So we are on the first leg of our trip to go ride our SG steeds in the French Pyrenees. Mine is Spanish, her’s is Italian. France is compromise, right? This trip has been in the works for nearly two years, and clearly we didn’t do enough planning. It’s been such a rough 24 hours, that in many respects I don’t know that I will ever travel with a bike again – unless it’s a Ritchey Breakaway or I’m using it to get where I’m going from the start.
Let me back up a little….so after getting our bikes all torn apart and packed away into our Pika Packworks EEP bags we headed off to DIA. The EEP bags are pretty nice. Super light compared to a Trico or other hard-sider, but I was a little concerned about the soft-side giving way and generating carbon confetti adorned with SG stickers. We read a ton of reviews and forums on bike bags/cases and it seemed that many people were able to get their EEPs on-board planes as a regular checked bag because they are so light. We didn’t get so lucky as you will learn in a moment. I’ll note that our bike bags with lots of little goodies stashed inside were still sub-30 pound bags.
We had done some research on the United website and found that if they didn’t accept the EEP as a regular checked bag it would only cost $70 each way because of the size. The EEP is bigger than the 62 linear inch rule, so it’s an oversized piece of luggage, but it is under the 50 pound rule. We didn’t make a screen grab of that policy sadly. As our friend at the United counter proceeded to tell us it would be $200 additional per bike (yep, that’s four hundo for the pair). Each way. As we argued about the new information, Kristin and I scrambled to pull up the baggage info and found that the wording had changed slightly.
Despite the United website stating that there “is no additional fee for bicycles” there actually IS a fee if it’s simply bigger than the 62 linear inch rule. Weight be damed. I guess we should’ve packed the bike stand, anvil and anything else that would fit in there for 200 bucks. The agent simply asked, “Do you have a car that you can send the bikes back with and just rent for your trip?” Little did she know what has been involved in the creation of this wild adventure with bike fits, training, gear splurges and so on. To simply go hop on a rental for 700 miles in the mountainous southern range of France would be clinically insane, but you already know that if you’re reading this here. I digress…
We gulped down the $400 charge and the $70 for a third bag fee (remember, you only get one free checked bag on an international flight) and went off in search for strong Bloodies at 8am. We jumped on our flight from DIA to Newark to catch the next flight to Paris. At Newark our gate was changed four times. We were concerned that one, two or even all three checked bags would get lost in the continual chaos of an international airport. As we both watched nearly seven hours of cinema on the flight across the pond – we really couldn’t sleep – we made a friendly wager on what the outcome would be. I bet that our rolling duffel with all of Kristin’s clothes and some of my things would be MIA. Kristin said my bike wouldn’t make it, with a smirk. Not cool.
As we waited at the baggage carousel, for what seemed like hours, the first thing to arrive for us was Kristin’s bike. One out of three…then the rolling duffel flopped around the M-shaped baggage maze. Two out of three…then a long pause. No more bags were arriving. Lots of passengers were waiting for their things. Then more bags arrived and most of the travelers left. I was starting to get agitated. Sleepless, frustrated and ready for a real meal. Luckily my bike arrived at what seemed like the last minute. Now it was off to the hotel near Charles de Gaulle Airport.
On a side note, I think the bus driver that drove us from the terminal to our hotel for the night could make NASCAR drivers look like they’re Driving Ms. Daisy. That Mercedes bus was on rails as we careened the seemingly continuous sequence cloverleaf curves around the airport at 60+ km/h. Almost like going to the Kyle Petty experience but with luggage flying and the “sweet” smell of Parisan body odor instead of high octane fuel or burning rubber.
Now while we were waiting for our connection in Newark we did a bit of digging and found that Air Canada only charges $50 a bike, we think. But you have to register for space on the plane. Then we also found that Air France also charges bike fees. WTH? The land of le Tour and you have to pay for a bike on a flight? Anyways, it’s a 70 euro charge each way as long as it is below the typical 50 pound weight limit. Guess what though, if it’s bigger than the 62 linear inches, add on another 20 euro for oversized penalty. Ouch. When we were evaluating our travel plans in December when we were booking everything we decided that flying was going to be cheaper…might not be since you can get two train tickets to Pau from Paris for $415 for two and no mention of baggage fees. Our airfare to Pau from Paris is around $300, but add in the baggage fees and now we’re looking at about the same scratch. Do they have Lotto over here? I might need to play to get home at this rate. Oh yeah, and Air France also requires a reservation for space on the plane for your bike. Something we did not know. We’ll see how that goes in the morning.
As an added bonus, because you know how we’ve been loving them these last few hours, we found out that because we fly Air Canada from Paris to Toronto on our flight back we get to do customs TWICE! And you know what that means? Nope, not that. It means we get to pay for our bikes on Air Canada and then again with United from Toronto to Denver. The hits just keep on rolling….
All in all, it’s been a baptism by fire experience so far. I know that we haven’t done this type of thing before and it’s early to rush to judgement, but damn Sam! All of these surprises and other mini factors have me questioning traveling with a bike. Might have to go Ryan Van Duzer style on the next trip and just ride the bike to wherever we intend to go. Save all kinds of coin on that gig!
So we have a very early bus to catch in the morning so we can get things sorted out at the Air France desk. If there’s no room for our bikes, hopefully they can make it down on a later flight in the day. If not, I guess we’ll be seeing a lot more of France. We’ll have to hop a train down to Pau and get in about four hours later than we have planned.
How’s this for odd. We travel all the way to France, turn on the tele to watch the Tour and the only channel it’s on is in….wait for it, German!! Let’s hope those boys stop crashing so dang much. It’d be nice to see a few of them by the time they roll down the boulevard on the 22nd.
We’re off to find some dormir. More to come and it will be fun stuff!!
-JL
