Easy Jet Charges

ticca

Hi All,
I'm wondering if anyone on this forum has taken their bike abroard by plane, specifically easyjet. If so were you charged any excess baggage charges due to the weight of the bike despite already paid the sport equipment charge. If so you might be in luck.
I've just won a case against EasyJet in the small claims court due to this, nothing spectactular but that's not the point.
It turns out that in their own terms and conditions they specifically exclude bikes from any excess charges (very resonable) but their staff either don't know or choose to ignore this.
So if you have been charged you can get your money back plus any hassle factor expenses.
A small victory against big business!!
good luck
Nick.

P-Jay

Fair play to you.

We're in the middle of booking our holiday to the Alps for summer. Looking around for flight deals. Sleazy jet quoted £85sh, but by the time we'd paid for the privilege of taking, bikes, luggage (I'm not kidding) early check-in, taxes etc it came to £170 and they only give you 12KGS extra for the bikes, bring the total to 32KGS, which by the time you've taken a 20KGS bike, Bike bag, armour, riding clothes, evening cloths, etc etc you're going to go way over.

British Airways however, £100 that’s it. And they take a properly stored bike upto the weight of 23Kgs free of charge. Got to go a little further to Gatwick instead of Bristol, but TBH I'd pay more to fly BA any day.

dirtbiker100

good work ticca and interesting to hear your stuff p-jay. thanks to both!

Anonymouslemming

P-Jay wrote:

British Airways however, £100 that’s it. And they take a properly stored bike upto the weight of 23Kgs free of charge. Got to go a little further to Gatwick instead of Bristol, but TBH I'd pay more to fly BA any day.

I've tried every low cost airline in the UK for a variety of sporting goods (no bike just yet though), and I've had grief with all of them.

Both EasyJet and Ryanair suffer from inconsistent policies - so you might be allowed to take something out of the UK, but have problems on the return leg.

BA are consistent, have very clear policies for sporting equipment and I've never got stung on the return leg.

Of course, you have to hope their pilots are flying the day you want to go, in light of the strike announcement

ticca

P-Jay,
the easyjet staff always quote this 12kg limit but it's simply not true for bikes. True that there is a 12kg limit for sports equipment but here's the exact text pasted from their terms of conditions relating to bikes:-

(1) Carriage of bicycles:
- The bicycle must be packaged in a bicycle box or bag
- Only one bicycle per bicycle box or bag will be permitted
- No other items can be carried in the bicycle box (i.e. clothing)
- The handlebars must be flush with the frame
- The pedals must be flush against the frame or removed
Passengers travelling with bicycles are recommended to check-in 2 hours prior to departure. Bicycles are subject to the sports equipment fee and exempt from any excess baggage charges relating to the weight of the bicycle.

I think this is pretty fair but the problem is that their staff aren't aware of it and always quote the 12kg limit. You might have a bit of an issue with the weight of all of the protection kit, but the bike will go for the standard £15 fee....no problem....just don't let them tell you otherwise.

You should have been OK with the weight cos you've got 20kg for the normal hold luggage plus unlimited for the single bike.

Use the "small claims on-line" site and get your money back. They didn't even contest it with me.

Don' get mad....get even!

Nick

xcracer

They didn't even weigh mine.

P-Jay

ticca wrote:

P-Jay,
the easyjet staff always quote this 12kg limit but it's simply not true for bikes. True that there is a 12kg limit for sports equipment but here's the exact text pasted from their terms of conditions relating to bikes:-

(1) Carriage of bicycles:
- The bicycle must be packaged in a bicycle box or bag
- Only one bicycle per bicycle box or bag will be permitted
- No other items can be carried in the bicycle box (i.e. clothing)
- The handlebars must be flush with the frame
- The pedals must be flush against the frame or removed
Passengers travelling with bicycles are recommended to check-in 2 hours prior to departure. Bicycles are subject to the sports equipment fee and exempt from any excess baggage charges relating to the weight of the bicycle.

I think this is pretty fair but the problem is that their staff aren't aware of it and always quote the 12kg limit. You might have a bit of an issue with the weight of all of the protection kit, but the bike will go for the standard £15 fee....no problem....just don't let them tell you otherwise.

You should have been OK with the weight cos you've got 20kg for the normal hold luggage plus unlimited for the single bike.

Use the "small claims on-line" site and get your money back. They didn't even contest it with me.

Don' get mad....get even!

Nick

Thanks for that. I think the confusion comes from the website. If you tick the bike option it gives you a line something like "we've added 12kgs to your overall allowance". If that doesn't include the bike but 12kgs to cover the normal gubbings that come with biking that's cool. But the orange clad numpties they employ just love giving people shit.

TBH I'm set on flying with BA. It's £70 cheaper for a start, their policy is written in plain English and the staff have always been great when I've flown with them before (only to Edinburg twice). Not to bore anyone with my plans but we've got a mission on driving to 3 different houses to pick people up and switch stuff to different cars anyway. The extra hour or so to drive to Gatwick over-and-above Bristol airport is more than compensated by a more comfortable plane, much nicer staff and the 70 nicker in my back pocket to spend on our 1 night on the lash in Morzine £5-£6 a pint!

aztecboy

Not any more!!
they have removed:
Bicycles are subject to the sports equipment fee and exempt from any excess baggage charges relating to the weight of the bicycle.

My bike weighs 12.2 KG without the box!!
The train for me I think.

aztecboy

It is back!!!

Passengers travelling with bicycles are recommended to check-in 2 hours prior to departure. Bicycles are subject to the sports equipment fee and exempt from any excess baggage charges relating to the weight of the bicycle.

Hurray

bennygg

My girlfriend and I are driving down to Morzine on the 10th July and back on the 18th July in a transit van... We've got loads of room if anyone needs there bike taken down and back, without the worry of the bike getting trashed by easyjet..

Ben

fozzybear

If you take the time to read the terms the "conditions" are a little fuzzy but i have used them before and this is how it's worked for me.

your "sports equipment" payment raises your 20kgs to 32kgs TOTAL for your hold baggage this "hold baggage" includes your bike.

so for example you could have a bike weighing say 25kgs in a bag. check that in.
then have another hold bag weighing 7kgs taking you to your 32kgs of allowed hold baggage then take anything else in your hand luggage.

it's a little cloudy but if you follow that to the letter you are ok.

i pack my bike with my biking clothes as padding/protection and wrap my guards around the frame, the only issue i had was taking my helmet on the plane they really didn't like this as it's additional hand luggage and they threw there toys out the pram.. seamed daft to me..

fozzybear

aztecboy wrote:

It is back!!!

Passengers travelling with bicycles are recommended to check-in 2 hours prior to departure. Bicycles are subject to the sports equipment fee and exempt from any excess baggage charges relating to the weight of the bicycle.

Hurray

where?

not in the T&C's it's not...