Shipping two cycles to London

[Len]

Does anybody know the average weight of a bike and what it will cost to ship it to the UK?

Alternatively, is it better to take it as excess baggage?

[heavymetal]

It's better to take it as excess baggage. It solves some problems with getting it through customs.

I also know of a guy who shipped his bike separately. He landed in London, his bike landed in Amsterdam.

Luckily a week later they were reunited.

[LuckyPierre]

Excess baggage could be expensive - a quick look at the Qantas site indicates that it would cost $48 per kilo to London. Check out your airline's 'unaccompanied baggage' service. If you send them a few days before you go, then they should be waiting for you at the airport when you get there. Of course, with excess baggage there's less risk.

[sogood]

I understand that Qantas fly bikes for free, at least on the trans-Pac sector.

[Bernard]

I was reading on the Qantas website the other day, they have this thing called unaccompanied baggage, basically you need a valid ticket to your destination and Qantas will ship the item to the same destination but on a different flight (wherever it has room), they recommend this a a way of getting out of excess baggage fees. Might be worth checking if they will ship the bikes this way.

[pospete]

It also depends on the airline, I shipped stuff as unaccompanied Baggage with Emirates who I flew with. The service was A1, they collected it from Home and gave a choice of door to door , or door to airport. It's cheaper than Excess Baggage, but be warned it's not cheap either. You may find with a bike it'll be cheaper if you pack it into a Bike Box as the airlines don't like funny shaped parcels.