[Closed] no more bikes in CTC poly bags

Mark - very useful if you want to ride to an airport fly Somewhere , do a long ride and fly back via another airport. Then ride home.

There’s also the school of thought that if baggage handlers can see what’s in there they tend to look after it a bit more.

I’m not totally convinced about this personally!

The pastic bags are also very useful if you find your lightweight tent isnt as water proof as it once was in an Alpine downpour!

Not half as wasteful as my approach of take bike in a box - put box to recycling.

Ride a long way

Arrive in new town and go to bike shop get a new box.

What I did was simply pack the tandem up really well in a big bag, fly, taxi to hotel, book hotel for the last night in the country and ask them if they would store it for me for 12 days. Zero hassle

CTC placcy bag + Poste restante worked well on my one way Scottish tour this year.

(Used the train going up so didn't need bag until flying home)

Riding the last few miles on the busy trunkroad to Inverness airport however, was an awful experience, after the cycle path just stopped in the middle of nowhere.

I haven’t read the whole thread; so flame me, if I’ve misunderstood.

The bag is reusable. After a few trips they start getting big holes in them, and eventually these get too large to just tape-up.

Still probably less unrecyclable waste than a proper bike bag (it's recyclable plastic, unlike a proper bike bag).

That will stop all them damage won't it. It's all down to the bag not being good enough. Nothing to do with baggage manglers generally not giving a toss.

Oh, but they do - and usually from a considerable distance.
I remember being sat on a plane, waiting to go to Sharm El Sheikh, when is was primarily a diving resort, so just about every bag would have expensive dive kit in it. . From my window seat, I watched in disgust as almost every bag was thrown from the baggage train to the conveyor that lead to the hold.
You could almost see the sense of pleasure that they were getting from it.

As in other walks of life, some people are dicks.

but I'm sure most airports have left luggage

This rule is going to be difficult to adhere to with some airlines (air France-KLM for example) who operate a 23kg dead limit in Europe for luggage. A decent bike bag and bike can easily exceed that.

23kg is least of your worries with KLM / air France.

It's the 300cm lxbxh - you cannot fit a bike with in that. So it's an extra 300 euro for you.

Even when as a frequent flier with them I'm allowed 69kg worth of bags they cannot exceed the 300cm ruke

Not half as wasteful as my approach of take bike in a box - put box to recycling.

Ride a long way

Arrive in new town and go to bike shop get a new box.

This is my method too, except last time we chanced across a massive heap of stiff cardboard boxes in the recycling at the hotel, so we bought some box tape and set to work. saved trying to carry a bike box along a dual carridgeway to the airport too.

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It was fine! The bikes cleared immigration faster than I did.

Anyone had any more recent experience? A month ago is promising - a few of us are likely to be flying to Helsinki (from a variety of European airports) with bikes, then out from Warsaw in July and I don't fancy tracking down a bike box in Poland.

BA said they would change the wording on their website if/when the policy changed. So I would just check with the airlines you're going with, bring a copy of the webpage and it will probably be fine.

I think at some airports (Geneva) you actually can buy cardboard boxes, and worst case, you could also go to one of those companies that wrap up suitcases in strips of weird polythene - that apparently also works.

bike case rant:

I had one that was built like a ****ing tank (and weighed approximately the same.

Still it was gradually ruined by the US security service (TSA?) at LAX and SFO airports. Took them a few goes but in the end I had to get rid. They insist on opening all items that can't fit their x-ray machine but they're utterly shit at repacking them. Oh no sir, they won't let you see it happening and no way can you talk sensibly to them*.

So then the case goes through handling with the catches wide open, ready to snap off. Course, they put a single run of thin tape round it (I say "round" though it's presumably too expensive to go right round, so they just do it like a steristrip across the join at a couple of points). Magically the bike hasn't had major damage but the case is missing all but 1 original clasp and is now split. The presence of the official tape means that airlines can say that you go to TSA for damages (yeah right)

End result; bigger bike case that should be easier for a chimp to repack (though still the patronising **** failed last time )

*I say that - one woman said that I wasn't allowed to touch it but I could watch her close it up. She couldn't but she didn't have an ego problem and so let me come & close it (maybe it was all a ruse and she just wanted to frisk me all along).

(and I think the perfect case shape would have non-stackably irregular profile across its "flat" sides)

munrobiker, i've flown from helsinki to riga with a touring bike. We didn't even bag it. They just wheeled it onto the plane.

However, the baggage handlers at Helsinki are complete apes. If it's packed, it's wrecked

I've just been told by the baggage handler at Gatwick that they no longer take bikes in poly bags after the pedals of a bike broke their conveyer belt for a couple of days.

(Mine was in a CRC bag this time so I'm still flying today).

"Don’t rely on the baggage handlers to do your job for you."

They won't let me load the bike onto the plane.

This is one of those two way things. I pack my bike better than most people, which is why it's survived when the slingers had a really good go at damaging it. But I bloody shouldn't have to. At least twice the bag's been outright abused, I'm not talking "stacked a little carelessly" but enough to smash off the heavyweight plastic runners etc.

So basically, they don't want to carry bikes in plastic bags, so they can carry on smashing them about in boxes.

It's not up to the baggage handlers it's up to the airlines. Take a copy of the airline policy to show the handler.

Once it's passed the airlines constraints and they've checked it in and given you a tag, they have to load it.