Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

news

easyJet apologise to cycling club after 16 bikes are left off flight to annual training camp

£30,000 worth of bikes were left behind on the tarmac as Redhill Cycling Club headed to Mallorca

The low cost airline easyJet has apologised to 16 members of a cycling club after it failed to load their bikes onto a flight they were taking to their annual training abroad.

£30,000 worth of bikes were left on the tarmac as Redhill Cycling Club members headed off to Mallorca on Wednesday.

All the members had paid a fee of around £45 to have their bikes carried. Of the 65 bikes supposed to travel on board, 15 did not make it.

Club chairman Adrian Webb told Get Surrey: "There was a sense of awful disbelief.

"For many club members these few days abroad are precious time away from work and families, dedicated to training in the mountains of Mallorca.

"To be told that the bikes they had booked on [the plane] and paid for months previously had never even been loaded was appalling.

"Our concern is that this kind of mistake just has a knock-on effect and there may have been more cyclists with less of a concerted voice who are now without bikes too."

Mr Webb claimed that when the club sought information about the whereabouts of the missing bikes, easyJet refused to provide it because of the Data Protection Act.

A spokeswoman for easyJet said: "We would like to apologise for the delay and resulting inconvenience in reuniting Redhill Cycling Club with 16 of their bicycles following a flight from London Gatwick to Palma.

"49 of the 65 bikes that the cycling club checked in were loaded onto the flight the group travelled on but unfortunately, due to the higher than usual number and space constraints within the hold, it was not possible for all 65 to travel on the same flight.

"As a result the remaining 16 were put onto a flight to Palma on 19 March and reunited with the cycling club members."

Easyjet’s terms and conditions for cycle carriage are below:

Bicycles are permitted for carriage provided that specific criteria is met:

The bicycle must be packaged in a bicycle box or bag

Only one bicycle per box/bag is permitted

No other items can be carried in the bicycle box/bag (i.e. clothing)

The handlebars must be flush with the frame.

Pedals must be removed or flush against the frame

Bicycles with hydraulic suspensions or brake systems will be accepted.

A non-refundable fee will be charged. A bicycle can be added at the time of making your booking. Alternatively if you wish to add a bicycle once your booking has been confirmed and your booking was made online at easyJet.com please login to your My easyJet account and go to ‘My bookings'. Click the ‘View’ button on the required booking and 'Add Sports Equipment' from the menu on the right hand side.

If your booking was made through our contact centre, at the airport or by a travel agent you can add a bicycle by contacting our Customer Service Team.

Buried in the small print however it does say:

Subject to any applicable passenger rights pursuant to any international or domestic laws or regulations to the contrary, Hold Luggage will be carried on the same aircraft as You unless for safety, security or operational reasons, We need to carry it on the next Flight available, where possible, or on an alternative Flight. If Your Hold Luggage is carried on a subsequent Flight We will deliver it to You as soon as reasonably practicable unless any applicable law requires You to be present for customs clearance.

Add new comment

29 comments

Avatar
Colin Peyresourde | 9 years ago
0 likes

This seems like blame misdirection. Easyjet have a clear policy which states that their luggage may not be put on the same flight precisely because they know that they limited capacity. It's more likely when you have so many bikes that they won't have space. They should have thought more about that when booking.

From the airlines point of view they have no idea of what will turn up on the day. Unless everyone pops in the details of their bike boxes. It sucks, but you have to be realistic.

Avatar
farrell replied to Colin Peyresourde | 9 years ago
0 likes
Colin Peyresourde wrote:

From the airlines point of view they have no idea of what will turn up on the day. Unless everyone pops in the details of their bike boxes. It sucks, but you have to be realistic.

But they did know what was coming, the bikes were booked on in advance.

You don't keep taking money and bookings for something you know you can't do and then leave the bikes/surfboards/copies of paintings of the fallen Madonna with ze big boobies/whatever on the tarmac.

I think it is poor form to keep taking the money for booking the bikes on in advance, check all the bikes in on to the flight at the airport* then fly a few thousand miles away and then tell the customer after you've landed in a foreign country "oh yeah, small print, policies, innit"

*Check in is absolutely the exact place I would expect Easyjet or any other airline to have flagged this. Surely that is pretty much the point of check in?

Avatar
TramuntanaCycling | 9 years ago
0 likes

Is there an update on this?

Did the riders manage to enjoy their days here in Mallorca?

Avatar
fenix | 9 years ago
0 likes

Its not acceptable or unacceptable. The hold only has so much space. It'd be the same if everyone on the plane turned up with surfboards or something.

Avatar
fenix | 9 years ago
0 likes

Its not acceptable or unacceptable. The hold only has so much space. It'd be the same if everyone on the plane turned up with surfboards or something.

Avatar
farrell replied to fenix | 9 years ago
0 likes
fenix wrote:

Its not acceptable or unacceptable. The hold only has so much space. It'd be the same if everyone on the plane turned up with surfboards or something.

And if they booked those surfboards on in advance then I'd be arguing the same point.

Easyjet have the dimensions of the plane, they know how much they can fit in the hold.
If the maximum they can fit in is 49 bikes, then they should only book on 49 bikes.

Avatar
farrell | 9 years ago
0 likes

I'm confused, why do people think that 65 bikes is unacceptable yet 49 is perfectly ok?

Avatar
simon.thornton | 9 years ago
0 likes

A lot of people aren't fit to go abroad which is why we have Wales.

Avatar
fenix | 9 years ago
0 likes

Common sense really. So many cyclists on one plane ?
Planes aren't designed t take that much luggage. I'd have flown out a day early to beat the rush.

Avatar
Airzound | 9 years ago
0 likes

NotSoEasyJet.

Avatar
A V Lowe | 9 years ago
0 likes

For such a large group it is both a courtesy and smart move to directly contact the airline and make them aware of a large party travelling. I've done this for groups where the airline has state a limit of 3 or 4 bikes, and we've put 10 or more on the flight.

Preparation in this way may see the group offered the exclusive use of a shaped pallet - such as those you see being hauled to larger planes as these permit faster loading & unloading and efficient use of hold space. It may mean a slightly earlier arrival but could also mean that with bikes properly loaded in a pallet package, the potential for the sort of damage that individual bikes can suffer being individually thrown from a conveyor in to the hold, is removed.

I recall hearing from UK tri-riders heading for Klagenfurt, than no bikes were being taken on their flight, given that it was almost filled by competitors.
Instead that had to book bikes in almost a week beforehand, to travel by road....as quite a lot of 'air' freight can be seen travelling the UK motorway network.

Avatar
Colin Peyresourde | 9 years ago
0 likes

I seem to remember something almost identical happened a year ago. You have to be realistic about getting that many bikes on the same flight.

Avatar
mikeprytherch | 9 years ago
0 likes

For me easyJet are 100% to blame, its absolutely their fault end of... why ? its simple really... they know how much luggage is going on the plane.

Hardly anybody checks-in a bag at the airport these days without pre-booking, so if we assume that 99% of passengers have pre-booked they know the maximum amount of space this luggage will take up as they have a maximum weight and bag size, also they run a fleet of airbus, so they know the maximum load, however their booking systems doesn't bother looking at such facts, they just take your money, to me its a scandal and the CAA should put a stop to this crap practice.

Avatar
crazy-legs | 9 years ago
0 likes

Bit of a non-story really; OK EasyJet should have told them that they couldn't take all bikes and the "data protection" thing is utter bollocks but then again trying to get 20 people to an information desk once all bags are checked and tell them their bikes will be late is probably just as much hassle anyway.

Flying to such a popular cycling destination on a weekend flight, I'd pretty much expect some bikes not to make it. The club should have split their flights, expecting 65 bikes on one plane is optimistic at best!

I'm flying EasyJet from Gatwick next weekend but it's to a much less popular cycling destination so here's hoping it's all OK!

Avatar
Metjas | 9 years ago
0 likes

I know it's happened to other clubs as well on easyjet - all booked months in advance and with 'only' 15 or so bikes, but still you only find out when you arrive.

When travelling in such a big group, I would never assume my bike is going to be carried; sad but true.

Avatar
IHateSummer | 9 years ago
0 likes

I've heard of this at Gatwick before. I flew from Stansted and back this past week and didn't hear of any bikes going missing either flight, and there were a good number of bikes being loaded.

I reckon it's worth the stress and hassle to have your own bike there.

Avatar
ridein | 9 years ago
0 likes

So to summarize no bike on arrival for a quarter of the club members, but their bikes joined them the next day.

Avatar
Grizzerly | 9 years ago
0 likes

The use of the data protection act as an excuse for not giving information is just that, an excuse. An airline can give a passenger ANY information which does not involve a third party.

Avatar
UrbanBushman replied to Grizzerly | 9 years ago
0 likes

I have used the data protection act back at them. You have the right to get a copy of the information that is held about you. This is known as a subject access request.

They have the info about your bike they have to tell you under the Data protection act, but dont tell easyjet they have the right to charge for the search of this information.

"You would like to know where your bag is sir. No problem that will be £5 please"

Avatar
ronin | 9 years ago
0 likes

I wonder a what point someone knew that it wasn't gonna happen. At that point you give the passenger the choice, go without your bike or go on a later flight. Not terribly complicated.

And then to add insult to injury, you ask where your bike is only to be told they can't tell you...wow!

Avatar
Skynet | 9 years ago
0 likes

They could have at least told them there and then that they hadn't been loaded.

As for the airline not being able to tell you where you're own property is because of the data protection act, just wtf.

Avatar
Alf0nse | 9 years ago
0 likes

This is standard for outsize baggage regardless of carrier. There is always the chance your expensive toy will have to take a later flight

Avatar
goggy | 9 years ago
0 likes

I'm doing the same trip, same airline, next month. Glad I am going a day earlier than most in my club but who knows.

What I do know is that if they screw it up I won't fly with them again.

Avatar
Paul M | 9 years ago
0 likes

I can understand their frustration, but don't they think they were a little naïve? Presumably they travelled on a Boeing 737 or similar aircraft, which would have had about 180-200 seats. In other words, they made up about a third of the passengers on board. A boxed bicycle would certainly qualify as "outsize baggage" which you would have to check in specially at the outsize baggage handling area. Did no-one think to ask themselves "can they really get 65 outsize baggages on a single flight?". There were after all another 130 or so passengers, who would also presumably expect to see their bags carried on the same flight (and yes, I know, many Easyjet passengers don't check in luggage, but as I have discovered, that doesn't mean it doesn't end up in the hold).

And I think we all know by now that under the Montreal Convention airlines have more or less totally excused themselves from responsibility for the baggage, limbs or even lives of their passengers. It's totally wrong, and such abrogation f responsibility would not be tolerated in almost any other service industry, but that's how it is, and governments around the world have accepted it.

Perhaps they should have split into at least two groups traveling on separate aircraft. Most clubs and companies I know of which might organise travel on such a mass scale would never place so many on a single plane - my own employer has a limit of 13 - if only because of the potential consequences of a crash for the families of so many connected victims.

Avatar
armb replied to Paul M | 9 years ago
0 likes
Paul M wrote:

Did no-one think to ask themselves "can they really get 65 outsize baggages on a single flight?".

Maybe they assumed that if the bikes were booked months in advance, the airline would mention it if they couldn't take them. Maybe they should have read the small print, but the airline could also have been more informative.

Avatar
Simon_MacMichael replied to Paul M | 9 years ago
0 likes
Paul M wrote:

Most clubs and companies I know of which might organise travel on such a mass scale would never place so many on a single plane - my own employer has a limit of 13 - if only because of the potential consequences of a crash for the families of so many connected victims.

Would be nice if that were the reason but in the case of companies at least it's much more likely to be what's called an aircraft accumulation limit imposed by personal accident/travel insurers.

Avatar
workhard replied to Paul M | 9 years ago
0 likes

Why should they have to ask? Why couldn't Sleasyjet have told them?

Avatar
Bazzer | 9 years ago
0 likes

I think all carriers have this "get out of jail" card! It was a little ironic that when booking a trip to France last year to watch & ride parts of Le Tour - Air France couldn't even manage to book our bikes (two) onto a flight until we pitched up at the Airport! We were still expected to pay for them though, with the prospect of arriving at check in only to find we may have to fly to our Cycling holiday, in France, for the Tour de France & on the French national airline - without our bikes! We booked with Jet2 no problems.

Avatar
Colin Peyresourde | 9 years ago
0 likes

Perhaps the bikes weren't 'aero' enough....

I'll get me coat.

Latest Comments