Best/cheapest/easiest domestic airline for bike travel

[Dr_Mutley]

Hi all,
Just after some recent experience with people travelling with bike cases/boxes on domestic airlines, and who has the cheapest rates for sporting goods. I'm heading from ADEL to SYD next month, so will book with whoever seems to have the easiest/fairest/cheapest carriage...

[chucknitro]

I fly Qantas and add extra baggage at $30 each way. Not sure how that measures up against others.

[RonK]

I favour Virgin but it makes little difference - unless you're taking virtually no other luggage you'll probably need to pre purchase an extra bag allowance for the bike. $30 last time I bought one but check the airline websites.

[yugyug]

Just wondering but don't jetstar and others try and sting you with a sporting goods surcharge in addition to the weight? Not talking from personal experience, but I'm sure arguing that a commuting bike is not sports equipment would go nowhere...

[il padrone]

Not heard anything about that.

We're flying Jetstar to NZ. Their fares are a good deal cheaper but then the luggage needs to be added on. You can choose a range of different luggage amounts, from nothing to 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45 kgs and more. We booked in 35 kgs each and it has cost us $70 per person each way extra - total of $140 each. Easily undercuts the Qantas regular price, and Air NZ. Jetstar only quotes a length restriction of 1.9m for domestic and short-haul international (NZ?), and no individual item can be more than 32kgs. Pretty easy to sit inside these limits.

Nothing about any extra sporting equipment charge.

[Hugor]

$35 each way with Virgin. I took 3 flights between Perth and Hamilton island and it was only payed once. Just got to make sure your bag weighs less than 23kg or they'll slug you with another $75.

[Dr_Mutley]

Thanks for the tips so far guys!

[Ross]

Tip with Qantas (possibly the same for other brands) is to pre-purchase excess baggage rather than do it just before you board the flight. Much cheaper this way. When I went to travel o/s a few years ago with my bike I arrived at Canberra Airport with a suitcase full of clothes and a bike in a hard case and Qantas wanted to charge me $1000 excess luggage fees - just for the Canb-Syd leg! Ended up 'negotiating' it down to about $300. Etihad never charged me any extra for the Syd-Geneva leg and interestingly Qantas didn't charge me extra on the return leg (which was in a light plane only seating ~20 passengers).

[Hugor]

Prepurchase with Virgin too.

I went to France in July with Emirates.
No sporting goods arrangement at all.
Excess baggage prepurchase or not was charged at $95 per kg.
They have a 30kgs baggage allowance. My roadie in bag weighed 18kgs so this meant I had to live for 5 weeks with 12kg of baggage!
Don't fly Emirates for overseas cycling holidays!

[dalai47]

Don't fly Emirates for overseas cycling holidays!

I only fly Emirates when heading to Europe with my bike. The 30kg allowance is far better than the usual 23kg from other carriers!

[il padrone]

Don't fly Emirates for overseas cycling holidays!

I only fly Emirates when heading to Europe with my bike. The 30kg allowance is far better than the usual 23kg from other carriers!

+1

Emirates were great (except for their Roman luggage scales calibration ) Hugor, it sounds like you were paying for excess at the gate Your 'road bike' weighs as much as my rather heavy tourer . We managed to keep to the 30kg limit (18 kg bike, 12 kg luggage, 7 kg carry-on) and this included clothes and camping gear.

[Hugor]

Nope that's their rate even if prebooked. My roadie weighs 8kg but once you add the EVOC plus a few essentials it came to 18kg. I would've been happy to pay a few hundred dollars for another bag but that wasn't an option.

[athman]

I booked Virgin for Melbourne to Adelaide next Tuesday. I was going to take the train, but its $179.00 for a comfy seat plus probably another $30-$40 to take the bike (I never did find out exactly how much). I booked Virgin for $120 and I'll need to buy a bike box at the airport for $15.00, so I'll still come out ahead. As for the other airlines - Tiger is a joke, Jetstar doesn't supply bike boxes, and Qantas was too expensive - so Virgin it was.

[il padrone]

Nope that's their rate even if prebooked. My roadie weighs 8kg but once you add the EVOC plus a few essentials it came to 18kg. I would've been happy to pay a few hundred dollars for another bag but that wasn't an option.

Your bike case weighs more than your bike

Mine travelled to Europe and back in a GE Bodybag, weighs about 1 kg. Otherwise use a Qantas box, weighs 3 kgs.

But still, we had all our clothes and gear (tent, sleeping bags, sleeping matts) in 12 kg of luggage plus the 7 kg carry-on bag. Surely another 19 kg was enough for you?

[dalai47]

Who else would you suggest if not Emirates Hugor? So far they have been the best option I have found but keen to know if there is a better carrier.

I managed fine on a 7 week European trip with 30kg + 7kg carry on. My Polaris bike pod with bike and gear weighed 19kg which left 11kg for my pack with clothes.

[RonK]

Every bit of feedback I received says that Emirates are the best choice. At least they treat bikes as part of your baggage allowance as long as it's not exceed.

It's my understanding that almost all other airlines do not consider bikes part of standard baggage and charge freight rates if they discover you're carrying one.

But I've heard China Southern are cheap - if you're game.

[Eleri]

I've travelled domestically on both Qantas and Jetstar - both were fine.

Interestingly, a friend who used to work for Qantas said to always take your bag on Jetstar because they put all the luggage in a container and then on the plane, so there is less handling and throwing around of your bike.

Also +1 for Emirates. They were great with the bike. I had an extra luggage allowance so was more worried about what I could drag around Europe myself than the weight limit.

[ldrcycles]

I went to Melbourne with Jetstar a few years ago and whatever box i ticked got me 20kg of checked baggage. XC mountain bike in a cardboard box along with pump, spares, tools etc was more like 24, but a bit of subtle upward pressure on one of the handles got it through . Got there and back with no damage.

[V17L]

Slightly off topic, but just wondering if the scales used by the carriers have to be calibrated under law.
If someone is selling something by weight it would be logical the scales should be calibrated or at worst provento read under.
For instance Weights and Measures go to great lengths to ensure petrol pumps read and flow correctly.
Cheers
Stevet

[Hugor]

Who else would you suggest if not Emirates Hugor? So far they have been the best option I have found but keen to know if there is a better carrier.

I managed fine on a 7 week European trip with 30kg + 7kg carry on. My Polaris bike pod with bike and gear weighed 19kg which left 11kg for my pack with clothes.

I think I'll be using British Airlines next time.



Emirates at $95 per kg is certainly top dollar. Most of the asian airlines are around $60 per kg.

[il padrone]

Slightly off topic, but just wondering if the scales used by the carriers have to be calibrated under law.
If someone is selling something by weight it would be logical the scales should be calibrated or at worst provento read under.
For instance Weights and Measures go to great lengths to ensure petrol pumps read and flow correctly.

Yep.

We had this concern with Emirates at Rome-Fiumicino. We had been exactly the correct weight in Melbourne (weighed by us at home then at the airport check-in), but on our return things went pear-shaped. We had minimal extra items - a book, a few maps and small souvenirs, a light pair of shoes (later at home I weighed it out as about 1.5kgs), but on luggage check-in they said "7kgs over, that'll be 350 Euro please". That's almost $500.

7 kgs was the whole weight of my full rear pannier that I was carrying on. Not a little bit that you'd added in and forgot .

We rearranged some items into our carry-on bags (my wife's was a bit lighter), but then still 5kgs over - $300 ! Luckily a staff supervisor was watching and told the clerk to just charge for 2 kgs. But we were not happy. Roman kgs are obviously different to Australian kgs

[dalai47]

I think I'll be using British Airlines next time.

Thanks. If you can't fit it all in 30kg, buying an extra bag for ~AU$200 each way seems reasonable. Standard allowance though is only 23kg...

[Dr_Mutley]

Hi all...
Buying an extra bag with virgin to carry a bikebag is $35 one way, and limited to 23kg.... Is the other major domestic carriers also 23kg? Similar prices?

[snortin]

Hi all...
Buying an extra bag with virgin to carry a bikebag is $35 one way, and limited to 23kg.... Is the other major domestic carriers also 23kg? Similar prices?

Hey Mutley, I have always found Virgin to be the best for bike travel (although they are tougher now than they used to be).

According to their website, a bike (boxed or in a bag) is treated as 1 bag. As it is sporting equipment, it is allowed to be up to 32kg in weight. They note that each piece of sporting equipment represents 1 bag. I think you could argue that your wheels (if separately boxed) are part of the piece of sporting equipment and so that plus bike box constitutes 1 bag (as long as they weigh less than 32kg total and meet size requirements).

I have never had an issue as normally I am travelling with wife and 2 kids to triathlons with my bike and we easily have enough baggage allowance (Gold velocity members...). But even if you didn't, you should be able to buy 1 bag and use that for your sporting equipment (ie bike plus wheels). Then just carry-on your other gear?? See website link below.

http://www.virginaustralia.com/au/en/pl ... ile-items/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Dr_Mutley]

Thanks snortin... My bike box weighed 22.5kg, and they made a point of saying the maximum of 23kgs. At least I will be armed with some extra info if I go over in the future.,,