Booked a group of us on a Norwegian Air flight from Birmingham to Malaga for a week with SierraMTB.
Does anyone have any experiences of flying with them, especially taking a bike, good or bad?
Their bike bag weight limit is only 25kg, which some in our group think is a bit stingey?
What plane are you flying on?
We've had a couple of flights with them in smaller planes where they simply won't take anything extra.
Other than that they've been fine.
Cycled to Edinburgh airport. Gave the guy at the desk my bike. With pedals on and tyres inflated.
It was sitting next to the carousel in Stockholm before I got there. Chain had jumped off but otherwise all good.
This was in 2011.
Lots of people across the Nordics take whole bikes on planes. I think Norwegian have a policy of having space for 6 bikes per flight?
If you worry about paint getting scratched you might want to wrap it.
Who rides a bike that weighs more than 20 kgs?! 25 seems fair to me - just not as good as "the old days"!
Good luck and have fun 🙂
It allowed me to book 8 bikes in one go online, so I'm assuming they're ok with that.
We're all taking bike bags, which can weigh around 8kg empty so even my 30lb carbon enduro bike is pushing it a bit by the time you've added a camelbak, shoes and helmet.
I guess what I want to know is how keen are they when weighing your bike bag?
It allowed me to book 8 bikes in one go online, so I'm assuming they're ok with that.
We're all taking bike bags, which can weigh around 8kg empty so even my 30lb carbon enduro bike is pushing it a bit by the time you've added a camelbak, shoes and helmet.
I guess what I want to know is how keen are they when weighing your bike bag?
they are very good. Free wifi!
When are you going? Have you been with Sierra MTB before?
Going in May, not been with them before but a few of our extended group have.
Ah ok. I'm off in a couple of weeks for the week. Heard good things about it so fingers crossed.
I flew to Finland from Gatwick with them. 2 checked bags and a bike in a bag, in a box. (box/hard case is required by Gatwick and Bangkok, according to noggy air small print)
Everything was a little bit overweight. The bike bag wasn't weighed at Gatwick (it wouldn't go on the scales at the desk) others were taken in without a word about the weight, then I took the box to the oversize baggage.
The way back was a bit shambolic (shit) at Helsinki airport - compulsory auto checkin on the computery things, print your own boarding pass and luggage tags, take bike and strappy rucksack to the oversize bit, then stand in the queue for the bag drop. Main bag 28, I said the rucksack and the bag were both under 25 so they even out, they said limit is 20kgs, (balls, got that wrong!) so I'm stuffed.
- €8 per kilo please.
- Fine. Have it.
- You'll have to pay over there.
- Rrrrgh!
Went ot the other lady, I said I've been told to pay the excess on this, but I've got two other bags that have already been checked through oversize, and they were less. She realised there was nothing they could do to check,told me I must do it the other way round in future so they could be weighed together. Not likely - wheel a luggage cart loaded with sideways bike bag through winding narrow queue dividers? No ta.
[b]So in summary,[/b] auto-checkin - take bag to oversize straight away. no-one from noggy air will see you until it's too late.
Chainring was bent by 5mm when I unpacked, easily bent back with a big adjustable spanner Must be fairly common - it's quite exposed with the wheels off in a soft bag/cardboard, specially if the bag as a whole is heavy.
Ah, my friends at Norwegian. Nice flights, as long as nothing goes wrong! A mate and I flew with them last year to Copenhagen for a 24hr adventure race, taking two bike boxes containing the bikes and all our race kit. Norwegian managed to completely lose both boxes in transit - they had no idea where they were as they weren't even listed in their tracking system.
To be fair to the airline, it probably wasn't their fault that the bikes were lost in the first place (all airlines use external baggage handling companies), but Norwegian were particularly useless in resolving the situation. Once they admitted that they were lost, we explained the urgency (i.e. a race starting at 6.30pm that evening!), but as soon as we mentioned the bikes they were quick to point out that their liability for baggage is limited to 800euro per person - not the most tactful thing to tell customers who have just had a few thousand quid's worth of bikes and kit go missing!
Luckily we were able to borrow some bikes (well, BSOs), shoes, kayak paddles and enough spare clothing from other racers to be able to take part in the race, but from a competitive point of view the weekend was trashed.
If it hadn't been for Mark's wife enlisting the help of a friend who works at Gatwick, I don't think we would ever have got them back. The bikes were eventually found 24 hours later in a dark corner of the baggage handling facilities hidden under some cardboard boxes. I don't want to think it, but I guess it is possible that someone was trying to misappropriate them - the boxes were logo'd up with team names and sponsors stickers so it's pretty clear what they hold.
We didn't get a refund of the money we had paid for transporting the bikes, let alone any compensation for a ruined weekend, and 4 emails to their CS department followed by 1 to their CEO were all ignored. We eventually got a response via Twitter telling us to call their baggage handlers (who don't ever answer the phone).
I gave up pursuing it in the end as it was like wading through treacle, but I won't be using them again. I've had better customer service from Ryan Air.
//sorry, that was a bit ranty, but I'm still highly p*ssed off at them!
Best short haul airline I’ve ever flown with.
Rachel
Went to Malaga back in December with a mate flew with Monach, ignored the narrow zig for checking in and went down the side, then had to go what seemed like miles to the oversize drop, one bike bag was over weight and one under, chap wasn't bothered at all mind you by then we had spent an age trying to find C02 cartridges which mostly ain't allowed!
Anyway never mind which airline it's the baggage handlers you need to worry about! At Malaga it was getting on for an hour before our bikes turned up....
Then back at Birmingham I witnessed through a gap in the big curtains our bikes been thrown from height onto the oversize belt, must have been a good 6' drop landing on the side in soft bike bags. Not impressed!
Both bike bags had been opened and rummaged through, thankfully nothing missing and no damage.