can anyone update regards bikes and airlines?

[Dakkar]

It doesn't matter whether you fly expensive airlines or budget, it's still the same handlers at the airport.

[Vorpal]

The baggage handlers *may* be the same, but there are two things that differ...

1) when you check in, the airline is initially responsible for the handling of baggage, and how they deal with it can make a difference.

2) The airlines have individual contracts with the companies that do baggage handling, and there may be different things specified in them, including how to manage oversized baggage, sporting equipment, etc. At some airports (I'm not aware of this in the UK, but it does happen elsewhere), there may be more than one baggage handling firm.

So, it may not make any difference, flying form Stansted to Dublin, but it may make a difference if you are flying from a large airport to an airport further afield or vice versa.

Lastly, airlines that offer reasonable customer service may be less likely to hassle their customers for not taking pedals off or whatever.

[CJ]

The actuality is somewhere between those two. The airline makes a difference, and also the airport.

The airline is the entity with which you have a contract, so their terms of carriage apply. But the people applying them, not just the baggage handlers, but also the check-in staff, are in most cases employed by the airport. One day the person behind the desk may wear an orange smock, next day blue...

Of course they have a different script and set of rules to apply depending on the airline, but these tend to merge into "the way we do things here". That's why you need to print and take with you the important bits of your airlines conditions for carrying bikes. They don't always remember the script right. And some regional airport's staff rooms seem to harbour an anti-cyclist culture. At CTC we used to get an unusual number of problems with cyclists flying out of Liverpool. Seems to have settled down a bit now.

[MickTheCyclist]

As Chris says it depends on airline and airport. I flew Dublin to Munich and back with Aer Lingus using a CTC bag.
I printed out the Aer Lingus regulations for packing a bike just in case but in Dublin they didn't even look at the bike; just stuck a label on and took it away.

Coming back from Munich yesterday they checked tyres, pedals, handlebar orientation etc.
Then they asked for the bag to be opened so they could take samples on a paper strip which they took away for analysis and after 15 minutes pronounced it clean. So worth thinking about how you seal the bag as you may need to open and re-seal it again at check in.

[CJ]

Then they asked for the bag to be opened so they could take samples on a paper strip which they took away for analysis and after 15 minutes pronounced it clean. So worth thinking about how you seal the bag as you may need to open and re-seal it again at check in.

Good point. Another advantage with the poly bag is you can easily poke a hole in it to do that sort of thing.

I was once at check-in with a person who had his bike in a locked hard case - perfect from the airlines' point of view you might imagine. Not when they want to look inside. Not when the owner's keys are attached to his penknife which is in his hold luggage of course, which is checked in already and off on its merry way to the aircraft!

[bigjim]

Munich tore open my ctc bag last year over the top tube to inspect it and then wrapped a sticker around the top tube to say they had done it. Only found out when I retrieved the bike in Manchester.

[eileithyia]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/b ... e-friendly