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Hawaiian Airlines no longer accepts bikes in soft cases
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A friend of mine just told me about this new policy. Heads up for anyone flying on Hawaiian with a bike. Yikes!

http://hawaiianair.custhelp.com/...wers/detail/a_id/60/~/bicycles
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Re: Hawaiian Airlines no longer accepts bikes in soft cases [Jerseygirl] [ In reply to ]
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Cardboard box?

Rhymenocerus wrote:
I think everyone should consult ST before they do anything.
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Re: Hawaiian Airlines no longer accepts bikes in soft cases [Jerseygirl] [ In reply to ]
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If you look at the fine print on most airlines, they state that bikes must be packed in cardboard box or hard case. Though I have never seen any agent turn down a bike in a soft case. It's a business after all.

I just looked at delta's website which seems to have been updated recently:

https://www.delta.com/...p/special-items.html

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If the bicycle is packaged in a hard shell case specifically designed for transporting bicycles, then a limited release form is not required.

If the bicycle is packaged in a soft sided travel bag or anything other than a hard shell case, a limited release form will need to be signed.

I have been traveling with a soft case since 2012. I just picked up a hard case a week and half ago. Glad I made the switch.

blog
Last edited by: stevej: Aug 1, 18 4:07
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Re: Hawaiian Airlines no longer accepts bikes in soft cases [Jerseygirl] [ In reply to ]
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I only travel with surveying equipment or trade show displays
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Re: Hawaiian Airlines no longer accepts bikes in soft cases [commendatore] [ In reply to ]
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I would never fly with my bike in a soft case nor a cardboard box anyways
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Re: Hawaiian Airlines no longer accepts bikes in soft cases [RBR] [ In reply to ]
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RBR wrote:
I would never fly with my bike in a soft case nor a cardboard box anyways

I have probably flown around 300K miles with my bike in a soft case. Nothing has every happened to it. I've also rode my bike straight up to check in, takenn the pedals off, turned the handlebars, deflated and checked the bike in and reversed that process on the other side several times with no problems at all. Acutally this last approach, they treat it the best. It just gets wheeled up to the baggage pile, put on the top and then gently placed in the aircraft!
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Re: Hawaiian Airlines no longer accepts bikes in soft cases [RBR] [ In reply to ]
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RBR wrote:
I would never fly with my bike in a soft case nor a cardboard box anyways

Professional Teams use them all the time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXxT9m7yw30
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Re: Hawaiian Airlines no longer accepts bikes in soft cases [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]
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devashish_paul wrote:
RBR wrote:
I would never fly with my bike in a soft case nor a cardboard box anyways

I have probably flown around 300K miles with my bike in a soft case. Nothing has every happened to it. I've also rode my bike straight up to check in, takenn the pedals off, turned the handlebars, deflated and checked the bike in and reversed that process on the other side several times with no problems at all. Acutally this last approach, they treat it the best. It just gets wheeled up to the baggage pile, put on the top and then gently placed in the aircraft!

Yea winning !!!!!!
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Re: Hawaiian Airlines no longer accepts bikes in soft cases [NUFCrichard] [ In reply to ]
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NUFCrichard wrote:
RBR wrote:
I would never fly with my bike in a soft case nor a cardboard box anyways

Professional Teams use them all the time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXxT9m7yw30

If I had someone buying my bikes for me and flying them for me I wouldn’t care
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Re: Hawaiian Airlines no longer accepts bikes in soft cases [RBR] [ In reply to ]
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RBR wrote:
NUFCrichard wrote:
RBR wrote:
I would never fly with my bike in a soft case nor a cardboard box anyways


Professional Teams use them all the time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXxT9m7yw30


If I had someone buying my bikes for me and flying them for me I wouldn’t care

My flying miles stats suggest my soft case has a good track record. I hear of many of my peers having things destroyed in the hard case, often when the case falls off a big pile. The baggage handlers TEND to handle the soft case "softly" and the hard cases more "harshly". There is a reason for this. The soft case is way lighter. They don't have to apply a lot of force to move it around like the hard case.

It's the same logic people use to drive a large vehicle like an SUV thinking they are safer, but the accidents per mile for compact vehicles like a Sentra or Jetta are far lower since they are more manouevreable. But most people don't get the stats of the full journey. They just look at hardware parked in a spot and make a psychological assessment of safety based on physical appearance.
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Re: Hawaiian Airlines no longer accepts bikes in soft cases [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]
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Damn. I assume you're not doing that with one of them fancy carbon bike now are ya?

Strava
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Re: Hawaiian Airlines no longer accepts bikes in soft cases [gmh39] [ In reply to ]
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gmh39 wrote:
Damn. I assume you're not doing that with one of them fancy carbon bike now are ya?


The risk in this mode is not the carbon, or steel, or Al or Ti. It's the drivetrain But the entire bike is assembled. You check the bike in with the chain going from big ring to second biggest cog in the back to have max chain tension both ways. I would take a sponge and tape it around front and rear derailleur and then roll the dice. Never any problems. I have not done this in a bit now since I am 'too rich' to cycle up to an airport and can afford a car and park it. When I could not and bike was my transport, it was not an option so I biked to the airport, checked my bike in and when then when I landed on vacation, I could ride to where I wanted. I figured, rather than own a car, I could see the world with my bike and use the car+gas money seeing the world using my legs for gas. But I'm not wired like most people. But people don't believe this stuff like riding up to a check in on your bike is possible and it is. I doubt there is a single ticket agent who would decline you getting on board if you act poor and say this is your only transport on both sides. I realize this is not the ST user financial profile too. It's not like most people around here are riding up to Toronto Airport to get on a flight to Dubai, connect in Islamabad and ride the Karakoram Highway amidst some dicey war zone over the Pamirs to China, but there are guys doing that type of stuff all the time (and no, my wife won't let me do that anyway, but I can dream on)...by the way this is the route:









Route profile, Islamabad to Kashgar (China)



In any case, not sure what you would do with a hard case bike case on a bike tour. Only option is leave with cardboard and ditch at the airport and when you return try to find a local bike store that gives you a bike case and take taxi to the airport or just ride up and check your bike in....on my bike tours, I did the cardboard box on the way out and just rode up to checkin on the way back.
Last edited by: devashish_paul: Aug 1, 18 6:06
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Re: Hawaiian Airlines no longer accepts bikes in soft cases [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]
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Don't go fly to IMSA with a soft case, though. The local flight company (CT to Port Elizabeth) handed back a Speed Concept with both seatstays cracked in half.

ZONE3 - We Last Longer
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Re: Hawaiian Airlines no longer accepts bikes in soft cases [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]
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Quote:
The risk in this mode is not the carbon, or steel, or Al or Ti. It's the drivetrain
Depends. The problem - particularly for disk wheels, but also for carbon frames - is getting other luggage stacked / thrown on top of it.
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Re: Hawaiian Airlines no longer accepts bikes in soft cases [spudone] [ In reply to ]
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spudone wrote:
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The risk in this mode is not the carbon, or steel, or Al or Ti. It's the drivetrain
Depends. The problem - particularly for disk wheels, but also for carbon frames - is getting other luggage stacked / thrown on top of it.

I concur with the luggage stacking issue. I have watched my soft case go to the aircraft on the trolley many times. It is rare that there is ever anything on the top. Because it is shaped weird, it does not lend itself to stacking stuff on top without whatever it on top tipping over and falling off. Or it is vertically placed at one end of the luggage trolley or the other end, again with nothing on top. At the end of the day, baggage handling staff do what is convenient for them, not what is safe for a our bikes. A soft case or just a nude bike (as described above), they do what is easiest for them and generally that means putting it through the system in a manner where risks are actually low.
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Re: Hawaiian Airlines no longer accepts bikes in soft cases [tessar] [ In reply to ]
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tessar wrote:
Don't go fly to IMSA with a soft case, though. The local flight company (CT to Port Elizabeth) handed back a Speed Concept with both seatstays cracked in half.

Well I took Comair/British Airways from Capetown to Port Elizabeth so don't know about that airline, however, did you put that piece of plastic in between rear drop outs to keep bike stays apart? And are you certain that it happened the Cape Town to PE leg and not somewhere along the way?
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Re: Hawaiian Airlines no longer accepts bikes in soft cases [tessar] [ In reply to ]
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tessar wrote:
Don't go fly to IMSA with a soft case, though. The local flight company (CT to Port Elizabeth) handed back a Speed Concept with both seatstays cracked in half.

I took my PikaPackworks (softside) to IMSA last year without incident. In fact, I took it all over for 10 years without incident. To be sure, with the steel rear fork lock in place you could have jumped on the case and probably not broken my seatstays ... which goes to show it's all about the packing.

This year I started using the Thule Roundtrip Pro XT simply because I am getting too old to lug the softside without wheels. The Thule is sort of a hybrid case. I'm not sure if they Hawaiian Air would classify it as soft or hard. The bottom is clearly hard, and the sides have hard plastic shell inserts. I took it to Norway this summer without any issues and spent a total of $38 on bike fees for the roundtrip from the U.S.
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Re: Hawaiian Airlines no longer accepts bikes in soft cases [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]
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Quote:
But I'm not wired like most people.

Truer words have never been spoken. ;-)

Of course you're welcome back anytime.
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Re: Hawaiian Airlines no longer accepts bikes in soft cases [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]
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100% certain it was on that leg. Happened in a Scicon v3, so mounted to the solid metal mounting base, with ample padding. The damage looked like a sharp edge with a very heavy weight was rested directly against the seatstay area, which on the SC is relatively low.

All I'm saying is, the plural of anecdote is not "data". Not all baggage handlers will treat a soft case better, and damage can happen randomly regardless of packing methods. I still fly with a soft case, mostly because I'm not going to disassemble a Speed Concept front end for every flight. I'm pretty mechanically adept and I used to take the Bayonet stem off my old Felt DA and back it in a hardcase, but my next bike will be "mortal" or at least easier to take the bars off. My biggest achievement on that front was squeezing my partner's road bike into a standard suitcase, no surcharge - if only I were 155cm tall...

ZONE3 - We Last Longer
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Re: Hawaiian Airlines no longer accepts bikes in soft cases [logella] [ In reply to ]
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logella wrote:
Quote:
But I'm not wired like most people.


Truer words have never been spoken. ;-)

Of course you're welcome back anytime.

LOL Slowman has not banned me yet, and it's been 15 years on this website with crossed wiring!!!!

hey when are we riding dolomites and alps?...riding up to checkin on your ti bike is optional (did you see what I just did....I typed in slowman mode)
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Re: Hawaiian Airlines no longer accepts bikes in soft cases [stevej] [ In reply to ]
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Delta one time made me sign a waiver for my soft case; the other 20 times or so, they didn't.
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Re: Hawaiian Airlines no longer accepts bikes in soft cases [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]
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Looks like I’m riding in Spain in early summer next year, including the Angliru. Should be fun.
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Re: Hawaiian Airlines no longer accepts bikes in soft cases [logella] [ In reply to ]
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I'm pretty sure my Airport Ninja would fit in a cardboard bicycle box, and I'd have no issues with that if the airport takes the box after I land. The reason I got a soft case is dragging around a hard case or cardboard box in addition to my luggage is a logistical pita.
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Re: Hawaiian Airlines no longer accepts bikes in soft cases [Jerseygirl] [ In reply to ]
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Fly with Alaska. They'll treat you right.
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Re: Hawaiian Airlines no longer accepts bikes in soft cases [devashish_paul] [ In reply to ]
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Soft case??? Never Again.

If you actually talk to those who work for the airlines you will quickly learn they don't give a crap about anyone's belongings. Each item (bike, golf clubs, suitcase, whatever) is literally **thrown** four times onto different conveyer belts/vehicles each one-way flight. If you are switching planes, double that number. The baggage workers are a part of a contract company that move bags for most airlines at your airport. The only thing they care about is making their strict timelines on moving bags from A to B.

This past July, I traveled for the Santa Rosa 70.3. I saw the baggage people **throw** 5 bike softbags on their sides, stacking them on top of each other for transport off the plane to baggage claim.

In an Evoc triathlon soft bag, I've had $2000 worth of damage to my bike on two different flights during one triathlon trip. United blamed me for using a soft case, claimed responsibility for the damage and refused to pay anything. Within 2 weeks a Navy seal had total $10K bike loss on United (soft bag) and they refused to pay him anything. He has a cracked frame. I had a fork broken almost in two. Evoc felt so bad that they refunded me the cost of the $600 bag. If you want to read about it... https://forum.slowtwitch.com/...rum.cgi?post=4702229



devashish_paul wrote:
RBR wrote:
NUFCrichard wrote:
RBR wrote:
I would never fly with my bike in a soft case nor a cardboard box anyways


Professional Teams use them all the time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXxT9m7yw30


If I had someone buying my bikes for me and flying them for me I wouldn’t care


My flying miles stats suggest my soft case has a good track record. I hear of many of my peers having things destroyed in the hard case, often when the case falls off a big pile. The baggage handlers TEND to handle the soft case "softly" and the hard cases more "harshly". There is a reason for this. The soft case is way lighter. They don't have to apply a lot of force to move it around like the hard case.

It's the same logic people use to drive a large vehicle like an SUV thinking they are safer, but the accidents per mile for compact vehicles like a Sentra or Jetta are far lower since they are more manouevreable. But most people don't get the stats of the full journey. They just look at hardware parked in a spot and make a psychological assessment of safety based on physical appearance.
Last edited by: Trigirl357: Sep 1, 18 6:37
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