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Has anyone flown from T5 recently? Where is your bike weighed, is it at the check in desk or where you drop your overweight bag? I've got an allowance of 23kg to fly with my bike for free (BA to Johannesburg), but my bike weighs 14kg and the bag is 11, so I'm trying to come up with a solution to my 1st world problem.
It was separate at the counter can't fit the bike, don't think mine was weighed but I was business. Generally pedals and rotors in the hold luggage gets you under.
No specific info on LHR but I had similar issue on last flights I took the bike on and ended up popping the pedals and chain into hold luggage to sneak under the 23Kg.
Bike weighed at T5 Check in desk and then taken to oversize for scanning and dropping off when we flew in October
Are you sure your allowance is right? BA was checked in luggage plus one piece of sporting equipment when we flew (at no extra cost). Max weight per item something like 32kg
BA to Canada is 23kg as standard and the pretty much don’t care what it is.
Another 23kg is £120
According to my ticket bike is included as your 1 piece of luggage, max 23kg per bag or you pay £60 each way. After calling to let them know I'm flying with a bike she's added my bike for free and I can still bring another checked bag... I'm going to stick pedals, rotors shoes etc. in the other bag and hope for the best. Interestingly you can have a piece of cabin luggage up to 23kg too!
Most long haul flights (used to) include a sporting equipment allowance as well as your normal baggage. It changes between airlines - usually golf clubs and surfboards are find. usually bikes and ski equipment as well.
My experience a few years ago was that many staff at the airport don't understand the rules. We flew to South Africa with SouthAfrican airways. From memory we had a 20kg bag plus a 20kg sporting equipment allowance. We'd checked in advance that there was no need to pre book and bikes in bags would be fine.
We turned up with the bike bag weighing c24kg and a c10kg rucksack so well under the total weight. At checkin the CSN person wanted to charge us extra but we got around it in the end - I think I had to pull the info from their own website and escalate it to their manager. I don't think we had any trouble at all flying home.
The 30kg limit is a health and safety thing - if anything weighs more than that it is a problem because the baggage handlers aren't meant to carry it.
According to my ticket bike is included as your 1 piece of luggage, max 23kg per bag or you pay £60 each way. After calling to let them know I’m flying with a bike she’s added my bike for free and I can still bring another checked bag… I’m going to stick pedals, rotors shoes etc. in the other bag and hope for the best. Interestingly you can have a piece of cabin luggage up to 23kg too!
So you've got 2 x 23kg bags, to check in, for no extra cost?!
I'm flying LHR to joburg a week on Friday, with a bike and hold-all, and had to pay an extra £60 each way! You lucky bugger...
Not heading to Lesotho are you??
Most long haul flights (used to) include a sporting equipment allowance as well as your normal baggage. It changes between airlines – usually golf clubs and surfboards are find. usually bikes and ski equipment as well.
Yeah the days of that are dead!! Got a quote for a trip to Oz, base price is hand luggage only, thank you very much, comparison sites and budget travel now makes that the base price and hence the listed one.
As for allowances and their understanding of them I've had the check in staff reading the entire T&C's to work out why I wasn't being charged the same as the other guy. You get a big variation in sporting goods/oversize charges. Plenty do it as part of your weight now, most of the US based carriers & Lufthansa all charge a fee for oversize even if it's in your allowance. However you only pay the fee's that the airline you book with lists not their partner ones who you might end up flying with - so worth having the ones you booked on with you if it's code share.
On the one bag over one under weight - some airlines do have a strict policy where each bag can be up to but the weight cannot be combined, I've had more issues when the planes are smaller though moving stuff from the bike bag to the hold bag.
Also worth noting that the allowance generally goes up to 23.9kg as they round down, but in the us it's done in Lb so you only have 0.4kg ish breathing space....
and don't get me started on why bikes always seem to come out last
These days, bikes usually categorised as oversize / sporting goods and the flat rate with most airlines is £50 / 60 Euros - but the allowance is 32kg.
These days, bikes usually categorised as oversize / sporting goods and the flat rate with most airlines is £50 / 60 Euros – but the allowance is 32kg.
Not many do a flat rate any more, the budgets do but most will just sell you an extra weight at that end, luggage allowances are getting tightened right up as it's not a profitable market so the 32kg becomes 23kg (standard second bag weight unless your real budget when it's 20kg)
and for the OP
https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb/information/baggage-essentials/sporting-goods-and-musical-instruments
BA ask you call ahead now and give them the dimensions and weight of the bag.
Hungry monkey, no, not Lesotho but I have done a few rides up there before. Heading to the Karoo and kzn.
Yip Mike, I called with the dimensions this morning which is when they added the bike for free, as well as another checked bag. Still haven't got the confirmation email I was promised though.
Ah cool, have a good trip. I'm heading out to the kingdom enduro, so wondered if you might be too.
I've also not had a confirmation email fwiw!
when did BA introduce the you have phone up and let them know your taking a bike ?
Sure that when i booked our flights to usa last year for a trip this sept that wasnt on the terms and conditions for sporting goods
Another reason to avoid flying with BA - only flying with them this time to get direct flights to Washington and then back from denver
*You may need to tell us you are bringing certain items, such as bikes, so we can plan our loading.
I guess you don't have to... But I didn't want to risk not having mine on the same flight as I had a connecting flight on wards.
I flew BA last year to Geneva; we had cheap business class flights (£50 each return), so were able to take a take a bike bag each plus some clothes. We made sure were we’re under 23 kg but they often don’t weight them.
I called before but it never got any confirmation email, which i had been promised. I did call again to check and they had made a note though.
My bike bag got weighed last year and was slightly over. Very strict older lady on checkin. I took out the FF helmet and strapped it to my hand luggage. When I carted my bike bag to oversized loading, I stuff the helmet back in bike bag 🙂
Got to check in early and was ushered to the Business check in desks, they didn't even weigh the bike, which as it turns out was 26kg. Returning tomorrow so fingers crossed. Evoc bag did the job and the bike was unscathed.