Tips For Traveling by Air With Your Bike

1. When using Expedia. Hotwire or any other discount online site to order tickets, BEFORE buying the tickets that you want, make sure to check that airlines baggage allowance policies first, on that airlines web site and maybe even with a call to Customer Service to verbally verify that, those are the fees. It can get pretty complicated - so know what you are dealing with. A trend I have noticed is that the airlines that often pop up at the top of Expedia, or Hotwire or other sites listings, with the least expensive airfares for tickets, are the airlines with the most constrained, ridiculous and expensive extra baggage and bike charges. It may be worthwhile in the long-run to pay more up front for a certain airline that has known and reasonable bike fees. For example, Air Canada has a fixed and set fee of $50 each way for bikes.

2. On-line discounted tickets often have connections, sometimes on different airlines. Sometimes you will get hit TWICE with extra baggage charges. Even when you think you are on one airline, sometimes one airline partners up with another outbound and inbound, or again via connections, and again you may get hit twice with the charges. Again, phone customer service and sort all of this out before committing to any ticket purchase. Whenever possible fly direct.

3. Try using a bike box that does not scream, THERE IS A BIKE IN HERE! You might get away with no, or minimal charges. As some know, I use a soft Aerus Bike Bag and this often, even though it's slightly over-size, passes as regular checked luggage. It's light with the bike in it(about 27 pounds), compact and slings over my shoulder so when walking up to the ticket counter, it looks like a regular piece of my luggage. The only charges I have ever paid for my Aerus bag, is as a second bag charge which is $25 - $50.

4. Dress discretely. If you dress like a lot of triathletes I see traveling by plane( You know the kind!!) then, Check-In agents will know RIGHT AWAY what is in the bag/box. Business casual is good, does not give anything away, and seems to work for me.

5. DO NOT overload the bike bag or box. Some airlines fees are cumulative. Thus, you'll pay for the BIKE, you'll pay for an extra bag, you'll pay for over-size AND you'll pay for over-weight!! There were people who I met at Ironman Hawaii last year who paid more to get their bikes to Hawaii than for their own tickets sitting in the plane. I guess the bonus was in the plane they got 3 pretzels and two mouthfuls of Coke for no extra charge! Read Point #1 over again.

6. Finally. Don't make a scene at Check-In. The only thing that works these days is to play really dumb( but a nice and polite dumb, please), and they might take pity on you(But, you have read this - so you should know all there is to know). Harassing Check-In agents will do nothing for you, and will only make you look like a jerk. I have been queued up behind triathletes before at Check-In and the behavior that I have witnessed has been appalling. Don't be THAT triathlete.

Hope this helps.

This was posted on the TriRudy News List

Aerus Bike Bag Review

Flying with a bike( on a plane not off a jump!) has become and extra pain, hassle and most particularly expensive in the last year. When I traveled to Kona for Ironman Hawaii last fall, I met people who had paid more to get there bikes there than they had paid sitting in a seat on the plane - at least in the cabin, you got dry pretzels and a shooter of soda, who knows the treatment your bike got at the hands of the gorilla baggage handlers.

There's always been some sort of fee for traveling with a bike when you bring it on the plane. However, historically it was modest charge, but it was very inconsistently applied. Now some airlines are charging substantially more and good-news/bad-news - it's still inconsistently applied! This latter point can be frustrating when, at check in you get hit with an extra $200 to check your bike in. I get it that bikes, and bike cases are a little more un-weildly to handle - but $150 more dollars more work to handle per bike? Now, some triathletes and cyclists have not helped the cause by way over-packing some of these wheeled hard-shell bike cases to the point that they are attemping to check in a Hummer at the ticket counter! At Ironman Canada one year, it took three men, to lift one of these sherman-tank hard shell bike cases up onto the conveyor belt!

What to do? One solution, is to go the other way, away from the rolling armored-truck style hard cases and use the lightest, most compact bike travel bag that you can find. Enter the Aerus Biospeed Bike Bag. This is a heavy duty nylan bag that is very well thought out with a high level of protection and padding for your bike. The key things about this approach is that, when in the bag, the whole unit is compact and light - weighing in at less than 30 pounds with my 58cm Cervelo R3 road bike in the bag. Also, it's discreet. You can sling it over your shoulder. It does not scream I AM A BIKE from the outside!

I used an Aerus Biospeed bag for the first time on my flight to Kona from Toronto yesterday. I had the bike-bag slung over my shoulder and then another medium sized roller bag to check. At check in with Continental, the Agent asked me what was in the Aerus Bag. I said, "Sports equipment". She said, "Seriously. What is in the bag?". I said, "If you really want to know it's a bike". She said, "I would not have known, as it's so small and light [28 pounds on the scale]. It's only slightly bigger than a normal suitcase. I'll check it as your second bag - no charge"!! Thank you.

Picked up my Bike Bag at Kona airport and when I unpacked it at our Condo all was good. I did go the extra mile when I did pack it up and follow a number of the key points noted at the Aerus web site on packing tips - most noteably using foam copper pipe insulation on all the bikes tubes.

Edit: When traveling with your bike, make sure that before you book and pay for your tickets, check over thoroughly the airlines bike policy and the bike fees. Read all the fine print. As mentioned previously, some airlines, most notably the big U.S. airlines such as United, Delta and American, are all charging $175 - $200 each way for your bike. Do your absolute best to not support these airlines with your business. There is a group of smaller airlines, that have much lower and more modest fees for traveling with a bike. I know that in Canada we are very lucky, bit Air Canada and WestJet have a set $50 fee for Bikes - that's reasonable. That I don't mind paying. Consequently, I do everything I can to fly with AC or WJ, even paying a bit more up-front for my airfare - knowing that in the long run it will be less expensive and I am supporting a business, that supports and understands us.

Hope this helps.

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