Australian Cycling Forums - Bicycles Network Australia

Gday all

My Wife and I are planning a trip hopefully to Norway. Oslo appears the only way from here and the SAS to Tromso.. At anyrate I'm going over the numerous and complicated baggage allowances for different airlines. My gosh this is more difficult than last time I flew to the US with bicycles in 2005. Have any of you recently taken bicycles with you to Europe on which carrier and what was your allowances? I'm looking at, and thinking that Qantas is the safest option.

Bear

Only comment I can make, we flew with Royal Brunei from Melbourne to London last year which is the only Australian and European destination they fly to. They have effectively a 42kg baggage allowance when taking bikes (12 kg of bikes waived) and were good, no issues for us. Bikes travelled in Ground Effects body bags and arrived undamaged both ways. Probably not much use to you unless you then fly London to Olso, or go Eurorail.

LG wrote:Only comment I can make, we flew with Royal Brunei from Melbourne to London last year which is the only Australian and European destination they fly to. They have effectively a 42kg baggage allowance when taking bikes (12 kg of bikes waived) and were good, no issues for us. Bikes travelled in Ground Effects body bags and arrived undamaged both ways. Probably not much use to you unless you then fly London to Olso, or go Eurorail.

Thanks LG. I checked their website and looks like we could get to Amsterdam but not much further north. I've been trying to decipher Eurorail's prices when it comes to tickets like these.. It appears to be cheaper to fly lol

Bear

Most airlines are OK if they specify the weight limit about 30 kg Qantas , Emirates, Qatar , etc .
a soft bag is fine , i dont like the solid cases that weigh about 8kg by themselves and difficult to stow anywhere.
just get / borrow some cheap scales to check before you go.
Forget the budget airlines

Agree with that, I've taken a road bike to Europe every year since 2010 with Emirates and never had the slightest problem with either flights or the bike. They go everywhere and personally I like the Dubai transit from Perth, although I realise it may not work so well ex Sydney. Allowance is 30kg plus 7kg carry-on baggage.

A modern road bike packed in a cardboard box from the bike shop with bubble-wrap, foam tubing and air void pillows will withstand a nuclear strike and weigh about 17 kg including bike clothes, helmet, shoes, tools etc. That leaves 7 kg carry-on plus 10 kg checked for other clothes in a super light-weight nylon duffel (enough for Europe summer), plus a 3kg fold-up luggage trolley to wheel the whole lot on. Total 30kg plus 7kg carry-on.

We too fly regular with loaded bikes.

For Europe we use Qatar, Emirates and Etihad.
All good airlines.

They all allow open jaw tickets . Flying out of a different city than you entered in, for not much more.

The best deal we could secure was with British Airlines and Scandinavian Airlines. The weight allotted was only 23 kilos but that is ok as we pre purchased 1 extra bag all the way to and back. 30kg would have been nice but getting to Tromso with it was the difficult part. Leaving in July for 6 weeks so have lots to plan for!!!

Bear

Just for anyone elses info, Qantas and JQ now require bikes to be in cardboard bike boxes or a hard case...

I've had no issues with Cathay in several flights so far.

A few times I've found is that some good travel agents have contacts within the airlines reservations, and they can help add an entry onto your ticket advising that notice has been given of a bike bag. Whilst its not a 100% confirmation, it does give you added credence when it comes time to check in.

The other thing that complicates matters is simply the size and weight of your bike bag. Some are just really large/oddly shaped.

I use this one which is the smallest and lightest one I could find. The only downside is that it doesn't have wheels. So carrying on your shoulder for any more than 15min of so gets a bit too much - depending on how much other stuff you fill in the bag adding to the weight.

http://pikapackworks.com

Could I suggest getting the most convenient flight to Europe and then using the excellent trains (including sleeping trains), which are exceptionally bike-friendly.

https://www.seat61.com is the Sheldon Brown of train travel. You'll find everything you need to know.

Extending on from BobtheBuilder's post, how about Syd > Copenhagen (Qatar Airways, Emirates, with a stop in Doha or Dubai) and then train Copenhagen > Oslo.

I don't know how Qatar or Emirates are with bikes though.

There is also a very good ferry, including overnight option, from Copenhagen to Oslo, but if Tromso is your first stop, flying there is probably the only reasonable option, unless you get a ferry up, but it'd be a long journey I think.

10speedsemiracer wrote:I don't know how Qatar or Emirates are with bikes though.

Emirates are great with their 30kg allowance.

JAL are even better but not sure if they fly to europe 2 x 23kg....

BobtheBuilder wrote:https://www.seat61.com is the Sheldon Brown of train travel. You'll find everything you need to know.

Just check out the bits I "know". He's good. Bookmarked!

There used to be some decent flight options to Scandinavia via HK. But that was a long time ago

Rome2Rio.com is yet-another-travel site that I've found useful for paths less travelled.

I used momondo for a long time, but this one is even better, probably the best!

http://matrix.itasoftware.com/#search:

Won't sell you a ticket, but will give you a price. You can enter in a huge amount of variables to find the flight for you and it'll give you all the ticket coding for a travel agent to find the exact ticket (and you'll know if they're creaming extra off the retail price) - or you can search it yourself with booking sites, obviously.

Thoglette wrote:There used to be some decent flight options to Scandinavia via HK.

Singapore Air flies direct to Copenhagen from Singapore.