I love my Hen House. I’ve flown 6x times with no issues.
Welp, my luck has ran out. Flying back from 70.3 Santa Cruz, Delta slapped me with the $150 bike fee. I played this one stupid. I came up with my Ironman shirt. The usual conversation went on.
When the counter person asked if it’s a bike, I always say “no, it’s work equipment”. They asked for more, and I explained the large bag is a “composite frame” and the other contains the “attachments”. Typically, they’re like cool, and it flies for free since the wife and I each get a free checked bag. But this time, the Delta counter person said the frame bag was oversized and began to measure the dimensions. I had over packed it with a bike pump and some shoes. So it bulged out to 41 inches long, 9 inches wide, and 24 inches high = 74 inches. The oversize limit is 62 inches. There was plenty of awkward silence and odd questions like do I want to pay an oversize bag fee of $200. Of course not! With much reluctance, the lady said she was going to let it slide and waive the fee… BUT in the future I would have to pay it, she added a note to I dont know what… my Delta personal record? That she let it slide. I was like okay, I figured I’d deal with that later.
We walk away. I get a phone call 10 minutes later. It was the Delta counter person. They indicated they had looked into my bag, found it was a bike, and I needed to come back and pay the $150 bike fee. I said, 1. The large frame contains the frame which isnt a bike. 2. The second bag contains wheels, which also is not a bike. The counter person said even though it was separate, it was considered a bike. I kept my cool on the phone. There wasnt much I could do.
So walking back, I was a bit livid that they looked through my bag. I thought an airline couldn’t do that. TSA absolutely can and do it all the time. But they are separate entities. My quick Google search didn’t come up with any fruitful way I could complain.
When we got back, the counter person said TSA opened the bag and confirmed it was a bike. I dont have any answers for that. I apologized for being misleading. Otherwise, I had nothing else to say. We all know you need to play the game when flying and I had lost.
So, lesson learned, dont over pack your frame bag. Dont fly Delta through San Jose with a Hen House. I’m over the butt hurt. Hope someone else learns from my mistake.
Couldn’t you have made the case that your wife checked in one bag and you checked in the other? Aren’t each are entitled to a free bag regardless of whether you are travelling together as a married couple or if you were two complete strangers.
Every time they’ve asked for me to open it, I say I’m sorry, “I don’t have the keys with me, they are at my destination.” And in the 20+ times i’ve done this, I have never had a check in agent whip out some keys.
I don’t think the airline employees understand their own policies. If you read the actual policy, the bike fee doesn’t apply if the dimensions fall within normal baggage dimensions - in other words, no special handling is required. It goes on the normal conveyor belts on both ends.
What I’ve noticed, though, is that the checkin agents are often keyword driven - if you say “bike,” they will charge you a fee. That is not the actual policy, but it’s the practice.
I’ve been charged a fee once out of several dozen flights I’ve done with my Hen House, and that was coming back from Kona two days after Honu this year. I decided not to fight with the agent and instead took it up with United when I got home, pointing out that my bags came out on the regular conveyor belt in baggage claim. They gave me my $150 back plus another $100 for my trouble. Not that it really matters, but I was also on a paid first-class ticket and have flown several million miles on that airline, so I was a little surprised that the agent pushed the issue so hard.
Now, you can argue that the Hen House’s method for how it fits within the 62 linear inches is a bit “new math,” but when the bag is lighter than most other travelers’ suitcases and requires no special handling, I don’t feel like the fee is justified, and if I have to say “exercise equipment” to avoid paying it, I will.
Exactly. I don’t get why idiot airlines break down every type of sports equipment OR other luggage versus just saying “you must fit it inside this box and under this weight”.
It doesn’t theoretically matter what it is if it doesn’t fit inside the dimensions OR the weight.
I’d say if you expect something like this, print the webpage and bring it with you. Also, keep a mini tailor’s tape measure with you to measure when you re-pack to make sure it all still fits.
Leaving France with souvenirs and wine I had to leave behind 3 tubes, a pair of crappy cyclocross tires, a few pairs of socks with holes, and a crappy heavy Walmart bike lock.
We have flown Delta overseas and domestically with bikes. Always a $150 charge one way for each bike. For us it’s an extra $600 for a race. We have the hard cases (BikeBox Alan). It’s pretty obvious we have bikes. We’ve just accepted that it’s super pricey to travel with bikes. But so far we’ve had great luck traveling with our bikes. Delta tracks bikes and luggage so once we are on the plane we can see if it made it onto the plane using the Delta App. It’s more expensive to ship bikes so we travel with them instead. Some airlines are less expensive. I think Jet Blue only charged us around $80 for a bike. And going from Orlando to Puerto Rico in 2017, Spirit airlines was even less (maybe $70 dollars? I can’t remember exactly)
I do wish we could avoid Delta’s $150 bike charge. That is steep! When I did worlds last year in Chatt it cost me around the same to fly my bike as it did for my airline ticket.
