base2 

FinnAir! You had only one job. Put this square box in that round sky tube. You failed. Now I am holed up in a hotel 2 hours north of Helsinki with no bike, no more plans, and now no destination. What a waste. 1 star. 👎

Why was my bike in Latvia 2 days ago? Where is it now? It sure would be cool if you knew.

/incredulous rant

Has an airline ever lost your luggage? Your full S&S case? Do tell your tales of woe, below. 👇

imi

Gah! 😡

Flying from New Zealand to Hat Yai in southern Thailand, my bike got there, my other bag ended up in Dublin 🧐 It got sorted within 24 hours, but I went back to the airport rather than have it sent by taxi to my guesthouse.

I think airlines still lose a lot of baggage, but the tracking system is pretty good nowadays, and it will usually be found.

I’ve got an air-tag on my bike with the speaker removed to make it a bit more stealthy.

mev

Sounds frustrating.

I haven't had a bike delayed/lost on the outbound flight. Twice I have had delayed arrival of my bike on my return. Essentially I made the connection but my bike and other luggage did not. That is much easier since I was going back to work and could handle a two day delay of having my bike.

pdlamb

If you get your bike one day late, it's just part of the adventure. The adventure of bike touring, or the adventure of air travel? Your choice!

Tourist in MSN

An S&S case would travel as a piece of normal size luggage. So, it is just like any normal piece of lost luggage.

I have had luggage delayed several times for days in the 1980s, less often in the 1990s. But with modern bar code tags, airlines are much better than they were decades ago.

That said, I am still in the habit of always taking a photo of my luggage before I give it to airline staff so that it is easier to describe it to the airline personnel. I started doing that when I bought my first digital camera.

S&S Backpack case looks like this.



Now here is a question for you, have you ever had airline staff insist that you have to gate check your carry on, and then when you get off the plane you find someone took your carry on instead of theirs? So far that has only happened to me once.

In the late 1980s, I regularly flew on a tiny little plane, so small no flight attendants, each seat was both a window seat and an aisle. One time, the plane was full when I got on it, that had never happened before. As I am getting used to the seat and buckling in, I look out the window and see the pickup truck with my luggage driving away. I yell out - Hey, that guy is driving away with my luggage. All the people on my side of the plane look out and yell the same thing. All of us had to wait a half day for that pickup truck to drive to where the plane landed while we are all waiting in the airport for our luggage. The plane if full and going that far could not travel with a full fuel load and full passenger load if it also had luggage, so they left all luggage behind and drove it there by pickup truck.

indyfabz

Hasn’t happened to me, but I’m sure it sucks. When I flew to Boise for the start of Cycle Oregon in 2002, four of us waited at the oversized baggage window for our bikes. Only 3 bikes made it. The fourth one belonged to a guy who had flown out of NYC. His bike didn’t make the connection in Phoenix. Fortunately, America West (Remember them?) was able to get the bike to Boise before the charter bus left for OR the next morning, but I will never forget the look of disappointment and disbelief on the guy’s face when he was told all the luggage had been offloaded.

base2 

The case finally arrived by way of 2 days in Latvia, a day in Tempere, a day with a courier, and finally a half day with the concierge. It is missing a strap & another is loose. That's ok. I brought an extra for just such an occasion The important thing is no part of the bike is damaged or missing!




Gone are the big plans. But, I can still tootle around town to the various arboretums parks and other local attractions. Maybe I'll venture out to see tonight's Northern Lights display in a few hours.

WaveyGravey

I learned a lesson long ago. Try to book non-stop international flights if at all possible.

str

Use a AirTag you always know where your bike is.
got luck in finding it.

P.S. upssss it arrived already.

Tourist in MSN

I am glad it arrived free of damage. With all the extra distance that it has traveled, there certainly was a lot of opportunity for damage.

Pratt

If anybody ever ridicules your choice, as a bicycle tourist, of transportation, just refer them to this thread.