Bringing bike box on Easyjet without prebooking

topcattim

I want to bring my bike with me when I'm flying in a couple of weeks on an Easyjet flight which has been booked on my behalf by the MoD. They didn't book my bike box at the time of the original booking and they can't/won't do it now. Neither can/will they give me the details of the booking so that I can do it myself - bureaucracy. :evil:

So I plan to bring my bike in a bike box and just book it in at the time of arrival, but I have a niggling doubt in case they refuse to take it. Does that ever happen, and is there anything I can do in advance (apart from check in good and early) to reduce the risk?

TommyEss

I hope you're not off to Almeria as there's about 12 of us going in a few weeks and we're not even sure there'll be room for all of ours!! I would talk to EasyJet - email their customer services - just because the MoD haven't given you the booking details doesn't mean customer services can't find it with your name and a couple of other details.

Pokerface

Short answer is - just bring it to airport and it'll get on the plane no problem.

But certainly you must get your booking info at some point before you leave? You need to get boarding passes and do pre-check in for most places? usually you have to enter your passport details before flying, etc.

Once you have the booking details, you can add the bike then?

topcattim

TommyEss wrote:

I hope you're not off to Almeria as there's about 12 of us going in a few weeks and we're not even sure there'll be room for all of ours!! I

Nope, you're in the clear, TommyEss, its Cyprus for me.

Pokerface wrote:

But certainly you must get your booking info at some point before you leave? You need to get boarding passes and do pre-check in for most places? usually you have to enter your passport details before flying, etc.

Once you have the booking details, you can add the bike then?

Oops, yes my first email was a bit misleading. They've booked it for me and given me flight number, but won't give me any login details that would enable me to add extra baggage - its been booked through another travel agent etc etc. So I should be able to check in online, but then again your email is making me wonder if I really will. Perhaps its time to contact them again and see if I can draw some blood out of their stone...

Chriscommuter

I would advise trying to book in advance, the fee they will charge at the airport will be astronomical.

TommyEss

Phone them up with all the details you have, explain the situation, and ask to add a bike. The online fee is £25 each way if I remember right. Hopefully they should be able to give you te online rate over the phone.

Gazzaputt

From Easyjet's website:

Hold baggage is the luggage you check-in to be carried in the aircraft's hold. This usually includes larger items such as suitcases or rucksacks, but the term also applies to sports equipment and musical instruments.

Basically, anything too large to be carried on the cabin as hand luggage has to be checked in as hold baggage.

Standard hold baggage allowance is 20kg per passenger regardless of number of bags purchased. Minimum of 1 hold bag per passenger is required to trigger the baggage allowance of 20kg.


For a fee, you can put one bag in the hold weighing up to 20kg. The fee can be paid in one of three ways:

online (£9 - £16 per passenger per flight, depending on the route)
via call centre (£14 - £16 per passenger per flight)
or at the airport where the fee is £25 at the check-in and £40 at the gate.

If you need to take more than 20kg per passenger per flight you will also be charged an excess weight fee of £10 per kg at each departing airport. You can however prebook excess weight online for £21 per every 3 kg of additional weight per flight.

Please note that no single piece of hold baggage can weigh more than 32kg, due to health and safety restrictions, and no passenger can check in more than 50kg of luggage or 8 individual items.

And:

ou cannot pay for hold baggage at the check-in desk. You will have to go to the airport sales desk first, pay your hold baggage fees and then queue up to check-in unless you have already checked-in online.

You may want to think about paying for your hold baggage online before you get to the airport. This will cost you less and if you have already paid for your hold baggage you can use the fast bag drop service (where available). Fast drops close 40 minutes prior to the scheduled time of departure with the exception of Sharm El Sheikh, Tel Aviv, Amman, Hurghada and Morocco airports which close 60 minutes prior to the scheduled time of departure.

In some airports you can also use the automated self check-in machines.

There is no charge for taking hand luggage on board (maximum dimensions 56 x 45 x 25 cm).

You can put one bag in the hold (for a fee) that weighs up to 20kg per passenger. An excess charge will be applied if your bag weighs more than 20kg.

For more information on baggage charges and fees check out our Carrier's Regulations.

TommyEss

Yes - and on top of that there is a special fee for sporting equipment - so bikes, golf clubs, that kind of thing, which is a different rate to the standard hold luggage allowance (because they're often heavier than 20kg, but they don't charge you per kg over 20kg for a bike, for example, you just pay the sporting goods flat fee)

topcattim

Just found my old thread and thought I'd update it. No problem booking the bike on, which I did in advance. But it is worth being aware that they only gave me an extra 12kg, and of course the bike in the bike box (a dirty great bikeboxalan) ended up weighing considerably more than that, which meant that I had to unpack quite a bit from my ordinary hold luggage in order to stay within the weight limit. Worth being aware of in advance!

MountainMonster

Chriscommuter wrote:

I would advise trying to book in advance, the fee they will charge at the airport will be astronomical.

Exactly this. I have alot more experience with ryanair, but to be honest, all the low cost airlines operate on the same business model. I booked 2 suitcases in when booking my tickets and paid around 50 gbp for the bags, went with a 3rd to the counter when i got there, and they wanted nearly 200gbp for a bag to be checked in last minute, and it was only a bloody carry on.

As a figure of reference, when flying back from Austria, I paid (I believe) 100gbp for my bike box to be checked in before hand.

rickwiggans

To add to this, although they only give you an additional 12kg, any excess weight, as long as it is solely attributable to the bike, is not charged. This is why they insist on nothing but a bike being in the box. To add to the confusion, the bit that says this, is in a different part of the carriers regs to the bit that tells you the charges. So, you bike and box can in fact wigh more than 12 kg. BUT, take a copy of the regs with you!