Flying Qantas this weekend to OZ. Just wondering if anyone has flown from London (or anywhere is Europe) to Australia and your experience with the 20kg weight limit. My bike and box weigh about 15kg and that leaves 5kg for luggage. Geez. Every extra kilo is 40ASD. That’s a lot of dinero.
Does that include a carry on? If not just jam as much crap as you can into your carry on.
I’ve done Heathrow to Sydney with a bike and never got hit with a fee, and I’m sure the case weighed way less than 20 Kg.
Here’s a suggestion on how, from Devashish Paul and I:
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=82356;search_string=search_string;#82356
Basically, use a soft case, and all the heavy stuff (saddle+post, RHS crank, pedals, skewers etc go in your (relatively large) hand luggage. Since you’re using a hard case, you’re closer for weight, but could still pull the cassette, the stem (which you’ve loosened anyway) and maybe the 2nd crank. And be very polite to the check in personell, they sometimes want to hit you with a fee due to the size of the box rather than the weight (it’s hard to weigh those things at the cramped check-in). One bloke on my flight got hit with a 200 quid charge for his (big) bike box. Good luck.
I’m an Australian living in the U.S. and I always take my bike him with me and always fly Qantas. I’m have always been over weight with by bike case and they have never charged me. American Airlines have always charged me for internal connecting flight when departing! I’m not sure what the situation is like in other parts of the world but Qantas has always been good to me. You can join as a frequent flyer for approx AUS$85.00 and that will allow you to carry 2x20kg bags. Depending on how many flight you are taking it may be worth it.