Flying with Easyjet

There's more information on the ins and outs of flying with your bike here http://road.cc/content/feature/26249-roadccs-guide-how-fly-your-bike
road.cc's guide on how to fly with your bike

Don't you just love it when a company passes the buck onto their sub-contractor and refuses to accept any responsibility for avoidable errors?

Made it across safely, although I should confess it was just a frameset all boxed up with the original padding still taped in place. Still, I was very concerned it might have stuff piled on top of it, but it all seems good.

Probably should have packed some of the less everyday tools though! What's the French for "crown race setting tool"?

It's very rare that the holds are full; the only time I really see the capacity getting filled is during the ski season (I'm based in Geneva) when people are bringing across skis and boards. Usually if stuff gets left behind it's more than likely due to a handling c*ck up...... That said there can be a few rare occasions when bags need to be offloaded due to technical reasons that I won't bore you with , and when this happens the handlers simply take the heaviest items off first. Although it's rubbish for the people involved, coming into the aircraft and asking 150 people who minds their bags following them a day later doesn't really work!

What you said about spare capacity holds true for both passengers and baggage; finding space on the next flight can be tricky, and requires a variety of third party operators (who all won their contracts based on the lowest bid) to pull together and get it sorted.

There certainly is an element of you get what you pay for, but also one must realise that you only ever hear about the horror stories; the majority of bikes get through fine.

I'm bringing a Cervelo across from the UK on Tuesday, so I'll let you know how I get on!!

I took my bike easyjet to geneva a couple of years back and had no issues. It was in a soft bike bag albeit well wrapped inside.

Quote:

I work for easyJet and I can tell you that actually all airlines are pretty much equal in terms of the handling of your prized steed. The reason is that aircraft (including baggage) handling is all done by third party operators, not the airlines themselves

yeah, fair comment: i was just being facetious with that first line really

on of the biggest problems i've heard about is not necessarily bikes getting bent (like you say, not really down to the airline) but bikes simply not showing up at the other end. Both RyanAir and EasyJet have got form for this on flights to the Etape and the Marmotte among others, and you're less likely to get a budget operator going out of their way to make sure your bike gets on another flight in time, partly because they're not as likely to have another flight to throw it on. Plenty of stories of Etape riders having to beg, steal or borrow a bike for the ride and picking up their steed from the airport on the way home. I wonder if you can comment on what the policy is when there's not enough luggage space to go round?

Long haul is much easier: when I took my bike out to Bolivia all they asked me to do was let the tyres down

Having seen this discussion/question asked and discussed a few times a lot of people advise bike hire at the other end as a good alternative.

If you are going to be doing it on a regular basis then perhaps investing in a very good bike box is a wise move. For that info, check around and read reviews, but be prepared for the worst and make sure your pride and joy is insured to the hilt.

I work for easyJet and I can tell you that actually all airlines are pretty much equal in terms of the handling of your prized steed. The reason is that aircraft (including baggage) handling is all done by third party operators, not the airlines themselves; most airports will have just one or two companies covering all airlines, despite what an airline might imply in its advertising. The only area they may differ will be in pricing and what they deem acceptable as packaging.

To that end, package up to protect! Baggage handlers are not out to damage things, but let's just say when you've got an aircraft to unload rapidly, the odd thing does get dropped. I've actually seen an entire bike bag (with bike inside one assumes) drop out of the rear hold straight on to the tarmac; not cool. I've also seen handlers carefully remove a bike from the hold, place it on the truck, then proceed to stack the rest of the luggage on top!

That said I recently brought a bike across in a Neil Pryde bag with no issues, and in fact I'm heading back to the UK this weekend to collect another one. All I can say is remove or pad out as much as you can to minimise risk; obvious things like drop out spacers and foam lagging on the tubes will help.

Good luck!

The general rule of thumb is that the less you pay for the flight, the more you should pay for your bike box

Easyjet are generally okay, i've heard a few horror stories on flights going to busy rides but off peak they normally do alright. Better than RyanAir, whose bike policy last time i looked was, 'we'll take some money off you for carrying your bike but we don't guarantee to carry your bike'. erm, thanks.

tips: get a good bike box. you can hire one from www.comtat.co.uk for £5 a day and there's other places to hire them too. if you use a semi-solid box, or a case, remove anything that might get knocked off. the rear mech is a classic example, best to undo the bolt and ziptie it to the frame. wheels can get bent too, so protect them as much as you can. technically your luggage is insured with limited liability (about £1k) on any flight, but don't rely on a speedy resolution if anything gets bent. make sure you have travel insurance that covers your bike.