Airlines and bikes

[sanuk]

So, just as I was getting ready for my bike trip in the US this summer I've now been told by the airline I'm booked with that it will cost me an additional $300 each way just for my bike!!!!   This is not the first time I've flown with my bike and I've never been charged anything extra before except for being over weight.  The airline in question is EVA and that would add $600 to the already pricey $1,600 economy price.  Last year I flew with my bike on Emirates from Frankfurt via Dubai to Bangkok, then on Thai up to Laos.  On the Emirates flight I was allowed 25kg but was 10 kg over that with my other check-in bag and they never questioned it.  In Bangkok I had to pay for being overweight but that only came out at about $30 so was no big deal.  Never any charge or suggestion of it just for the bike.  So obviously this is purely at the whim of the airlines and how accomodating or otherwise they are to cyclists.  I don't expect much sympathy in my part of the world as only the poor or weird foreigners ride bikes here.   But the US seems worse - United and Delta especially.  Mass protests outside airline offices anyone?  But perhaps not in Bangkok right now.

[indyfabz]

Delta?  I believe they also charge $300 for a bike, including a folding bike in a standard size suitcase.  There is a Facebook page devoted to boycotting Delta.

[sanuk]

Having checked on the internet, charging a flat fee for bikes on flights seems to be a fairly recent development internationally, but is by no means across-the-board.  Some do, some don't - not yet anyway.  With EVA in Bangkok it depends who you talk to.  I'm trying to get it in writing as they now say the only charges are for being overweight.  But I'm wondering if the Adventure Cycling Association has anything to say about this issue of falt fees for bikes on airlines?  Time for some advocacy perhaps?   A respected national cycling organisation like the ACA surely has some clout?  Letting it pass just makes it look like cyclists accept it.