Anyone flown with Ryanair with a bike?

Yes, there is. It's just that I don't trust them to reneg on it.  Think it'll be easyJet.  They've been really good in the past. Just more of a hassle goign to LGW.

Although easyjet are no better.

Last year on an easyjet flight they had the same issue with skis.  They had prebooked and registered too many sets of skis KNOWING they would be over weight.  Presumably they hoped a few people would forget to show up.

Their first suggestion was to dump all the skis and go without them.  Which met with some resistance from the ski owners.

Their second demand was that the last 6 people to check in should f**k off.  Which didn't work out either.

 So they offered increasing bribes until 6 people agreed to f**k off.

THEN they lost one of our party's luggage.  He got a phone call after 3 days, saying it had arrived at the airport (a 12 hour round trip from the resort).  He asked if they would send it on, and the response was "f**k you, we're easyjet, come and get it yourself".  So he did, and found out that they had cut it open, and stolen half his stuff anyway.

AND they aren't even cheaper than BA.  The "low cost" bit is a bit of a porkie.

Never again.

(By comparison, the spanish airline whose name escapes me lost my bike once.  They found it and delivered it to me the next day.  That is acceptible service)

I have no qualms with the budget service offered by EasyJet, personally. We live in a society where it has (regrattably) become acceptable for companies to decieve people into doing business with them, provided they have some exceptional fine print.

 But  given how militant Michael O'Leary is in public about cutting corners, it raises some very worrying questions about how he goes about his business behind closed doors. Some of the industry reports on this kind of stuff make for fascinating, albeit terrifying, reading.

And as an aside, I flew KLM recently to Amsterdam. Their service was exceptional and I was very impressed.

Ryanair are w*nkers. Don't have anything to do with them.

 The End.

not sure where peeps have got 32kgs from... I'm sure Ryanair has a lower weight limit for bike boxes - they do, just checked their travel conditions.  A mate I was with on a trip to spain was overweight (well his bike box was anyway) and he was stung for mucho euros - it's 20 euros per KG overweight.  The box he had was a heavy one and even with only his bike in it (forget tools/clothes/nutrition etc) he was over weight, so we had to share bits of his bike around the group to get him home under the weight limit. 

As for security and poor handling problems - everything was fine on that score.  But as I've only flown once with a bike box I not an expert!  I'm sure Barlos did an essay on how to pack a bike box for the IMCH group and everything he said was ace.  The essential extra bits you will need is miles of bubble wrap and pipe insulation foam things....

Overall, my one experience with them (Ryanair) with my bike was poor/stressed/potentially very expensive so I won't go with them again - I would rather drive to Spain.  So plus 1 on what Toomai said.

Saw this this morning and thought of this thread (second question down).

I hate using Ryanair, and would rather pay more to fly with another airline.

I've flown Ryanair to Dublin - they were fine. Cheap tickets - we landed safely - no bags were lost. Sorted.

I could pay triple for another carrier for the same journey, but why would I ?

I've had plenty of crappy trips on the big names too - I cant really say that paying extra gets you a higher chance of a better trip ?

It's not so much the actual trip, they tend to be much of a muchness, it's the feeling like I'm having my teeth pulled through the booking process.

I hate that they charge so much to PAY for the damn tickets. That really is just a rip-off.  They've made it quite hard to avoid this "optional" charge.

Looking at flying to Salzburg next year, BA are only slightly more*, and I won't feel like I've been gouged. 

If Ryaniar just said, up front, that the tickets cost £XXXX I'd be much more inclined to use them.

Oh, AND you pay £6 each way for on-line check-in?!

*Actually, only £2 more.

Ryanair are the masters of squeezing as much out of the paying punters as they can - and I have to say I admire both their chutzpah and marketing ability to do so, yet hate their practices at the same time.

but the other issue is - what Ryanair do today, others will do tomorrow.

in the "good 'ol days" - in fact until 2009 - many airlines wouldn't charge you for one item of sports luggage (bike, surfboard, skis, golf clubs etc) and life was good. then the low cost carriers started charging, the big boys saw that they could get "away with it", and started to impose charges themselves and boost profits. BA were one of the last to crumble here and they now charge for all sorts of odds and ends.

we're off to South America with the road bikes next month and the faff of finding a decent price ticket combined with bike charges has been a pain. initially flying with 2 carriers via the US looked like the cheapest tickets but when you factor in 8 bike charges (2 bikes x 2 flights and return) the costs got daft. then Air Canada looked good as we would be using them for both legs - until a friend flew with them with his bikes and having already paid for his bike transport, they stung him with a "handling charge" at check in!! cheeky bastards but we could handle that as the flight costs were good but the flights sold out just as we were about to book....grrrrr

finally, we've opted to go with BA/Iberia, much as I hate Iberia for transcontinental (used them 3x before - never been good). as BA now own Iberia so technically we only have to pay one fee each in both directions - but it's still going to cost us about £150 extra for the bikes though which on top of the flight costs is not insubstantial.

If you had those folding bikes, FB, they could have gone in your hand luggage!

OR UNICYCLES......

damn - I have a unicycle - I should have thought of that.....

BA are great with bikes.

Didn't someone go to IMAT via Llubljana with ryan air - and miss the race because they never got his bike there?

BA can be very cheap too - I got a flight from Newcastle to Heathrow a few months ago for £31, of which £25 was taxes.  No extra charges to pay with a credit card, check in online, use the toilet or wear a loud shirt.  Sorted.

talking to the company we booked our flights through, we might be able to get away with £35 per bike for each journey as that's what some punters paid at the w/e flying to Ecuador using BA/Iberia. still £140 I'd rather not pay though - that's a good few holiday beers

I've flown with Ryanair several times to Girona as I used to do a bit of training over there (this was before the Celtic tiger died and I could afford a coach ). Maybe I was lucky but I didn't have any bad experiences. You booked the bike online and it was pretty easy. Having said that, it's about 2 years since I was over there if not a little more and they have become much more militant about overweight luggage since. But it was easy and fairly cheap at the time, 30 Euro I think.

On the otherhand Swiss Air charged me 70 Euro each way to Switzerland (and they sponsor the Swiss Ironman) and Aer Lingus make you ring their booking office to get a bike on at all which is a fairly painful experience.

You're right PSC - Ryanair is 30kg but easyJet is 32 and I, like your poor friend, need that extra 2kg for a heavy bike box. (It is agreat bike box, though - no need for bubble wrap or pipe lagging or anything. Leave the pedals and saddle on, too. It IS like wheeling around a large chest freezer, though, and is deeply uncool.)

I think I'll be going easyJet and just put up with going to LGW etc. Shame, because Bournemouth's much more friendly (hence the Ryanair question because they're the only ones that go to Palma from Bournemouth at the mo). But I just don't want to risk the stress and hassle of extra charges.  Flying with a bike's expensive and stressful enough without worrying about Mr O'Leary or whatever his name is finding yet another way to get his pound of flesh.

deeply uncool.... LOL. Is there such a thing as a cool bike box/bag!

I go Spain several times a year so bit the bullet and just bought a bike to keep out there.  Definitely cheaper as there are no local rental options.  Easy jet is something like £80 each way if I remember.  BA used to be free from oversize sports kit as I flew back from Gibraltar once to take advantage of this.  Alas,  no more.