Well bugger me if its not seemingly impossible to take your bike on holiday at the moment. I regularly fly from Manchester to Alicante with bike to visit family, in the past you could book a bike on Monarch for £30 return and know it would be there with you and get home (more importantly).

NOT SO ANYMORE….. Bikes can no longer be pre booked onto flights with any airline (apparently) but if you turn up early you might get lucky 'if there is enough room'! How ridiculous is that.. is this really the case or did I just get the wrong person on the phone. I can’t blummin risk leaving my bestest bike in Spain a couple of weeks before the puffer just because budget airlines are tw&ts. And before you start slagging me off for slagging off budget airlines this is not about price but organisation, service, and competence.

Reassurance / advice needed!

Current plan is to bodge together a bike from bits that I can if need be leave out there but sadly I don’t have a huge selection of bikes!

Bikes on Planes as likely as Pigs in Space, remember that!

I recently flew with Flyglobespan who state that all sporting equipment MUST be pre-booked or it won't be taken. I called them before I flew just to double check there'd be no problems and they were most helpfull.
Sounds like you got the wrong person on the phone

Oh and my bike arrived safley in Malaga and then back in Aberdeen a week later with no problems 😉

Bikes can no longer be pre booked onto flights with any airline (apparently)

That may well be the case with Monarch but I don't believe it's a widespread policy

We have loads of bikes arriving with guests each week and have never had any problems. Flight companies WILL refuse bikes if not packed properly in at least a bike cardboard box (free from any bike shop).
Also pre-booking makes sense as it will give them less of an excuse to refuse it.