Flying with bike by British airways

Tonyandthewhale

Hi all,

Moving to Bulgaria in a few weeks and obviously the bike's coming with me. I'll be flying with British Airways and on their website it says that bikes can be carried as checked baggage but must be in a designated bike bag. Does this mean I'll have to fork out 50quid or more on a proper bike bag or could I improvise some how? Previously when flying with ryanair and aer lingus I just turned in the handlebars, dropped the saddle, removed the pedals and wrapped the whole thing in cling film or a tarp. Would I get away with this on British Airways do you think? Alternatively I could probably get a cardboard box from a bike shop and pack the bike in that.

So does anyone have any experience flying with bikes with british airways? I don't want to be spending money on a bag that I'm only going to use once that's going to be a bitch to carry on the bike once I arrive if I don't have to.

Civilian_Target

Yeah, flown my bike with BA many times. I've just turned in the handlebars towards the deraileur, dropped the saddle and handed it to them - no wrapping. They usually ask me to sign a waiver (once they also asked me to deflate the tyres) and it's always come out OK. Swiss air on the other hand....

A word of warning, I've got a fancy frequent flyer card from them, so they may be treating me nice, I don't think so but I can't know for sure. Let me know how you get on!

Canis Lupus

I flew once and boxed it, no hassles.

Ole Rodrigo

Riding our roads will have you well prepared for theirs