Good morning, flights are opening up for Roth race dates. I’m flying from the US and perplexed by the air line regulations to Munich (where my tour bus leaves from). Ive flown with my Thule Transition in the US but never internationally. British Airways looks like you just let them know you have a box? Lufthansa is saying $1,000 round trip for the box. I can’t figure out Iceland Air.
Does anyone have a recommendation for an airline they’ve had good experience with? Bonus if you flew with a hard case
I wouldn’t book through Lufthansa. United and Lufthansa are partners so if in the US book with United. You may end up on Lufthansa flights but you’d get to play by United’s rules. Which means the bike is free.
This is great if it works, but I have my doubts as a guy who spent almost 400 hrs the past 12 months in a plane as an added “work benefit” traveling from continent to continent almost always rules for excess baggage / seat costs / extras follow the carrier’s rules even if you purchased a codeshare ticket.
I can only add one anecdotal example, but I flew Lufthansa back to the states out of Zurich/Frankfurt (the original flight was delayed and rebooked due to a hurricane back home), and they charged 400 (not sure if it was US or euros) for a bike in a hard case. I was eager to get home so I swallowed my pride and paid it, but the Swiss Air flight on the way over had no charge, just a required fyi/booking for the space preflight.
Fair point. I’ve seen it both ways but mostly the airline you ticketed through. With Lufthansa I could see them being sticklers for rules being German and all.
Leaving US that might be true but it might not be true on the way back.
We flew with British Airways but they used Lufthansa. Leaving UK was fine, leaving Germany I had to pay again for the bike. Even being a gold card holder.
I had it work in my favor before. Back before United had free bike fees it was like $200 each way internationally. I twice raced down in South America and my “United” flight was on Copa which had free bikes. Copa ticket agents didn’t charge me. Another time I was ticketed on United but the plane was Air Canada. I got hosed on that one as they charged me United bike fees at $200/way vs $50 on Air Canada.
European airlines are pretty sticky about flying with bikes. Unless your airline is US-based for 100% of the flights (i.e. United the entire way and not a United Codeshare partner), you’ll need to reach out to the airline well before your flight and reserve a spot on the plane for your bike. All the airlines have different fee rates. If you booked with a US airline, you’ll be under that airline’s fee structure for your way to Europe. (i.e. there’s no way for the code share to collect their fee). But on the way back, if you check in with the code share airline, you have to follow their fee structure, even if you booked through a US airline.
Basically, be emotionally prepared to give the airline money to get your bike home.
Also: avoid Newark at all costs. Seriously. Between the air traffic controller situation, restricted runways, and crazy summer storms obliterating all flight schedules, you will not make it out according to your schedule.
For Roth in 2024, we flew United (Santa Fe to Denver, Denver to Munich) and it was super easy. Full disclosure, I didn’t pay baggage fees for the bike (Bike Box Alan) or our other checked bags since I have credit card/status with the airline. This year for Norseman, we booked through United, but our transatlantic and Euro connections were Lufthansa and we had zero issues. They also honored our United status, so I did not pay to check the bike/luggage. I’d highly recommend booking through United since they have quite a few directs to Munich from several hubs in the US.
Raced Roth this year with Delta (great airline IMO). We flew back with KLM a Delta partner out of Munich and they almost didn’t allow bike on the plane because we didn’t make a required reservation.