Originally Posted by
_ForceD_
Sorry to sidetrack the OP’s issue, but can someone explain Bikeflight’s involvement here. If the customer has to drop the bike off at the USP store, what service is Bikeflight providing? I mean are they just a “middleman” since you drop the bike off at a UPS store to be shipped? I’ve never used Bikeflight, but instead of paying for their service, isn’t it possible, and cheaper, to just cut them out and ship the bike yourself without their involvement?
Dan
I investigated using BikeFlights to ship my bike from the US to Ireland for a vacation. For that trip at least, the process was for for me to take the bike to a local participating bike shop, where it would be broken down, packed and shipped either to a participating shop in Dublin, where it would be reassembled for me to pick up, or to my "home address" in Dublin. The actual shipping would be, UPS, FedEx, whoever - the choice of which would affect the overall price. Using BikeFlights meant that there was one payment - they would pay the shops for their work, and the shipping. It's more of a convenience (supposedly) than a cheap alternative to packing and shipping the bike yourself. As it turned out, it would have cost ~$900 for the round trip to Ireland, with 7-10 days transit each direction. It would have almost been cheaper to buy a bike in Dublin and leave it there for the next time. In the end, I found a local bike rental for 200 Euro for 2 wk - a low-end Giant with 8sp Claris, but adequate to the task.