast of the USA with a bike several times. Sometimes with BA sometimes with Continental. BA have always been the best carrier. They didn’t charge me for my (single) bike out or back. When I showed up with two bikes and a BOB trailer to return from San Francisco they did.

Continental are a law unto themselves. I think I’ve had about a 50/50 no pay on the outward leg rate, but I’ve always been charged ~ $60-$100 on the return leg. Last time they wanted to charge me $400 for a single bike box. I protested and they reduced that to $200.

When flying with one carrier to the US even with transfers I’ve only paid once.

However, I flew back from Perpignan with either EasyJet or Ryanair with a transfer in Southampton, and they charged me for each leg for the bike.

Tralfinders would be my first choice of travel agent. They were consistently cheaper than any online fares I could find.

Seems largely a lottery really, thanks. I’ll check out trailfinders for sure. 🙂

Flights just booked through Trailfinders. Thanks for the tips folks.
£1140 lighter, and that’s before I pay for bicycle carriage…
Gulp 😯