Bikes on Easyjet

Me and a friend just booked some Easyjet flights for our touring holiday, does anyone have any experience taking bikes with them?

yeh i took my bike to southern france on easyjet last yr, no problem, just extra baggage fee. just pack it well!

Despite packing it well, easyjet dropped my gf's bike wrecking a chain stay, a rear dropout, two chainrings, the bottom bracket and the pannier rack. It was her 10 yo trek so after much wrangling over how we'd waited to get home to unpack the bikes and discover the damage they bought her a Mercian. I escaped with a slightly bent front pannier rack that I can't be arsed to claim for.

If you do take your bike with them, pack it well and when it gets off the belt carry it to their desk, notify a member of their staff and inspect it in front of them. The frontline staff are usually OK but the claims department - WABOC.

Make sure it's really well packed - I took mine up to Scotland in a well padded bike bag and filled it with all the bubble wrap i could get my hands on....Still had to fork out for a new rear derailleur when i got up there (which was unsuccessful in claiming back) cos some idiot must have packed cases on top of it!

You should unscrew your rear der. from the frame when packing bikes.

make sure it's packed well

be certain that it is adequately packaged.

How adequate is your package? :P

From watching Airport I think you also need to take off your pedals and deflate your tyres.

Yeah you do have to deflate your tyres so packing a track pump is always a good measure. You should also try and get your hands on those little plastic things you can put between your forks! - I also used a lot of pipe cladding round my frame!

Has anyone had any experience flying out of London (specifically gatwick) with their bikes?

I found a box to pack my fixie in and I think I've done a reasonable job, trouble is it weighs 17kg. The rest of my crap weighs 20kg exactly so I'm wondering if I'll get stung for excess weight (apparently you get 12kg on top to make it 32kg all up). The flight is already expensive enough as it is. Wondering whether to leave some stuff with a mate to collect when I come through London next or whether to just wing it.

Are they pretty strict at Gatwick?

Soichiro Honda had this very problem ( although not with easyjet) on one of his regular jaunts to the the Isle of Man TT. He was a huge motorcycle fan, and had bought lots of carburetors and other go faster bits and bobs at the TT, and intended on taking them back to Japan so he could "soup?" up his own fly boy whip.

When he got to the airport to catch his flight back to Japan, he found that his luggage was well over the maximum allowance! and the lady at the desk was trying to slap him with some excess charges. However she hadn't reckoned on Mr. Honda's cunning! He opened his suitcase and started removing all his clothes, leaving only the motorcycle parts in the case. He then proceeded to put all his socks on,one on top of another. Followed by all his shirts, trousers and jumpers. (I don't think Mr. Honda took his trousers off to put all his pants on, although he could have? Cheeky Mr. Honda).

The once diminutive Mr. Honda now looked like his automotive friend the Michelin Man. He picked up the suitcase and insisted that the lady weigh it again. This time the case was under the weight limit, and the check in lady amicably informed him that his bag would be checked and he was free to proceed to terminal.

He probably looked like a bit of a tit and must of had his little on board cooling fan set to the max all the way to Japan, but Chapeau for his quick thinking.

So if they get arsey about the heft of your luggage at the airport, then pull a Honda on 'em ^^!

Sorry I couldn't be of more help, I'll have a look and try and find something more helpful!! :)

Whenever i have worked abroad (exhibitions) when taking tools/graphics etc. on easjet it's been about £10 per kilo you go over. Apparently it's changed now and when you book tickets online you can say how many bags you have and its £25 per bag no matter what the weight is, but don't hold me to that. Hope that helps. Have fun!

Easyjet charge to carry a bike. If you haven't paid it they won't take the bike. I'd recommend you update your booking and pay the extra, it's £17 per single journey I think, if you do want to take it. If it's heavier than 30 kgs (it might be 32 kgs) then they'll not take it anyway.

Oh ya, was defo going to pay up front £18.50 + £8 for my checkin bag but the most retarded thing about it is you have a TOTAL of 32kg to take on board. If my bike was 30kg, I could only check in 2kg with my other bag even though I have paid for both.

Other reports I have read on the web say it's just luck of the draw. Sometimes they will weigh it and sometimes they wont.

Argh I hate squeezy jet but they are cheap... I'm going to try and wing it and possibly do a honda when I get to the airport. I wonder if a pair of vans slip ons will double as ear muffs and a heavy jacket as a turban.

I once took a brompton abroad - ridden from the airport train station to terminals, then took some cardboard from a shop, wrapped it in a duct tape and ta-da that was my suitcase, with no extra charges.
But if you do buy the 'ticket' for bike separately, in your case, you can check-in the bike + 15kg of your usual suitcase.
If you consider 32kg + your carry-on luggage that you take on boards, that's wayy more than you need really.

not exactly relevant but am currently in Italy, flew with Ryanair and had to pay (as part of the flight booking) just over £30 each way for the bike, but as xchaotic says a bike box plus bike and filled up with other stuff along with the carry on luggage should suffice for a more than a few days

Does anyone have any up to date experience with taking a bike with Easyjet? I see they have made some changes to their costings since this thread was last updated.

I would be bringing a track bike from London to Berlin, possibly in a Condor padded bike bag that will have a bike box hacked down to fit inside it for more padding.

Is it completely unreasonable to expect the baggage people to realise that despite a reasonable level of packing, the frame/ wheels won't take well to having something heavy chucked on top of it or being stacked upside down under a pile of bags?

I flew back from Bordeaux with EasyJet about 10 days ago.
I used one of the CTC plastic bike bags and a lot of tape.

It was no particular problem and obviously the bike handling is down to the airport, not to EasyJet. I had no problems or damage - BUT

EasyJet is typically tucked away at the arse end of the airport (it was in Bordeaux) and you can guarantee that they will not have the scanner required for your bike.

In Bordeaux I had to check in with EasyJet, acquire my luggage tages, sprint across to the large items desk and check the bike in, then sprint back to EasyJet's terminal to clear their security before boarding.

Good news is that with the bike you get maximum luggage allowance which means I could check all my kit with the bike in a separate bag and then just take a tiny bag of hand luggage onto the flight.

Note that you cannot put anything else into the bike bag - just the bike.
This means that a second bag for your luggage is pretty much essential.

How carefully do they check the 'only one bike per bag' rule. Can I jam in two track bikes and hope for the best?

Possibly be fine...Check in desk typically haven't looked inside, they'll be just concerned about it being under weight limit. The oversized baggage handlers with their xray will be able to see what's going on but I dare say, probably won't care as long as you're under weight restrictions

it would go thru a scanning machine thing but normally its only a check of weight. i'd be more concerned about them damaging each other in transit, plus its gonna be fairly bulky no?

I am off to Venice with my bike in a few weeks, flying with Easyjet.

Thought I would address the travelling with my bike issue, so I'm using their online chat facilty.

I am on-line as we speak, chatting with Shyam.

So far, I've been on-line for 10 minutes, and I have discovered that if I want to take my bike on an Easyjet flight it will have to go in the hold.

Fucking unbelievably useful news, there was I wondering how I was going to get a 60cm bike in an overhead locker. Great work Shyam.

I am now a good 30 minutes into my online chat - still no idea how to get a bike on an Easyjet plane. Nor, by the look of it, does Shyam.

It's been some time since I took a bike on EasyJet, but it used to be that you booked it on as sports equipment and paid the fee for that.