Easyjet – yet another question – sorry!

Looking at booking flights to Nice and on the Easyjet booking screen it says 23kg for bike plus 20kg check in total of 43kg. Apparently you can pay excess weight for check in but it clearly says you can’t pay excess weight for sporting equipment which on the refreshed web site, seems to include bikes.

So has anyone traveled under the new rules lately? Results?

I can’t get down to 23kg without buying yet another bike box/bag and even then it would be a stretch. I could drive but can’t afford the travel time.

Anyone aware of any other airlines that go that way that are better for bikes? Checked the usual candidates and they all have their “nuances”. Failing that it’s a carbon bike in a carrier bag or just ride in the UK.

Interesting, it does look like they’ve finally changed and clarified the rules for bikes. It does say you can pool the weight so presumably if you can get your hold suitcase down to say 15kg your bike bag can weigh 28kg? Not sure if you can buy excess weight for the suitcase and use that to pool against the bike, it does say you can’t buy additional weight for the sporting equipment but doesn’t mention if that applies to pooling as well.

Move some stuff from your bike bag into your standard checked bag? Saddle / Seatpost / Pedals / Cranks / Tyres / Tools / Spares / Shoes? You must have a heavy bike!

It’s always going to hinge on the nice people at check-in, who will most likely be direct employees at Easyjet. I don’t think Easyjet do their own baggage handling so the 23kg is presumably an “Easyjet” stipulation rather than something Servisair et al have imposed. They’ll just stick a “Heavy” sticker on it if it’s a bit weighty. I doubt you’ll have problems if the combined weight of your bags is under the 43kg. Just be nice at the desk!

17kg DH bike. 8.5kg evoc bike bag. I’m out, for one. Really hope easyjet shoot themselves in the foot with this one. That’s a fair few downhillers not making the PDS next year.

17kg DH bike. 8.5kg evoc bike bag. I’m out, for one. Really hope easyjet shoot themselves in the foot with this one. That’s a fair few downhillers not making the PDS next year.

I bet that easyjet will be crying into their business plans …
You could just buy excess baggage …
43 kgs is hardly unreasonable TBH

I bet that easyjet will be crying into their business plans

Of course not, but thanks for pointing that out.

It might make a few of the holiday companies pause for thought though.

Or be the death of the 17 kg DH bike ?

8.5kg for the evoc bag…
My bike in its current build is 13.5kg

Gives me 1kg of room…

I would expect to put bigger heavier tyres on, and remove the dropper post for the alps, so only just in…
Last year I had tools, spare, full face & pads in the bike bag as well,
Tho I did have loads of weight limit left in the hold luggage…

What is annoying is, I could take 32kg of any other sports equipment, and they have just singled out bikes!

Or be the death of the 17 kg DH bike ?

Or having to take an allen key with you so you can put a few parts in your other bag.

It is a bit annoying to single out bikes but 23kg is a reasonable figure I suppose. In the example above 17kg is a pretty heavy bike and 8.5kg is a ridiculously heavy bag and that is only just over.

No one item can way more than 32kgs,it’s up to you how you divide your weight. My bike bag was 32kgs and all they done was stick a heavy sticker on it

I unfortunately invested some time back in a Hard case at 13.5kgs. My steed is a SC Blur LT2 with a seat dropper, at about the same = 27kgs. Pack out with some personal protection, shoes etc and come in at around 31~32 kgs. Easy bomb proof travelling, never any damage even when one airline decided to lob it out of the aircraft onto the Tarmac. Now I need to buy another soft bag and even the Evoc is 8.5kgs so only just in and it will cost me £200 to do so.

Winge over, guess there’s not many alternatives. Be interested to hear from anyone who has booked and travelled under the latest “rules”

Just spoke to EasyJet and max for a bike is 23kgs, no shared luggage allowance, no purchase of excess weight , 23kgs and that’s it. WTF.

My road bike in its hard case with a small saddle bag on was on the 32kg limit they had in the summer .Even without the saddlebag it would be 28kg .On that basis my bike box is useless .I will now use a cardboard box from the lbs

Just spoke to EasyJet and max for a bike is 23kgs, no shared luggage allowance, no purchase of excess weight , 23kgs and that’s it. WTF.

Well, these T&C’s didnt exist when I booked and they haven’t told me they changed their terms so I’m guessing I’m ok packing my bike bag to 32Kg and having an 18Kg hold bag.

That said, I was going to leave my bike bag at home and use a cardboard box next time anyway. there’s 7kg saved anyway. Maybe ‘ll have to leave my tools at home in 2014

Can someone explain why it’s okay to take other large items of sports equipment up to 32kg? Why is it only bikes that have been reduced?

Surely once it’s in a bag/box, it doesn’t matter what’s inside it if 32kg is acceptable.

I’m pretty sure it is so people have to buy a hold bag instead of squeezing stuff into bike bags and carry on baggage, which most folk I know do. I was well under 23 with a cardboard bike box but I think an evoc one I borrowed would be a bit closer. Used a hard polaris one before that was closer to 30kg.

My guess – and it IS a guess – is that they just don’t want these oversized, difficult and time consuming to load/unload bike bags littering their cargo holds. Utter utter utter utter utter utter bastards.

Is an evoc any harder to unload than a canoe, or a hanglider?

Onzadog – Member
Is an evoc any harder to unload than a canoe, or a hanglider?
POSTED 4 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

No, but at a guess – they’ll get more of them.

Contacted Easyjet regarding new baggage policies

Response 1

Thank you for sharing your views and opinion with us.

With regards to your query, as we felt that some aspects of our hold baggage and sports equipment policy were complicated and hard to understand. In pledge to make travel easy at every step we have simplified our policy, introduced a hold luggage allowance for infants, increased the standard luggage allowance to 60kg for each passenger and introduced a clearer and more generous sports equipment allowance.

However, please be assured that we keep updating our website to stay competitive in market and to provide the best available fares and services as compared to our competitors and of course not forgetting about the feedback we receive from our passengers.

Generally, the weight restriction of 23kg for the bicycle doesnt exceeds.

I then replied saying how this would affect future travel for not just me but a large amount of others

Response 2

I am sorry to know that you are unhappy with our new hold luggage policy.

The hold luggage allowance and charges were changed after many surveys and opinions from our passengers all over Europe. After considering all the feedback, we decided to introduce this new baggage policy. As your bike weighs more than 23 kilos, you will not be allowed to carry it.

Don’t know where they get their information from but it sure sucks!

A few ideas

Does the EJ site say that the bike has to be boxed? In the past, we have had customers literally roll up with their bikes – turned their handle bars, threaded the pedals inwards and then simply ‘wrapped’ it up in clingfilm. No box, no extra weight. Of course the downside was they couldnt pack any extra stuff in the non-existing box.
There are other ways around weight, ask your holiday company to order you a specific tyre and tube combo (or you order it and get it sent to their address) it will be there waiting for you when you arrive, thats probably 4kgs right there. Also if you are coming as a group of mates, perhaps divide your kit amongst you. Not much point in everyone having the kitchen sink with them always. Likewise the holiday company should have lots of tools and spares to sell like innertubes, tyres that should be appropriate to the local trail conditions. The catch might be with 650B and 29er tyres.
Holiday companies might also have to start offering up hire bikes. We have them here in Spain but in the end one will have to weigh up the cost differences between hiring and extra charges, not riding yer own trusty steed etc.
Just one last point, Monarch when last looked still allowed bikes up to 32kgs.

Monarch have two weight limits. 20kg and 32kg. The first is £25 each way, the second £35 each way. Here: http://www.monarch.co.uk/faq/flights/baggage/sports-equipment-charter. I’m flying to spain with them next week and can get under the 20kg by just having a padded bike bag (4kg ish) and my bike lagged with pipe lagging and one spare tyre.

Had to buy a hold bag anyway so rest goes in the 18kg in there. I used to chuck everything in the bike bag, but actually think it’s better if the bags aren’t quite as heavy when they’re being abused by the baggage handlers!

Easyjet might be bad, but Ryanair are way, way worse. And that’s before you actually have to fly with them!

My Trek Session 88 in a CRC bike bag with some tools and all of my body armour weighed in at 23.1kg the other week.

Some of the Bike guides in Europe rate this service:

https://www.sendmybag.com

Just spoke to EasyJet and max for a bike is 23kgs, no shared luggage allowance, no purchase of excess weight , 23kgs and that’s it. WTF.

Well, it looks like the person you spoke to doesn’t know their own T&C’s.

Reading through easyJets terms & conditions for the carriage of bikes as ‘Sports Equipment’, the way I understand it is that if you just pay the fee for just the bike to go in the hold (i.e. no hold bag, suitcase, whatever) you are limited to 23kg, & that’s your lot.

Now, if you add a hold bag as well as the bike bag, you are allowed 20kg for said hold bag, plus 23kg for the bike= 43kg total. This 43kg can be distributed/mixed between the two items. As easyJet themselves confirm on the relevant page on their T&C’s:

Please be advised that Your total baggage weight allowance can be distributed between all baggage items as desired.

Below this is a table & the last column/section is the one that confirms that the weights between bike & hold bag can be mixed:

You Pay For:

1 bag, 1 large sports item

Baggage Allowance:

•Total allowance 2 items @ 52kg total (or 43kg if the sports equipment is a bicycle)
•1 item must be genuine sports equipment as defined
•You may distribute weight between items as desired

(My bold on the last line)

So, to me it’s clear, as long as you have a hold bag in addition to your bike bag & as long as the total weight isn’t over 43kg, you’ll be ok.

The irony of course is that you can pack a bike lightly… but you don’t want to, because you can’t trust the airlines not to destroy it if you do. ALl the extra protection I add is easily 5kg on top of the bag and bike, I’d love to not have to bother.

Bikes can not weigh more than 23kg under easy jets new terms and conditions. The only exception is if you booked before they changed the rules, fortunately our party did ( for Morzine next July ) We’ve checked.

But has Easyjet said why bikes are limited to 23kg when other sports equipment can go up to 32kg? Why are cyclist being singled out (again)?

When did the rules change?

Just write “Hang Glider” on you bike box

easy.

Gary_C – went back and had a read of T&C’s and it reads exactly as you wrote
43kg allowance can be distributed between your 2 bags.

Well spotted! 😆

True, but that’s 7kg down on what it used to be (20 hold plus 32 bike but total less than 50kg).

Maybe so but workable, just have to use your cabin allowance now!

Right, to hopefully get a clarification of the way I interpreted easyJets T&C’s ref bike weight etc as I posted above, I e-mailed customer services at easyJet…

Their reply doesn’t make good reading:

Dear Gary

Thank you for contacting easyJet.

The weight allowance for the bicycle mentioned on our website is 23kgs. The line – ‘distributing weight between items as desired’ meant that if incase your bike weighs less than 23Kgs, eg. 20Kgs you can use the rest 3Kgs for your hold luggage. But in any case the weight of your bicycle should not exceed 23 Kgs.

I hope this helps. Looking forward to welcome you onboard.

Regards

Gladson
easyJet Customer Services

So, there we have it 23kg for the bike & no more. 🙁

Hang glider it is then.

Bit late in .. and haven’t read all that but here’s the email I received when I asked the same question for a trip in Sept last year travelling Bristol to Geneva – there’s a long thread on here somewhere if you search.

My bag weighed in at 31/2ish Kgs each way and I had no problems at either end. My understanding was that 32kg is the max weight that handlers are allowed to lift, hence the max limit for the bike. My hold bag was way under the limit (as I had of course put a few extra things like shoes/ helmet/ pads etc in my bike bag).

But sadly a quick look at Easyjet’s T&Cs confirms that they have reduced the bike allowance. You can only hope that sense will prevail and they will allow the proportionate split as previously, otherwise travelling with a bike is about to get tricky!

Dear ****

Thank you for contacting easyJet,

As per your request I am forwarding you the confirmation for your bicycle weight:

Bicycles are exempt from any excess baggage charges relating to the weight of the bicycle. If the hold baggage and bicycle weigh more than 32kg, passengers will not have to pay any excess baggage fee as long as the hold bag weighs no more than 20kg and the bicycle weighs no more than 32kg. The total weight of the baggage cannot exceed 50kg.

Hope this solves your querry.

regards,

*****

easyJet Customer Services.

They changed the weight limit for bikes in October went to Pisa from 4th to 7th it was 32kg it reduced shortly after that .Renders my hard case useless .its back to cardboard boxes from shops for me.

Any reps from the IMBA or CTC fancy donning their representative hat and seeing if they can get cheesy jet to see sense? Kind of thing that the BMC do for climbers and ice axes…

Vauxhall Vivaro van.
Channel Tunnel return ticket bought with Tesco Clubcard points – £40
Diesel to Morzine and back (£115 = 850 miles) = £230
(Bristol to Morzine = 768 miles)
Split 3 ways = £90
Max weight limit approx 1500kg (500kg each) 🙂
Travel time

And if it rains all week (or you get bored) you can drive somewhere else.
A car with bike rack would get better mileage and hold 4 people so makes it even cheaper.

What else are you going to spend your Clubcard points on, a set of knives?

Tom KP

I have tried to contact them with my concerns but with little success. I haven’t given up yet though!