trying to get me, my bicycle, and bob trailer to france. any advice greatly appreciated

The League has teamed up with Adventure Travel to offer free bike transport on most domestic flights operated by Frontier and America West Airlines. You must be a current League member and make your reservation through Adventure Travel (800-274-4567). Please identify yourself as a League member and be prepared to provide your membership number. Need to join the League?
http://www.bikeleague.org/flyfree.htm

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David Ornee, Western Springs, IL USA

I flew British Airways from London to Mexico City on 5th March with my bike and panniers with no trouble at all. I was fast tracked at check-in on account of the bike plus my bike did not need to be boxed or wrapped, I simply removed the pedals, saddle, and turned the handlebars parallel with the frame. The bike was treated as part of my normal luggage allowance so no extra charge was levied as long as it falls within that allowance. The best part of it all was that it arrived in one piece at Mexico City with no damage at all.

I did however have to advise BA at the time of booking that I was bringing a bike so they knew to expect it.

Hope that helps.

I flew to Germany this past summer with a bike and large backpack. The bike was in a big plastic hard-shell case. There were no problems or extra charges. I made sure it wasn't over the 70 pound bag limit for international flights. I think you only might need worry for domestic flights. I was wondering about getting a BOB around, too, but I haven't done it. I think I'd just box it up and check it in.

Took Lufthansa to Florence, Italy and they were great. Didn't even have to box the bike! All I did was take off the pedals, turn the bars sideways, and deflate the tires, then just roll the bike on the plane. Not so much as a scratch in either direction. No extra charge either. (this was a few years ago)

You can try putting the trailer in a Nashbar bike bag. The bags are close to Cordura in strength, and not much can hurt the trailer. My BOB COZ (out of production) diassembles and can fit in the storage container that mounts to the assembled trailer. I now use a Dean road bike with BTCs, so I drilled the S/S hard case to fit on the COZ. Bike comes out of the hard case, case mounts on COZ. For flights, I put the trailer in an S/S backpack, which counts as luggage. The Nashbar bike bag is far less expensive than the S/S backpack, but you'll have to tape or rope it down to 26x26x10 to be airline legal. I went to the S/S backpack so that I can piggyback the backpack on the hardcase with bungees and a Yakima cargo net.

US domestic flights are no longer free (except for the League deal) for bikes. Some US carriers on international flights, e.g., NW, are lenient; others, e.g., DL, charge.

"trying to get me, my bicycle, and bob trailer to france. any advice greatly appreciated"

There is a new type of bicycle case available that uses a BOB trailer as its base. You are able to pack your trailer and bike together in one container. There are many other benefits to this setup such as you can ride to and from the airport transporting this shipping container on the BOB trailer.

It is call the CELLO bike case/travel system and you can see it at www.wandertec.com .

It seems to me that if you give the Airlines plenty of notice as to what you will be travelling with, there appears to be no problems. People I have heard who have problems are those who just show up and maybe strike a check-in person on a bad day or an already heavily loaded aircraft. I've already booked with Korean Air for travel in August and they were appreciative of knowing in advance - and no charge for the bikes.

That cello case looks cool, but a bit pricey. I picked up a large hockey bag ($35 US) and packed the bob in that - folding the hockey bag up and putting it under the bob bag when cycling. I boxed the bike for the outbound from North America and put other stuff in the box like sleeping pad, sleeping bag, tools, etc. partly for weight considerations and partly to help protect the bike. Coming back to North America, I haven't had to box the bike, but on at least one occaission I did anyway because I wanted to take advantage of the weight per piece. Most Alliance airlines (One World or Star) should give you two pieces at 32 kgs each as a baggage allowance. Then you have a carry plus one other item (could be your handlebar bag if you have one). Few airlines have ever charged me for the bike (Quantas had a $16 AUS bike box fee, China airlines had an overweight charge of $30) - BUT definitely check with the airline BEFORE you buy your ticket.

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One World. One Hope.


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