Mike Jacoubowsky wrote:
> > Most of the major US airlines have maximum size restrictions of 80
> > inches for baggage. Does a bike box that meets that requirement even
> > exist?
> >
> > Is this a rule that the airlines can simply enforce arbitrarily? Has
> > it ever been enforced?
>
> At 80" (I assume length+height+depth) you're going to have a difficult time
> getting even a frame into a box with the fork attached. You might be able to
> use one box that size for the frame/fork and a second one for the wheels,
> but in doing so you just ate up your entire baggage allowance.
Hnh. My last two international flights (on Northwestern) had bikes in
a bag declared as luggage (rather than as bike), one flight three
years or so ago (I think Northwestern but maybe United) had an unboxed
mostly disassembled bike (wheels still on) with padding declared as a
bike and I've taken bikes on domestic (Chinese) flights from Guangzhou
(once) to Guangzhou (twice), to Shanghai (once), and from Shanghai
(once). Also a boxed bike on a Hanoi -> Guangzhou -> Haikou flight
which I think was on a Chinese airline. The only time I have ever
gotten any charge was on the domestic Guangzhou -> Haikou flight three
years ago with the padded bike. I was over the weight limit and had
already spent three days in Guangzhou so the rule that flying domestic
the same day that you arrive in country still counts as international
was nullified.
The last flight was Baltimore -> Chicago -> Tokyo -> Guangzhou ->
Haikou. I had two bikes with the wheels off and handlebars sideways,
an extra mountain bike fork, and two pairs of wheels in the one soft
sided bike bag (hard bottom, wheels, and useful straps inside it)
padded with some clothes and extra stuff (I seem to recall a barrel of
UTZ pretzels being among my 'padding'). By careful packing (but not
careful enough, one bike's chainring scratched the downtube of the
other bike), and lots of zipties, I was able to make it within the 80"
limit and within the weight limit even though it started with a
domestic leg. My domestic leg from Guangzhou had some trouble because
the check-in counter felt that arriving at 11:30pm and leaving at
9:30am nullified the same day rule on it still being an international
flight but I won in the end.
The flight before that was Guangzhou -> Tokyo -> somewhere in the US -
> someplace else in the US -> Baltimore. One bike. One huge duffel
bag with about 40 kilos of other stuff. No hiccups of any kind. No
fines.
> Besides, if you're trying to beat the extra charge for carrying a bike, it's
> not related to size anyway. It's related strictly to the fact that it's a
> bike. Unless you plan to lie about what's in the box, you're going to get
> hit with the charge. And lying about what's in the box might not be the best
> idea these days.
I really didn't find it all that hard to get one bike inside the 80"
limit. Getting two bikes into the 80" limit was somewhat harder but I
solved it by turning one upside down and backwards and having the
forks and chainstays do a little kama sutran sixty nine. Tires were
deflated and the wheels sort of threaded around the crankarms (pedals
off). I didn't say it was bike (bikes really) at check-in, and they
didn't ask.
-M
