Shipping Bike To USA

griffin100

I'm looking to bring my bike to the USA with me for a race. The cost of shipping with DHL and the like is huge so it looks like I'm going to have to ship it on the plane with me which is grand but I'm a bit confused as to how to do this. I'll be booking the tickets online as this gives the best value but do I then contact the airlines directly after I make the booking to book the bike on the flight or do I just turn up on the day and hope that they can take it or what? I don't want to spend €1k+ booking flights to then find out I can't ship my bike. Any help / advice would be appreciated. The airlines would be Air Lingus and Virgin. I've tried calling customer services but cant get an answer.

C3PO

Don't know about Virgin but with Aer Lingus you make your booking online and then call and book the bike separately. Probably something similar with Virgin I would guess? I know other people just book their bike bag as "sports equipment" online and it doesn't seem to be a problem!

seamus

Looking at Aer Lingus's website, the cost to carry a bike is about €40, but are limited to six per flight, so you need to contact them to book your bike on.

Best thing to do is probably to ring them beforehand to check if the flight has capacity for your bike, then book it online (to get the best price) and ring up again to include your bike onto your booking.

mloc123

Long haul flights vary. Afaik ou can use one of your checked bags allowance for a bike with some airlines.

griffin100

Thanks. Manged to get Virgin who said just turn up on the day with it boxed and its free to transport. I'll check with Air Lingus about getting it to London first, that should be easy enough.

mloc123

griffin100 wrote: »

I'll check with Air Lingus about getting it to London first, that should be easy enough.

You would think. Watch out for box weight with them, 15kg limit and depending on who you get they may or may not enforce that.