Delta Airlines – $200 / Flight to Check Bikes
Tuesday, April 6 by JerryFoster
Bicycles are treated differently from other luggage when it comes time to check them for? your flight.? According to Delta Airlines luggage policy, a bicycle is charged $200 per flight – $400 for a typical round trip.
While this may be reasonable for full-sized bikes in large boxes that require special handling, Delta notes that the bicycle charge even applies to a folding bike, which fits into a non-oversize suitcase and weighs less than 50 lbs, in a recent email clarification to Dave Schlabowske, Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator for the City of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
At this level of expense, bicyclists traveling for tourism have a good incentive to just buy bikes where they’re going an leave them on the street when they’re done.? An inexpensive mountain bike can be bought for $200 – $300 at a bike shop, with plenty of gears for hill climbing, or as low as under $100 at national big-box retailers.
Bicycle tourism is big business – a 2006 study found bicycle recreation and tourism added over $924 million per year to the Wisconsin economy, and a separate 2006 study found an economic impact of over $60 million annually to the North Carolina Outer Banks region. A 2000 study found bicyclists spent $166 million annually in the province of Quebec.
There would appear to be no additional handling necessary for folding bikes, but Delta is charging the fee anyway, presumably because they think they can.? If you consider this fee unreasonable, please contact Delta to ask them to reconsider this policy.
How have you been treated on other airlines?
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