Me & my girlfriend are going to the Pyrenees in Sept & we’re debating whether or not to take our own bikes or rent through AQR.

Cost implications & logistics are a worry. Can anyone offer any advice or share their experiences on airline costs for transporting the bikes please?

Search the forum there are daily threads on. I fly with my bike every year probably twice a year with loads of different airlines. Bike bag, cardboard, bubble wrap and pipe lagging every airline has different T&C’s so read them carefully and know your and the weight limit. It is easy.

i flew my road bike out to geneva last summer… i went by ba which doesn’t charge extra for bikes.. it worked out cheaper than going sleazyjet which did charge extra.

just make sure the bike is packed in a good strong bike bag with stacks of padding. also make sure that the airline tags it as being fragile.

if you pack all your clothes etc in the bike bag, not only does it mean that you don’t need additional check-in baggage, but it also protects the bike more.

No, I have never taken your bike on a plane.

NIce one, thanks for the info folks. Looke like BA are the airline of choice then. Just gotta swap my Patriot for something weighing less than the moon before we travel ;-p

Tucker, I’ll get you to carry it to the airport for me & that’ll give you an idea of it’s weight…

Beware that you are not supposed to pack things in the bike box/ bag that are not meant to be there- eg clothes, shoes, road signs (oops!)

Go to Morzine every year with my DH bike bagged up with other items chucked in the bag.
Never had a problem with weight always within the allowance.

Ambrose that’s not correct that depends on the airline. We flew to India with MTB’s in Jan and had a 30kg luggage allowane and 7kg handluggage, we flew clothing handluggaeg for 2 weeks and stuffed bike bags with helmet, shoes, tools, camelbaks, wash bags etc. However having previously flown Easy Jet they WILL NOT allow anything packed into the bag and they have been known to check. All airlines differ as to whether they way them or not and be warned we have had BA to Geneva not weighed on way out but have been weighed on the way back in.

Mr MC Orange Alpine in bike bag with LOTS of packing, shoes, camelbak, body armour, washbag, trail in it etc weighed in at 28kg.

EDIT: Easyjet allowance will be 32kg if flying with bike. Once had friend who flew Easyjet to Geneva and he had EVERYTHING in his bag, no other checked in or carry on luggage, it weighed 50kg or whatever the MAXIMUM weight full stop is….check in girl laughed said “it’s the heaviest bag I’ve ever seen” and checked in it .. no extra cost! He was young and good looking 😉

However having previously flown Easy Jet they WILL NOT allow anything packed into the bag and they have been known to check

I’ve never had mine checked and it’s always had everything else in there: helmet, shoes, tools, spares, clothing, even brought food and bottles of wine (very well packed!) back in it. Never once been over the weight limit, been questioned or had it checked with any airline (including EsayJet).

I’m just mentioning what I know the T&C’s to be and that I’ve had friends fly from bristol like you, not checked and it’s been fine, from Luton ours have been, plus it varies check in girl to check in guy. There is no rhyme or reason but if they check nad you have it all they may not let you fly? But on the same note see story about mate’s bag weighing 50odd kg and they put it on. Airlines a nightmare as they do not stick to their T&C’s and all are different every time you fly. Remember to check them just before you fly. We had T&C’s change from booking flight to flight …. queue mad nightmare panic!

I would never put a helmet or shoes in the hold, take it on as hand luggage, helmets can get damaged by baggage handers, and should the worst happen just hire a bike when you get there.

MrMo depends on how well packaged your bike bag is and wehre you are flying. Wasnt’ an option when we went to India, plus so much cardboard, padding etc in our bags (1hour to pack each bag) they weren’t going to be a problem. Plus hiring a bike in India..not going to happen. If going to France then yes I carry my helmet as hand luggage.

From your experiences then, it would seem the safest bet being to check with the airline carefully.

Or wing it & throw my girlfriend in one of them to save her ticket too 😉

Ninepack yes, all of them are different, we’ve taken bikes on BA, Easyjet and Ethihad. BA give you luggage allowance of 23kg but charge a bike at extra luggage £28 per bike per way (it was in 2010) and they have no idea you are turning up with a bike (as long as it’s within their spec which most bike bags are) this gives you 32kg limit for bike and 23kg for normal, Easy jet charge you per bike per way, they know they are getting a bike, this ups you to 32kg again for the bike. Ethihad allowed us 30kg limit and again no idea they were getting a bike.

but as mentioned we flew Easy Jet to Geneva in 2004, at that time they didn’t want bikes boxed you turned up pushing your bike, let down tyres and turned handlebars. From booking in Feb to flying in June they changed T&C’s and they had to be boxed. queue mad panic to locla Halfords in expensive black cab to bang on door before opening hours and request a spare bike box… queue being given kiddies bike box and not being able to get 15 year old pedals off my Kona…ramming it into box to get checked in with 5 mins to spare! hideous trip that!!

So yes read T&C’s but BA have been brilliant to us over the years.

Incidentally, we flew Jet2 to Toulouse and our bike bags weren’t checked or weighed.

AQR’s hire fleet is good, a stack of Hemlocks and Souls in excellent nick, very well suited to the riding (maybe they’ll have some rockets now?) I was still glad I took my own out, just because it means no learning a new bike, but then I really like familiarity.

I had a great time fwiw- sure you’ll have a blast.

I think we’ll pack up our own, as we don’t want to spend a day getting to know another one. My Patriot must go then as it’s a proper tank & god only knows what it’ll weigh with the bag etc. Im having an Alpine next so will get it soon to be familiar with it before we fly.

Mr MC had Orange Alpine which was what he flew to India in at 28kg with a few extra bits. Enjoy you will love it.

We can’t wait. it’ll be our first trip on the bikes outside of the UK & the first of many I suspect.

The UK has so many great places (we live right on the moors near Rochdale/Bacup/Todmorden & have trails all over the place & Lee Quarry nearby) but the weather is something I’d like to escape once in a while.

There are so many phenomenal places to ride abroad. Take a look at http://www.cycleactive.com their trip to Morocco, http://www.mountainbikekerala.com and Crested Butte, Colorado. Morzine was the start of my love of travelling overseas with MTB’s so many places to explore.

As mentioned there a million threads for further details but in a nutshell

Cardboard boxes are lighter than bike bags – if they’re taped up they unlikely to be inspected at the check in desk.

32kg is the limit on an single item for european airlines.

Easyjet’s sports equipment charges have gone absolutelly horrendous this year.

wow!I think it will cost a lot of money…

All booked now. We’re flying Jet2 as they do the only direct flight to Toulouse (return flights £369 all in for the two of us with an extra £120.00 for the bikes). Kate at AQR has been an absolutely fantastic help with the booking and we’ll have 3 days guided tours with them during the two weeks we’re there.

Buzzing now. Just need a lighter bike as my Patriot is a bit of an animal for lugging up the hills. Anyone out there wanna do a swap/ money deal on a Five Pro or an Alpine?…

Sorry to potentially rain on your parade but you need to check jet2’s T&C’s very carefully, we flew with them E Mids to Mallorca in April this year, the weight limit for bikes is a bizarre 20kg over which you pay £20 per kg per flight if I remember correctly. We were ok as we were road biking with carbon and Ti bikes but even so with rigid boxes we were very close to the limit. They checked the weight at both airports and I saw some other people being charged for the excess weight of their baggage so they are enforcing it. I hope they have reviewed this but it would be advisable to double check.

I wonder if you can just buy your bike a seat instead, probably cheaper. I remember once travelling with a Mr. Guitar.

you turned up pushing your bike, let down tyres and turned handlebars.

Don’t let any muppet tell you to let the tyres down. The hold of the plane is at the same atmospheric pressure as the rest of the fuselage, equivalent to about 10,000 ft above sea level. And do bike tyres explode on Alpine passes? Do they ****.

Sounds like a bit of a minefield
The airlines changing their mind at the drop of a hat seems to cause a total lack of predictability.

Cue a queue for the dictionary 😉

Print T&C at time of booking, because that’s the contract terms for your booking. Any changes after that should not apply to you. Booking receipt and T&C printouts should have the date printed on them for safety.
Also choose the check-in desk where the scale doesn’t zero for checking in. I have successfully argued with Ryanair that you can not be charged by weight if the scale is faulty/uncalibrated. (No miss correcting the number by the amount the scale is out doesn’t count).

Easyjet’s sports equipment charges have gone absolutelly horrendous this year.

£25 quid each way last week, which I thought was pretty reasonable.

I think the issue with EJ is that they’ve changed the luggage allowances – taking a bike now only gets you an extra 12kg on top of your 20kg for a booked bag.

So one bag + one bike needs to be under 32kg total. My carbon road bike (7.5kg), pump/saddle pack in an Evoc semi-rigid bag weighs 19kg – only leaving me 13kg for normal luggage (plus all the stuff in the hand luggage).

With a 13kg MTB I’d only have about 8kg to cover my main bag!

I flew Jet2 as well this year and they enforced the 20Kg rule. I had to take out some heavy items from the bike bag and shoved them in my hand luggage otherwise, as previously mentiopned, they were going to charge me excess luggage.

Good luck with getting your full suss bike bag down to 20Kg

I’ve paid jet2 an extra £120.00 for the bikes (on top of the normal luggage charges). I have 20kg allowance for each of the bikes. My girlfriends Trek is very light so shouldn’t be a problem but my Patriot is a tad more, well, it’s a shed load more but I’ll shave a few bits off & stick them in my main luggage, wear the chain & rear mech round my neck like a pendant & have the handlebars as a belly button piercing…

If I have to pay a few quid extra for the bit over 20kg allowance on my bike then it’s not the end of the world. The trip will be amazing so I’m not going to dwell too much on the airline costs.

Next time we’re highly likely to be driving anyway but wanted to see how this goes first.

No excess baggage fees for bikes on Easyjet anymore.

So how much is it to hire a AQR bike, and how much to put it on a plane?

If there’s not much in it, hire one from AQR. You will get a decent spec bike (not a “holiday” rental) that is suited to the terrain, and will not be wearing out your tyres and drivetrain and brakepads, so that covers a bit extra too. Yhen you have no packing hassle, and no worries about changing T&Cs.

I rented from JoyRiders a while back. Worked for me.

I withdraw my previous comment thanks to the good work on the other thread… as wallop says, no excess baggage fees for bikes on Easyjet, so you can take up to 32kg bike and 20kg bag (provided 50kg combined max).

AQR hire rates were £30 a day for a high spec full suspension bikes & we’re there for two weeks so it’s far more economical to have our own bikes.