L134 

My bike is showing delivered today via Bikeflights. In a week I suppose I’ll find out how it fared. Even though I’m flying American I decided to ship, mostly to avoid TSA, who destroyed my box last year. I suggested to BF that they should print opening instructions for TSA on the outside of the box. They thanked me for the suggestion and sent me a new box free so I am happy with their customer care. I hadn’t asked for or expected that. Didn’t really look forward to lugging the bike box around LAX either. Shipbikes, or whatever it is called, would have been $1 cheaper and I think UPS and/or Fedex would have been roughly $30-$60 more if booked directly, if I remember correctly. After seeing how UPS did on the outbound I’ll decide whether to ship home or check.

Tourist in MSN

When I got home yesterday (at 2:30am) from my last tour, the savings in oversize fees on several flights finally paid for the cost of the S&S couplers and the purchase of the S&S Backpack case.

But for me the convenience of having a bike in a case that is a size that will fit in the trunk of the taxi that I take to and from the airport is just as important as avoiding oversize fees. The local taxi companies that I usually use drive Prius taxis. I can fit both the S&S Backpack case and also the other checked bag in the trunk.

And about 15 months ago I flew Southwest, they have a two free checked bag policy, I had a bike in one of the two checked bags so my bike traveled for free.

Most of my flying with a bike has been international so the bike pretty much had to be on the plane with me due to customs issues. If I was traveling domestic with a full size non-coupled or non-folding bike, I clearly see the advantage of having someone pick up the bike from your home, deliver it to a bike shop or motel across the country, etc.

On my last tour, the bike in the S&S case rode in two taxi cabs, two multi-state bus rides, two motel shuttle van trips, and two airport-to-downtown shuttle bus trips. Thus the non-monetary convenience of a smaller case made that tour (international) a lot easier. I will readily admit that the time to pack a bike in an S&S case and reassemble later is much more time consuming that in a full size bike box. So there also are disadvantages to coupled bikes. You have to weigh all the aspects and options to figure out what works best for you.

Rage

Recently used bikeflights. Pretty hassle-free, right up until the part where I received the bike. My heart sank when I saw the fork sticking out the bottom of the box. And it probably had been that way for some time as the fork was in pretty bad shape.
I was actually surprised the rest of the bike turned out relatively okay. Scratched up all over but relatively okay. .

spinnaker

I had a similar issue with Fedex. They broke the dropouts, Fortunately, it was on the way home. They ended up paying for the fork,

What I have done lately is to strap two light weight boards to the fork to add as a buffer. This trip, I had zero extra room so I tapped the spacer to the fork instead.

DropBarFan

Heh, a lot of logistics there! Toting an assembled bike (esp in box) could be difficult on vans/buses & I suppose some wouldn't accept it. Sometimes S&S means avoiding taxi fees which AFAIK can be as much as airline fees.

metalheart44

Umm.. maybe I should have read this before I decided to use Bikeflights to ship a bike to Minneapolis. I thought the economics worked out better than either renting or trying to fly with my bike. Renting a bike would have cost about $50 a day in Minneapolis and in Wausau, Wi where we will also be doing some riding. We are flying Delta, but unfortunately we bought out tickets before Delta changed their policy on bike, so it would have cost a fair amount to fly with the bike. Before any "protection" insurance, the cost via Bikeflights to ship from northern California to Minneapolis one way is $96 for 5 day delivery using a borrowed Trico Iron Case.



The insurance/protection costs are quite high. Anyway, the bike is being picked up tomorrow and we are arriving Wednesday 9/3, so I am hopeful the bike will be there when we arrive, but I have a day or so buffer in case of delay.

Since several airlines have changed their policy about charging for bikes, it will make more economic sense for me to fly with the bike in the future using a more compact soft-sided case. I hope I can make a positive report about the experience .........

Rob_E

I'm glad you reminded me. I was considering shipping my bike for an upcoming trip, but I just realized I'm flying American Airlines, so it's, at most, $40 (cost of 2nd, checked bag), if I can keep it under 50 lbs. Trick will be getting it from/to the airport at the other end.

indyfabz

Say what? I shipped from Philly to Missoula, MT back in June for around $50. Same delivery time. Larger case. That was before any additional insurance. I am going to look into Shipbikes.com next time. Did a post-shipping comparison and it was noticeably less expensive.

My issue with flying is ground transportation, especially if I have to be at the airport at 4 a.m. and am flying somewhere like Missoula, where ground transportation with something like a bike box is a PITA. Also, PHL doesn't seem to have those large scanners, which means a TSA agent is going to open my bike box. No thanks.

staehpj1

Not sure why, but I have noticed that it seems to matter where (what state and maybe what city) you ship to in addition to how far. It wasn't with shipbikes or bikeflights, but when we finished a tour and my daughter and I had our bikes shipped home they were packed and shipped by a bike shop and were in the same size boxes. I am pretty sure if anything her's would have been smaller and/or lighter. They went from Reno, her's to Tallahassee, mine to Baltimore. Google directions say Baltimore is a little further drive and the flights are equal distance, UPS was $20 more for her bike. It has seemed to me that I have generally paid more for shipping since I moved to Tallahassee, but that is just a general impression.

I am with you on the hassles of ground transportation. I generally minimize using ground transportation as much as I can by flying to my tour with my bike in cardboard and riding out of the airport and then letting a bike shop pack and ship my bike home to avoid dealing with the process in a strange town. That way I only have to lug a bike in a box once in the entire process and it is in my home town. Since my start and end point are never the same hard cases just don't work for me any way.

metalheart44

My Bijeflights pickup was scheduled for yesterday. It was about 1/2 hour post the usual time our UPS driver comes by our place so I decided to check with UPS to see if there was a problem. I gave the UPS customer service representative the tracking number issued by BikeFlights and asked if the bike was going to be picked up that day. UPS person says there was no indication a pickup was scheduled.

OK, since it was later in the day I took the bike box to the local UPS store that was just getting ready to close. The counter person said they do not accept packages worth more than 1K so they could not accept the box. However, there was a UPS driver there picking up packages so I took the box to his truck and he took the bike and I drove home.

A UPS truck was sitting in my driveway waiting. It was our usual driver and he said he was there for the bike pickup. I explained to him what happened and he said the his system showed there was a pickup scheduled for today. He gave the dogs a couple treats and went on his way.

When I sat down to check email just a few minutes later there was a message from a Bikeflights customer service representative that the bike had not been picked up by the UPS driver and it was now scheduled for the next day. I replied to the email describing what had happened. This morning I checked and the box had been scanned in the UPS system and it is on its way.

The only other glitch was a note that the box required an "Adult Signature" for delivery. I shipped the bike to a friend who may or may not be home, but they live in a rural area with a long secure driveway, so I was not worried about security. However, there was no way to change the signature requirement so I asked Bikeflights to change the delivery address to UPS Customer Center where I can pick up the bike when I arrive in Minneapolis.

I have to give Bikeflights kudos for being on top of the details and none to UPS customer service because there was a disconnect somewhere in their system.

So, now I hope the bike arrives on schedule so our trip plans are not delayed.

staehpj1

Yeah, I am excited about that too. I most often use a cardboard box since I tend to fly home from a different city than my point to point tour starts from, but the soft case isn't too bad so ship ahead or ship home so it is still an option that I have used a couple times.

Since I am an ultralight camper I have even managed to keep the total baggage under 50# and in one soft case plus a little personal item sized backpack. It was super nice to be able to use a shoulder strap on the soft case and carry my entire set of baggage at once.

I'd say that couplers are still great for some folks, but now make sense for fewer of us than before (never did for me).

indyfabz

OP here. That's one big concern I have with the switch to UPS. As I note in my OP, I had used BF several times when FedEx was the carrier without one glitch or disconnect. The first time I use BF after the switch and there a UPS-created issue. Your experience doesn't up my confidence level. The one thing I have going for me is that I build in delay days for shipping, so unless something goes horribly awry, the bike is going to be there when I get to the start location. However, since I use shops for assembly there is a shop schedule to consider. The shop will says if you are landing on X date we would like the bike here whatever number of days before X date they specify. If it doesn't show up until C.O.B. the day before my arrival, things could be tight.

3speed

I'm pretty much in your same boat. I don't struggle to keep my bike box under 50lbs, and ride a smaller frame. With the great news that the US airline companies are Finally getting on board with bike travel, there's just no reason to get a coupled bike anymore. I'd even go as far as to say that with the work of assembly, difficulty I've heard of packing, bags arriving having been abused by the TSA goons, etc, I don't even long for a coupled bike anymore.

DropBarFan

I tend to agree, couplers are fairly expensive to start with & perhaps sometimes the coupled bike might not be the best for the trip. Box makes it easier to tote accessories like fenders & aero bar. OTOH with box it's likely one would need at least 2 taxi rides on a tour which lessens the savings of no airline fee for boxed bike. I would be more of a box fan if boxes were more commonly available at airports. Would be fun & cheap to just ride to the airport. Heh, in Frankfurt IIRC I saw personnel (pilots?) actually riding staff bikes or trikes inside the airport.

staehpj1

I always thought it was a hoot to ride out of the airport and start a tour. It would be the same to end a tour that way. Packing a bike at the airport would be more hassle than unpacking one though. At least it would unless the boxes were like the amtrak ones and you weren't worried about what the TSA and baggage guys would do to the bike if it wasn't carefully packed to be well protected.

I always thought of couplers as a great thing for folks who took bikes along on business trips or vacations more so than for bike tourists, but that is probably because I tend to think of tours as long point to point trips. Since I have never returned from the same airport I flew out to it kind of skews my thinking, but couplers never even came close to making sense for me.

Regarding your comments about boxes and the need for taxi rides, I somewhat agree, but have never actually used a taxi on a tour. I have not completely come to terms with how the lack of a bike baggage fee will affect what I do, but I will say that in all of my touring I have managed to have never used a taxi or uber to get anywhere. I have walked, used light rail, used metro and regional buses, and even hitch hiked on rare occasion.

Flying to my tour the new lack of fees won't change anything. For some it might mean a taxi, but I always avoided that. When I lived in Maryland I either had my wife drop me off at the airport or took the light rail to the airport leaving my car at the light rail not far from home if I didn't have a ride. Since I moved to Tallahassee I am a short 6 mile drive to the airport and will get my wife to drive me, failing that I'd arrange a ride with someone else. Worst case an uber, but I'd be unlikely to have to resort to that with enough friends and family willing to make the 7 mile drop off. Long term parking is expensive, but for a one week or ten day trip it would still be my preference over an uber or taxi. Depending on trip length and location one or the other might be cheaper.

Flying home, I have most often just dropped my bike at a bike shop for them to pack up and ship home for me. I have always managed to find a shop that I could walk, or catch a bus, or catch an airport shuttle to get to my flight. The packing and shipping was typically around $100 total. With the new policies I will be more inclined to fly home with my bike, but that may still be more trouble than I choose to go to in some cases. The longer I have been on the road the less I feel like having to deal with packing and dealing a packed bike myself. So convenience has trumped cost savings. I guess the options for flying home with the bike are (can you add others?):

1. Call ahead to various baggage desks at the airport to see if any have boxes.
2. Find a box at a local bike shop, flatten and roll it up to schlep it on the bike or in a bus with the bike on the bus's bike rack.
3. Ship my soft case to somewhere (warm showers host, bike shop, or usps general delivery) in the town I am flying out of. The soft case only weighs a couple pounds and rolls up pretty small. I actually carried it along on one tour when I was too lazy to ship it home.
4. Box the bike somewhere else and take it to the airport via a taxi, light rail, or other ground transit. This could be done with the soft case as well.