The road from A to B can be strewn with legal hurdles. Send your queries to Russell Jones & Walker, Solicitors, c/o A to B magazine
“I regularly travel overseas with a Brompton, checking the bike into the hold, but I was disturbed to find that Ryanair is now demanding payment of E25 for a fully-folded Brompton. The charge, brought in on 14th February, is described as a ‘sporting equipment’ fee. Surely if the luggage is within the weight limit and does not contain any dangerous items, the contents are your affair?” John Wilcox, Derby (our thanks to the many others who have written).
I’m afraid that the answer is not necessarily going to be one you will want to hear. It is up to the airlines what they allow onto their planes at the end of the day, but there is an expectation that they will allow reasonable luggage within their stated size/weight allowances. It is reasonable to refuse to carry luggage in order to comply with law, or if it would affect the health and safety or comfort of other passengers or crew. It is also reasonable to refuse luggage which is unsuitably packed, fragile, or contains perishables.
Most airlines permit hand luggage conforming to International Air Transport Association guideline dimensions: length 56cm, width 45cm and depth 25cm (but the sum of all three dimensions not to exceed 115cm).There is also a 5kg weight limit. Even the Brompton folding bicycle (height 56.5cm, length 54.5cm, width 25cm) is just outside the guideline dimensions, but with the lightest model weighing 11.35kg, there is an automatic excuse for every airline to refuse it as hand luggage.
Checking it into the hold is another option, but still not guaranteed.These excuses might sound feeble, but if ground staff are determined to refuse you, these are tried and tested winners: ‘It can’t travel on the conveyor belt like an ordinary suitcase/rucksack’, ‘There is a risk that staff might damage their backs handling it’, and so on.
As for Ryanair’s ‘sporting equipment’ supplement to store folding bikes in the hold, the Air Transport Users Council (who run an advice line for air passengers) have confirmed that they are entitled to charge, on the basis that since a folding bike is different to a suitcase or rucksack, it will require special handling during storing and transporting. However, they did point out that it was unusual to charge such a supplement, and more likely to occur on a charter flight. Most other leading airlines would not charge a supplement if the bike was within the overall weight allowance.
On a more positive note, my research produced accounts of people taking their folding bikes on planes with no such problems, including the marketing director of Brompton, and Simon Calder, travel correspondent for The Independent, who termed his Brompton ‘without a doubt, the best travel accessory of them all’.
The best advice is really to check-in early, before storage space becomes an issue, and to wear your brightest smiles for the ground staff.With enough charm and finesse, you might even wangle an upgrade! [See also Letters, page 11. Eds]
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