Aer Lingus and 15kg limit

markdrayton

I'm flying to London next month and taking a boxed bike (box as in plastic wheeled hard case). I'm meeting friends in London, dumping the box and taking the train to the Alps. If I put only the bike in the box it *might* weigh about 15kg, but I'll have to pay for a hold bag and/or excess baggage to take the rest of my kit. Adding this to the €80 bike surcharge will make for a pricey trip.

In your experience, how likely are Aer Lingus to weigh a bike box? I've flown from Dublin with BMI and Continental and the bike wasn't weighed on either occasion.

fat bloke

markdrayton wrote: »

I'm flying to London next month and taking a boxed bike (box as in plastic wheeled hard case). I'm meeting friends in London, dumping the box and taking the train to the Alps. If I put only the bike in the box it *might* weigh about 15kg, but I'll have to pay for a hold bag and/or excess baggage to take the rest of my kit. Adding this to the €80 bike surcharge will make for a pricey trip.

In your experience, how likely are Aer Lingus to weigh a bike box? I've flown from Dublin with BMI and Continental and the bike wasn't weighed on either occasion.

As far as I am aware, that weight limit doesn't apply bikes and boxes. Plenty of ordinary Joe's bikes would weigh 15kg on their own without any box.

I took a box and bike on aer lingus a few years ago now, but it wasn't weighed. Handy cos I jammed a whole load of clothes and extra bits and pieces in too!

mloc123

I flew to Prague about a month ago and they didn't weigh it. You check it in at the check-in desk but they do not have the facility to weigh it here. You then drop it at oversize baggage where they can weigh it but my understanding is the person here works for DAA and not Aer Lingus and will not care about how much it weighs.

Once its under 30kg which is the baggage handler limit you *should* be fine. Mine was 23kg on the way out.

markdrayton

fat bloke wrote: »

As far as I am aware, that weight limit doesn't apply bikes and boxes. Plenty of ordinary Joe's bikes would weigh 15kg on their own without any box.

According to their site it does:

Carriage of Sports Equipment

The maximum weight allowable for carriage of sports equipment is 15kgs/33lbs. Normal excess baggage rates apply if the passenger carries excess to this maximum allowance.

big mce

I fly to Geneva (Alps) every year with Aer lingus bringing my DH (42lbs )bike.

I've never had an issue.

penexpers

markdrayton wrote: »

According to their site it does:

Carriage of Sports Equipment

The maximum weight allowable for carriage of sports equipment is 15kgs/33lbs. Normal excess baggage rates apply if the passenger carries excess to this maximum allowance.

I think that refers to if you book a bike specifically i.e. if you pay the €80 charge, the bike can only weigh 15kg. If you are just checking in a bike box (as opposed to a bike) then I would think that would fall under normal luggage allowance.

blorg

penexpers wrote: »

I think that refers to if you book a bike specifically i.e. if you pay the €80 charge, the bike can only weigh 15kg. If you are just checking in a bike box (as opposed to a bike) then I would think that would fall under normal luggage allowance.

The only bikes that will be checkable as normal luggage are folders- a full size bike box is much too big and has to be booked specifically as a bike.

As to weighing, I have never heard of it happening in Dublin with Aer Lingus (it does with Ryanair) but people have been weighed on the return and asked to pay if the boxed bike is over 15kg (Raam and Caroline have had this experience IIRC.)

Try to get something in an email to the effect that the 15kg does not actually apply to bikes as there are mixed messages from AL on this.

Ryaner

Flew with them last year and was asked to "weigh" the bikes. It consisted of lifting the bags up in front of the girl at the check in desk to prove they weren't overly heavy.

That said, we flew Ryanair a few weeks back and the checkin desks now can fit the bike bags onto the scales so we got weighed both sides and things tagged accordingly. Ryanair did have a 30KG limit on bikes however so even with all the clothes in the bags, we weren't close to the limit on either side but Aer Lingus could decide to proper weight things if they want now.

cantalach

A group of us flew Aer Lingus Cork-Amsterdam return a few months ago and our bike bags were weighed at the oversized luggage drop at both ends.

Raam

Blorg is right. I almost got stung on the way home from Munich. I managed to do a luggage operation to get the weight down a bit and plead my way out of the last few kg. To be honest, 15kg is a ridiculous weight limit if you have to bring a bike and a box. However, it is achievable with certain bike bags (CRC's one, for instance).

markdrayton

Sigh. I wish the airlines would be consistent. Now I've heard that with both Ryanair and Aer Lingus you might or might not have your box weighed and they might or might not apply the excess baggage charge if it's over the weight limit, which might or might not be the one listed on their site.

Raam

markdrayton wrote: »

Sigh. I wish the airlines would be consistent. Now I've heard that with both Ryanair and Aer Lingus you might or might not have your box weighed and they might or might not apply the excess baggage charge if it's over the weight limit, which might or might not be the one listed on their site.

Expect the worst, hope for the best

blorg

markdrayton wrote: »

Sigh. I wish the airlines would be consistent. Now I've heard that with both Ryanair and Aer Lingus you might or might not have your box weighed and they might or might not apply the excess baggage charge if it's over the weight limit, which might or might not be the one listed on their site.

The weight limit with Ryanair is 30kg which should not cause a problem. They specifically raised it from 20kg for bikes as 20kg was too little. If both Ryanair and Aer Lingus fly to a destination I would certainly take the former if with a boxed bike... have done so many times without issues.

markdrayton

blorg wrote: »

The weight limit with Ryanair is 30kg which should not cause a problem. They specifically raised it from 20kg for bikes as 20kg was too little. If both Ryanair and Aer Lingus fly to a destination I would certainly take the former if with a boxed bike... have done so many times without issues.

Hm, I was sure I'd read that it was a similar gag to Aer Lingus -- maximum weight 30kg, but beyond 15kg is excess baggage charges. But I've just looked at the regs and called Ryanair and it does indeed seem to be €40 for a 30kg maximum bike.

Anyone have horror stories to counter this? If not, Ryanair might turn out to be the best option!

Twerton

I brought my light bike in a hard shell bike box over from Bristol to Cork this weekend with Aer Lingus.

At both Bristol And Cork the bike was weighed. I was told in both Bristol and Cork that the check in staff are under strict instructions now from Aer Lingus to weigh every bike. The bike and the box combined totalled 24 kg and so was well over the 15 KG limit.

As I had separately paid for checked in luggage of 20 KG they allowed me to look at a combined weight allowace of 35kg. I was still 5kg over in Bristol and just managed to creep under by putting stuff in hand luggage and doubling up on clothing ie wearing 2 t shirts and jumpers. It was a sweaty journey out.

I left a whole bag of stuff in Ireland to get under the limit coming back.

Now it might be they are stricter on this route which uses a small turbo prop plane. But I don't think anyone can rely on an assumption that Aer Lingus do not weigh bikes

tunney

Ryaner wrote: »

Flew with them last year and was asked to "weigh" the bikes. It consisted of lifting the bags up in front of the girl at the check in desk to prove they weren't overly heavy.

That said, we flew Ryanair a few weeks back and the checkin desks now can fit the bike bags onto the scales so we got weighed both sides and things tagged accordingly. Ryanair did have a 30KG limit on bikes however so even with all the clothes in the bags, we weren't close to the limit on either side but Aer Lingus could decide to proper weight things if they want now.

from the ryanair site:

"Any item of sports equipment weighing over 20 kilos will be charged for the excess weight at the applicable rate per kilo. *Bikes have an weight limit of 30 kilos"

The maximum limit for a bike is 30kg, as in if it is over 30kg they will not take it. If 20-30kg you pay excess baggage.

Murph100

Bristol Airport is the WORST for charging excess baggage fees. I've had an absolute nightmare everytime I have used that airport. It wasn't Aer Lingus staff either, it was the third party ground handling nazis they use. I'm never flying in there again, waaaaaay too stressful.

I'm a photographer and I fly a lot with tons of gear, so I'm constantly up against this hassle, but Bristol took the biscuit. I always have kit in either bike boxes or ski boxes to get the extra weight allowance, luckily the check-in desks dont X Ray.

In fairness to Aer Lingus, I've never been charged for excess weight by their own ground crew. Usually I get something like 'Its a bit heavy so watch yourself coming back ' (4kg over last week) .

And I dont know why, but you'll stand a much better chance being left off an excess baggage charge with a bloke on the desk than by a rule abiding female, so pick your check-in desk carefully. All my mates will testify to this. You have been warned !

Twerton wrote: »

I brought my light bike in a hard shell bike box over from Bristol to Cork this weekend with Aer Lingus.

vigos

tunney wrote: »

from the ryanair site:

"Any item of sports equipment weighing over 20 kilos will be charged for the excess weight at the applicable rate per kilo. *Bikes have an weight limit of 30 kilos"

The maximum limit for a bike is 30kg, as in if it is over 30kg they will not take it. If 20-30kg you pay excess baggage.

am flying out with ryanair next week with a bike could this not read bikes have a weight limit of 30kg? Its a bit unclear alright and could mean either.

On the table of charges however it states:

Sports Equipment Fee charged per Item/ Per One Way Flight A maximum weight of 20kg per item (Bikes max weight - 30kg) €40

blorg

The bike allowance with Ryanair is 30kg, they have confirmed this. If you are asked to pay over 20kg the check in agent is in error. The max weight beyond which they won't carry is 32kg, not 30kg.

C3PO

There's a big gang of us flying to Nice with Aer Lingus in a couple of weeks to compete in an MTB race! Most unlikely that any of our bike bags will be under 15kgs ...... should be interesting!

Muller_1

Made it to France no problem with the bike box. It was about 18kg in the end, when I was checking the bag they didn't even look at the weight.

Hopefully it will be the same story on the way back.

Civilian_Target

RPL1 wrote: »

There's a big gang of us flying to Nice with Aer Lingus in a couple of weeks to compete in an MTB race! Most unlikely that any of our bike bags will be under 15kgs ...... should be interesting!

Done Aer Lingus to Nice and back with bikes before, but before the 15kg rule was in.

Rest assured that in Nice, at least, they don't care. Some check-in agents may get narky about wrapping or boxing the bike, I've always said, that "I'll do that now", finished the check-in, and then handed it to excess baggage without doing anything... and it's always come out fine at the other end. Your mileage may vary - but I believe that a bike is much less likely to get broken if you can just leave it looking like a bike

andy69

RPL1 wrote: »

There's a big gang of us flying to Nice with Aer Lingus in a couple of weeks

...I thought I read something about a max of 6 bikes per flight or some crap like that? Hopefully not....maybe just check the website. I don't see it there now (http://www.aerlingus.com/help/help/baggageinformation/#d.en.1222) but I thought I'm sure I read it somewhere in their T+C, and remember being a bit worried in case there was a few others on the same filght as me.

Hope yee make it out without any issues! Was just over there recently and the trails look amazing in the Alps. Deffo on my 'to-do' list

C3PO

andy69 wrote: »

...I thought I read something about a max of 6 bikes per flight or some crap like that? Hopefully not....maybe just check the website. I don't see it there now (http://www.aerlingus.com/help/help/baggageinformation/#d.en.1222) but I thought I'm sure I read it somewhere in their T+C, and remember being a bit worried in case there was a few others on the same filght as me.

Hope yee make it out without any issues! Was just over there recently and the trails look amazing in the Alps. Deffo on my 'to-do' list

Long way to the Alps from Nice! We had no problems last year so hopefully the same this year! I have mine booked as "a bike" but I know some of the lads are not bringing their bikes but only "sports equipment"!:rolleyes:

cantalach

andy69 wrote: »

...I thought I read something about a max of 6 bikes per flight or some crap like that? Hopefully not....maybe just check the website. I don't see it there now (http://www.aerlingus.com/help/help/baggageinformation/#d.en.1222) but I thought I'm sure I read it somewhere in their T+C, and remember being a bit worried in case there was a few others on the same filght as me.

Scroll down further on that same page and you'll find the section that specifically relates to bicycles. They recently increased the number of bikes they'll carry per flight from 6 to 10 but with exceptions for certain routes where they carry a lot of cargo (Nice not included).

djfattony2000

Have flown with Aerlingus with DH bike for the last 4 years. They previously didn't weigh the bike in T1 but now in the new terminal they do, at the oversize bag area.

My one, in the bag, weighed 28kg and there was no questions asked.