£400 for a scratch!!! you got lucky!

Blimey. Not only at £400 but that a new tandem frame is £2K…I saw a reasonable one on ebay for £150 a while ago!

Maybe a moonlighting career easyjet-chasing? 😀

Well done. If more of us could be bothered with this sort of thing maybe the airlines would start actually taking care of things.

The claim seems perfectly fair to me. That frame could be fine for another 10 years with chipped paint, but a wee dent might be the start of the end for it. Plenty of evidence out there for this being the case with aluminium frames.

Seems pretty fair to me,time airlines started giving a poo about other peoples stuff.

I think you should be giving it to charity tj to reflect the fact that you haven’t really been left out of pocket in any way though I think you were right to persue it – if enough people do things will change.

Take the frame to have it resprayed and get the dent filled. Then you’ll have a BNIB frame ready for eBay 🙂
Well done!

Clubber – the frame is dented thus worth less and may be weaker. I think a settlement of a part of the cost of a replacement is reasonable

Hairychested – I cannot replace the frame for £400

or refuse to carry bikes at all

Most likely carriers will slowly up the prices till it’s too expensive to fly our bikes & we’ll have to hire at our destination.

Why replace it? I used to have a tandem that was regularly trashed, we even had it crashing into a wooden panel fence. It stood up to years of abuse and asked for more. The difference was it was steel so the damage was repairable. Besides, when you crash your car you have it mended, panel-beaten, resprayed, done up. Bikes are also made of metal, at least this one is, you said many times you felt the dent wasn’t making it unsafe, have it refurbished and get on with life.

Hairychested – I am not intending to replace – I am confused as to your reference to ebay.

I am just content to get a reasonable compensation for damage done. It would be very hard to have a repair done – it may not even be possible

All I’m trying to say is this – if you reckon the frame is dodgy and you feel unsafe riding it then sell it. Otherwise have it checked, if sound then respray and new stickers will make it lovely once again.
BTW Are there any MTB tandems made of steel nowadays? Serious question.

Sell a dodgy frame? I think it will be ok and given where the dent is it would not be a catastrophic failure

Yes you can get steel mtb tandem frames IIRC

Nice one TJ. I wonder what Al’s £150 ebay bargin was, and how it compares with a c*nn*nd*l*?

back in 1999/2000 Easyjet only payed me £375 for a £4K DH bike that was stolen while in their hands.. £15 per kilo (max 25kg)

I wouldn’t claim for a dent.

Result! I once got £300 off Virgin for some damaged fork lowers that were only £70 to replace. Sent them quotes and everything, but they sent me the cost of a new pair! 😀

And on the same trip, the Virgin customer service lady gave me a voucher for £20 (redeemable for cash at the BdeC), because she saw the handle on my knackered old suitcase give out when I went to pick the thing up off the carousel. Mind you, the state of that case, I think she felt sorry for me. 😳

I have to say I am surprised at being offered £400 – thats the first amount they offered me so further arguing could probably increase that but that really would be taking the pee.

Fairly early on in the email exchange they accepted they could still have liability despite me not spotting the damage until I got home. They did try to claim that their policy on compensation meant I would be entitled to nothing but I pointed out they had liability and that the frame still had a value so compensation was due but I made clear a compromise was acceptable to me – I wasn’t holding out for a replacement as new.

Every exchange of emails took 3 weeks – patience was needed anyway its a good precedent for others who get bikes damaged and I have had a little chuckle at those folk who said I would get nowt 🙂