Hello all who choose to read this.
I am booking my flight to Pheonix for IM AZ through Delta. I checked their baggage section on their internet site and it looks like bikes in cases go free on the plane. Has anyone got any experience with Delta and bringing your bike with you…
This sounds too good to be true… tis why i’m asking.
Thanks.
LLLOOOLLLL,
better check the size requirements. Bike cases may and well fly free, but they will try to ding you on the oversize baggage clause, or the overweight clause.
That being said, I still get my case to fly free over 60% of the time by either being extremly nice to the counter person, using their name lots or slipping a folded $10 to them to waive the extra charge. (although technically not free not a bad price to pay either)
They’re going to try to screw you…but go to the younger clerks. I lucked out for IM Florida. Flight out had an agent in training and she forgot to charge me. On the way back I had a younger guy and I asked him quietly if he could just waive the fee —and he did!!!
Good luck
Being a gold medallion member with delta, living in a hub city and flying with them every week-end, I can help with this. Whe I leave from cincy, they don’t charge me. From phoenix, it’s a toss. I have been charged once, and free for 3 times. From Toronto and Montreal, they make me PAY all the time. My bike box (regular size bike box) does exceed the overall measurements.
On another note, I have 5 plane tickets between now and new years. Delta is in court right now about their contract with the pilots. If it gets voided, the pilots may strike. If they strike, the company will go under. all this will happen in 30 days so it may affect my holiday travel. I am reluctant to buy more tickets with them for that reason. My running partner is a pilot with them, he always reassures me, but not this time. Hope this helps. I sure want people to fly delta for all my friends that work for them and the economy in cincy. But I am worried.
make sure there is a race in Tulsa, OK the weekend of IMAZ so that at least you can do this one when Delta gets you there and nowhere else 
.
The boys at Blue Competition use the Akona Biospeed bike bag almost weekly & have yet to be charged even from Toronto 
Toronto now had the dubious distintion of having the world’s most expensive landing fees. Airlines seem keen to claw back the $4000 - $6000 for the priveldge of landing in Toronto.
The bag does not have any outside indication that it holds a bag & the size is only slightly longer than a big frame. I have only flown with it once & was not charged. I flew out of Toronto & when asked how many bags to check, I said “Two”. I then threw my roll-around & bike bag on the scale. Both were tagged & treated as regular baggage (i.e. no additional charge). Same for the return flight.
If you have any questions, call the guys at Blue 800-470-2606 about their flying with bikes experience.
No bike but I had all my xmas presents and a key lime pie… I was flying on Christmas Eve last year and never made it home thanks to a system-wide computer failure (but they original tried to atttribute it to the weather). I even heard one booking agent say to the other “so, what story are we telling them this time?” I got as far as ATL, spent xmas eve sleeping alone in the airport, and the best they could do was put me back on a plane to Miami on Christmas Day. My luggage got to Miami 3 days later… I hope your trip goes better.
Try this link. Bikes are only free if the box is less than 62 inches (w+l+h). Since bike cases and boxes do not fit these dimensions, you may be charged $100 each way. It all depends on the person who checks you in. Sometime you get away with it, sometimes not. Curbside check in if often the best way to go. The problem comes when leaving a big race, so many bikes re checked in one day, the agents notice and you will likely get charged.
This doesn’t apply to Bikes, but to airline travel costs:
I have had the opportunity to fly twice in the last 6 wks, both on very short notice. I had to book the flights just a day or two in advance.
I was flying out of a small market(Roanoke, VA). The first trip was into Austin . The next trip was into Pensacola.
When I went to book the flights, I found I was going to get royally SCREWED!! Every reasonable variation in travel…changing times, connections, and exit city(Dulles,Baltimore,Greensboro, Roanoke, etc…) yielded some pretty prices…$900-1100 roundtrip.
These flights were emergent(death and illness). I was surprised to find that Delta had no berievement discounts…seem to recall they used to?
Anyway, a friend turned me on to this trick:
Go to travelocity.com. Book “flight + hotel”.
What I found was UNBELIEVABLE! By booking the EXACT SAME FLIGHT plus a hotel, I could save $700!!! I got the packages for $300-400 each, versus $900-1100 for flight only. The same exact flight itinerary???
How can this be?
HC
And here I thought I was the only person who tended to bring a key lime pie with me when I got flying north.
desert dude,
You never actually gave them money? Did you? LOL!
like my back up plan for Florida? I knew there was a race in atlanta when they cancilled my flight at midnight and offered to fly me to Fort Walton instead of PCB?
like my back up plan for Florida? I knew there was a race in atlanta when they cancilled my flight at midnight and offered to fly me to Fort Walton instead of PCB?
um, yesssssssss. i was just about to write, about delta, that you might want to ask zulu, me, ken glah, bianca simpson, et al. where should we start? skip the cancellation announcement and go right to the baggage claim “customer service” area, for a great conversation with a delta employee there and zulu? we found ourselves unwillingly starring in a slapstick comedy.
peggy
i will rather walk than fly delta ever again:)
.