I’m doing Kona but the Ironman 70.3 variety in June which may be as close to the World Championship as I ever get.
I’m planning on going to Kauai after the race but don’t want to bring my bike box or any luggage I need to check as inter-island aircraft are small and schedules tight. My hotel will keep them but they are pretty far (read a very expensive cab ride) to and from the Kona airport. I’m coming in on a late afternoon HA flight and then have a flight to LAX at 9:30p. Has anyone been able to keep luggage at the airport? I can’t get in touch with HA cargo and American is clueless.
Anyone have any suggestions or ideas? All would be appreciated.
I’d suggest just shipping your bike case home after the race. Either home or to you LBS or a friend. It’s going to be tough to find a good place to store the bike in Kona. You could have the hotel hold the box and then just schedule a UPS pick up to coincide with when you are finally flying back. Personally this latter idea backfired on me once and I lost my bike in a UPS black hole for several weeks. Good call on leaving the bike behind though. If you fly Island Air or some of the smaller commuters they can’t fit a bike box.
There is that bike shop on the north/airport side of Kona that I’m almost positive will ship it. I can’t remember what the name of it is though… I think it is near Costo.
I almost forgot! HP Bikeworks opened a satellite store in the Queens Shops at Waikaloa. This is right down the street from the Maunalani/Rhoto Honu 70.3 venue. Might be worth giving them a call. http://www.bikeworkskona.com/
I’ve used TriBike Transport for other races (and recommend them) and they are servicing this race but only from the West Coast and I’m coming from Florida. The bike shops sound like a possibility. Maybe I’ll just rent a beach cruiser for the race and solve the problem that way.
And you’re right about the size of the box issue on Hawaiian Airlines. They only carry up to a 80" box and my Thule box is 88" on a good day. The good news is that they only charge $35 a leg for the box and they will carry bikes unboxed with the handlebars rotated.
I shipped my bike FedEx to Kona. They will hold it right at the airport until you pick it up and then you can just package it up and drop it off back on your way to the airport (if you’re cool with packaging your own bike). I used a regular bike box to get it there and the same one to get it home (with more duct tape). Worked great for me. I actually did the same thing as you. Kauai is a blast. Lots of sweet hikes and such. If you want any suggestions on what I liked pm me.
Your suggestion re FedEx is the best answer. It’s about $400.00 roundtrip with a decent amount insurance on a three day air shipment. Amercian Airlines is going to want to charge me $150.00 per leg given the size of the bike box so that’s $300.00 and I still have to deal with checking it in and the issue of what I do with it when I go to Kauai.
I’ll take you up on your offer of suggestions on Kauai by PM.
get an online FedEx account. Then you can make your own shipments and print your own labels (which you just tape to your bike box). Then all you have to do is drop off the box at a FedEx/Kinkos or schedule a pick up. you can even print your return shipping labels before you leave home, and then just slap them on during your trip.
I have done this many times on triathlon trips. I don’t trust shipping my bike to the race, as I need it with me, and want to be sure it’s there for the race. But for the way home why not save the money and the hassles of traveling with it.
The online account gives you a bit of a discount I believe, so I would recommend it, over just a normal FedEx counter/store.
Ground shipping in the continental US is usually $40-50 each way. So Hawaii should be a bit more.
It was about $100 (w/ FedEx account pricing) to ship my wife’s bike back from Kona using FedEx Ground in October. There is a FedEx depot right at the Kona airport. We spent the week following the race in Maui, so an added bonus was the ability to have it shipped to and held at the local FedEx store back home…
Just FYI if someone tracks this thread later the FedEx charges are pretty high - like $409.00 with insurance and taxes - but that is round trip Miami-Kona and it is all air transport so there is only a three day transit time. Also they are allowing signficantly more weight so I’ll pack whatever I can into the bike box. Airline charges on AAA are $150.00 plus taxes each way so there net difference is not that much and the airliines get weird about weight.
When you figure I’ve been paying TriBike transport $300.00+ (also with insurance) for round trip Miami - NYC the FedEx deal doesn’t seem too bad.
It’s expensive shipping TO Hawaii, but much cheaper shipping FROM Hawaii…and you can ship back using FedEx Ground. We usually bring the bike on the plane going there and actually have gotten the charges waived with some luck and then ship back. What’s really important when shipping with FedEx is to make sure you get the bike box dimensions correct. With Trico Ironcases and similarly sized cases, if you are an inch over your measurements, it pushes the price into the next more expensive Oversize level…