Etape Bike Transport - BMI Baby

MrZ
MrZ Posts: 55
edited July 2010 in Sportives/audaxes/training rides
Having packed my bike for the Etape its coming in at 21kg and have now noticed BMI Baby have an 18kg max limit. I'm sure it was higher when i booked

Does anyone know if this is rigidly enforced or if you have to pay some kind of excess per kg? I've tried calling them but started to look like at least 10 minutes on hold at about circa 90p a minute!

I'm also wary of their policy that "bikes only travel standby and if there is room on the plane"

My only other option is the tour company's bike shuttle which would be great but means i have a 400 mile round trip from the NW to London each time to drop off and collect!

cheers

Comments

  • blorg
    blorg Posts: 1,169
    I don't know about BMI Baby; most of my flying is with Ryanair who have a 20kg limit enforced maybe 50% of the time; but when it is there is a €20/kg excess charge. I now put anything that easily comes off in a separate bag: for me this means saddle/seatpost, skewers and pedals. This gets me under 20. A friend has done tyres/tubes and the cranks. The latter are very heavy and with Shimano at least very easy to get off/put on; you might just want a torque wrench putting them back on for your piece of mind.
  • pmannion9
    pmannion9 Posts: 287
    BMI are a nightmare...
    We went with them 3 weeks ago for the Granfondo Sportful in Italy.
    Very strict on the 18Kg limit...
    A load of people from our group and a few others cyclist were all charged excess baggage...

    You can be lucky with who is on the desk but your best bet is to book a bag in the hold:

    Apparently you can use the left over allowance from your bag in the hold to offset against your bike. Its worth paying the £20 to check in a bag than the excess baggage costs !!!

    Good luck.
  • MrZ
    MrZ Posts: 55
    pmannion9 wrote:
    BMI are a nightmare...
    We went with them 3 weeks ago for the Granfondo Sportful in Italy.
    Very strict on the 18Kg limit...
    A load of people from our group and a few others cyclist were all charged excess baggage...

    You can be lucky with who is on the desk but your best bet is to book a bag in the hold:

    Apparently you can use the left over allowance from your bag in the hold to offset against your bike. Its worth paying the £20 to check in a bag than the excess baggage costs !!!

    Good luck.

    Great thanks for the tip.
  • MrZ
    MrZ Posts: 55
    pmannion9 wrote:
    BMI are a nightmare...
    We went with them 3 weeks ago for the Granfondo Sportful in Italy.
    Very strict on the 18Kg limit...
    A load of people from our group and a few others cyclist were all charged excess baggage...

    You can be lucky with who is on the desk but your best bet is to book a bag in the hold:

    Apparently you can use the left over allowance from your bag in the hold to offset against your bike. Its worth paying the £20 to check in a bag than the excess baggage costs !!!

    Good luck.

    Great thanks for the tip.
  • Kléber
    Kléber Posts: 6,842
    Just get their very early so your bike goes in the hold before everyone else.

    Also, I don't know if the airport has an "oversized luggage" drop off. With this you'll tend to weigh the bike at the check-in desk and then get the label and told to take the bike over to the drop off point. Stanstead and Gatwick have these.

    Anyway, you get the bike at the permitted weight limit and get the label and mid-way along the way to the drop off you open up the box and insert any extras! Within reason no one will notice the difference. The bike then gets dropped off and is scanned before going on the plane.
  • MrZ
    MrZ Posts: 55
    Kléber wrote:
    Anyway, you get the bike at the permitted weight limit and get the label and mid-way along the way to the drop off you open up the box and insert any extras! Within reason no one will notice the difference. The bike then gets dropped off and is scanned before going on the plane.

    I like it! Only prob is I got no extras in yet so would have to stash the wheels somewhere! Will just bite the bullet and cough up any excess if that's how it rolls
  • blorg
    blorg Posts: 1,169
    Kléber wrote:
    Anyway, you get the bike at the permitted weight limit and get the label and mid-way along the way to the drop off you open up the box and insert any extras!
    I must confess, I did this myself the first time I was faced with excess luggage charges.
  • andyp
    andyp Posts: 10,549
    I'd never recommend this to a honest citizen, but if you are asked to place your bike bag on the scales, a surreptitious foot beneath it can take 5 or 6 kilos off the weight recorded. :wink:
  • blorg
    blorg Posts: 1,169
    andyp wrote:
    I'd never recommend this to a honest citizen, but if you are asked to place your bike bag on the scales, a surreptitious foot beneath it can take 5 or 6 kilos off the weight recorded. :wink:
    You have to be careful to do this in a steady way that doesn't have the weight bouncing up and down. Takes practice. Or so I am told. It is a good idea to check out the outsize luggage scales if they are separate before you actually check in; at Dublin airport one of them used to weigh light (several kilos light) if you pushed the box all the way to the back of the scales. They have fixed it unfortunately.

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