I’ve bitten the bullet and booked for Ironman 70.30 Sunshine Coast in September, which will be my first ‘out of town’ race.
Any tips on which Aus domestic airlines are best to fly with and won’t rip me off for more than the flight is worth to carry my bike? I’ve got a soft bag & a small bike, so if I’m careful with my packing I should be able to keep the weight well down, particularly if I leave my high heels & hairdryer at home:-P
I also need to master packing my bike and putting it back together in rideable shape at the other end, but that’s a whole other thread…
I’ve bitten the bullet and booked for Ironman 70.30 Sunshine Coast in September, which will be my first ‘out of town’ race.
Any tips on which Aus domestic airlines are best to fly with and won’t rip me off for more than the flight is worth to carry my bike? I’ve got a soft bag & a small bike, so if I’m careful with my packing I should be able to keep the weight well down, particularly if I leave my high heels & hairdryer at home:-P
I also need to master packing my bike and putting it back together in rideable shape at the other end, but that’s a whole other thread…
Hi mate. We use Jetstar. The best part about them is you can nominate how much luggage you pre purchase when you do the booking. We have Evoc semi rigid bike bags and allow 30kg for them. This usually costs us $35 per leg. We then pack as much sundry stuff in as we can ie helmet, shoes, wetsuit, towels, bottles etc up to about 29kg (allows us some wriggle room). Never had a problem.
If you buy too little and go over at check-in they’ll sting you like any other airline so make sure you allow enough.
Have fun. I’ve raced Mooloolaba OD a few times and did the run leg in last year’s 70.3. It’s a great spot. I live a couple of hours up the road so it’s nice and handy for us.
We are very lucky in Australia that we don’t usually get slugged with excess baggage for carrying a bike. I have flown all the major domestic airlines with the bike (Qantas, Virgin and Jetstar) and have never been hit with baggage for the bike.
Qantas is the premium provider, more expensive but more is included in the standard price.
virgin is the same virgin found in the USA, they charge for everything.
Jetstar is the budget wing of qantas; but they operate like any low cost carrier.
If you plan correctly with jetstar or virgin you’re all good, but they charge you more if you are don’t weigh something right - if you end up in this situation and you’re polite you can often be treated nicely by friendly airport staff, but you can’t count on lucky, if get a crappy service desk operator it can be expensive. And if you’re really unlucky and something goes missing… I’d personally rather be with qantas.
I’ve had bags arrive late via virgin (ex perth to lax in dec) and while theoretically it’s possible with any airline, virgin’s customer service in this instance left me feeling less than satisfied.
I personally won’t fly virgin internationally any more, despite almost hitting platinum a couple of years ago with them. There is just too much of a disconnect between their customer service reps in airports and on the phone and their flights. We had 4 different customer service reps promise us baby friendly seating, and arrived on each flight to find that our requests hadn’t made it to the flight staff…
Quants is pricier, but so far I personally haven’t been as frequently disappointed as with the other two.
Where are you flying from? If coming in from LAX just fly to Brisbane and hire a car. Mooloolaba is 80k up the road and its all freeway so very easy to do. Car hire is cheap and a soft bike bag will fit in something as small as a Yaris. I travel a lot domestically with my bike and they look after it pretty well - only time it has been damaged is with Hawaiian and that’s on both trips that I’ve done with them (same experience as a lot of other people who head over there from here but that’s another story…).
Swim was perfect last year with no surf, bike very fast and there’s a bit of a bump on the run - just remember it could be hot.
Qantas
I’ll say it again
Qantas.
If you keep your eye out for when they have one of their regular ‘sales’ you can pick up a fare that’s the same or within a few $$ of the other two (Virgin and jet star) and the service is usually better. You get a meal/food thrown in and the extra luggage charge for a bike box us only $30-$40 from memory depending on flight distance. I’d rank virgin second and would only fly shitstar (the more common monicker) if I couldn’t get the other two. I’d walk before flying tiger.
With a bit of research, Virgin is probably looking the go.
Tigerair are very cheap until you add a bike - which costs more to fly than me!!
Thanks all…
DO NOT, REPEAT, DO NOT FLY TIGER!
I haven’t flown with them before but I was getting the feeling they were possibly only bearable for a very short flight with hand luggage - possibly with a few precautionary painkillers before getting on board.
With a bit of research, Virgin is probably looking the go.
Tigerair are very cheap until you add a bike - which costs more to fly than me!!
Thanks all…
DO NOT, REPEAT, DO NOT FLY TIGER!
I haven’t flown with them before but I was getting the feeling they were possibly only bearable for a very short flight with hand luggage - possibly with a few precautionary painkillers before getting on board.
Is there a story???
No personal story. Never flown with them, but I know a few people that have. Let’s just say you get what you pay for. Also notorious for just cancelling flights with very little notice.
I raced Sunshine Coast 70.3 last year and am backing up again this year. I flew with Jetstar out of Sydney and, as has been described by others, just made sure I added check-in luggage weight that would cover my bike and other bits and pieces. My LBS boxed my bike up and it arrived in pretty good condition. On the way back, I did the required wrenching and packing, and it also arrived in good condition. There were also a number of other bikes/race participants on my flights, which was heartening for me as a first timer for flying to a race.
