Guys and gals do you think its about time we stopped being bullied by the airlines and airports and demanded we be allowed take our bikes fully assembled on board the planes (and trains.)
The thing is while i don't know exactly how they are packed on a flight, and it looks like there are usually one one or two bikes per flight, I am sure it is not difficult and would save all of us such a great deal of angst and bother.
I understand that some of the issues for airlines are:
- handling the bikes without breakage eg putting htem on the luggage trailers.
- stacking them in the planes
But i think there is another option which would be easy for them too. Having seen the bike hooks used in french trains i think something like this would be good inside the plane. Also the racks used on the backs of cars is another option they could put on their traillers. Yes this is an extra cost but we could pay a nominal fee each which would cover the expense of their installation.
The thing is, i don't think the airlines and airports appreciate the difficulties for us that putting bikes in boxes creates. I just missed a connecting flight because the time allowed which is legal, was not enough for me to get my bike through all the customs and quarantine as i was slowed down by my bike and they people will not help you.
Also the difficulties of getting to and from airports with boxes. The boxes create extra expense and so much extra struggle as even when packed up its so much harder for us to manage all our gear.
Meanwhile its so easy for us to roll out assembled bikes into the airport fully loaded, unload, and vice versa when we collect that it seems like madness to me to not allow us to do it this way.
On my way through, i had a long overnihgt stopover in melbourne. I had to collect my checked luggage again and mind it overnight. There was only an expensive cloak room for leaving it (25$ overnight) so i had to hang on to it. But this meant i couldn't even go to teh loo at all as i couldn't take my box in. When i finally found the night manager of the airport and told him i couldn't even go to the loo, he saw the light and told me i could leave my box with him till the morning.
So how we all start emailing the airlines we use and the others and the airports to share our stories of and ask for a change.
If someone had web building skills or other it skills it would be great if someone launched a website to make it easier for cyclists to learn about this campaign and do the same thing. Is anyone up for that?
Cheers
Newie
