Shipping or flying with bike

[brittmix]

i have a question about shipping also - i need to ship my bike (and my soon-to-be-husband's bike) from raleigh, NC to barcelona. i looked at that sports express page, and it was quoting me over $1000 each way...
obviously, i'd rather pay the $80 to put it under the plane, but my question is - has anyone had any luck with asking the baggage checkers to just let me put it on the front of the plane? also, is putting the bike in a box the only way to ship it? if i took off the wheels, seat and handlebars, and then maybe laid the fork down alongside my frame, and wrapped it all up, could it be considered normal sized baggage? we're only checking our bikes and whatever we can fit in panniers, and while my steel framed bike isn't the lightest thing, it still isn't over the allowed baggage weight. just wondering if we can do this thing any cheaper, because we're going to have to fly our bikes from US to Spain and then Rome to Tanzania, and then Tanzania to US. any suggestions?

[tulip]

i have a question about shipping also - i need to ship my bike (and my soon-to-be-husband's bike) from raleigh, NC to barcelona. i looked at that sports express page, and it was quoting me over $1000 each way...
obviously, i'd rather pay the $80 to put it under the plane, but my question is - has anyone had any luck with asking the baggage checkers to just let me put it on the front of the plane? also, is putting the bike in a box the only way to ship it? if i took off the wheels, seat and handlebars, and then maybe laid the fork down alongside my frame, and wrapped it all up, could it be considered normal sized baggage? we're only checking our bikes and whatever we can fit in panniers, and while my steel framed bike isn't the lightest thing, it still isn't over the allowed baggage weight. just wondering if we can do this thing any cheaper, because we're going to have to fly our bikes from US to Spain and then Rome to Tanzania, and then Tanzania to US. any suggestions?

Great trip!

No, the airlines will not let you just put a bike in the front of the plane. At $100 per bike per flight, you're looking at $1000 easy. Maybe there's some European bike rental agency from which you could rent a bike from Barcelona to Rome. Or you could buy used bikes in Barcelona and sell them in Rome.

Or get Bike Fridays