FlightSelection criteriaWe booked our flight after we compared approximately a dozen travel agencies. And this paid off in any case, because the differences in prices were tremendous.Next to the flight price it is also important to ensure whether a free transportation of sport baggage is offered. At Garuda for example 2x20 kg/person are free - every further kilo costs 35 dollars/kg at this airline (according to Garuda Darwin). Since additional weight is expensive in the case of most airlines, apparently cheap flights with only 1x20 kg/person can get very expensive - thus always look out on this detail. If you have a specific agreement about things like free bike transportation, it is very important to have a written agreement. Since we had no such annotation in our ticket for the return-flight, we had to pay a lot for the bikes. In addition the employee at Garuda Perth forgot to register the bikes when we booked our return-flight - thus we had luck that after long negotiations we could take them back home anyway!!! When entering Australia the visa and a valid ticket for the redeparture must be shown at the customs. Since we only had a visa for half a year, we needed a rebookable ticket for the return-flight, because we intended to extend our stay to a year. At the time of our booking it was a problem to get tickets at an airline anyway since allmost all flights were booked up. Therefor it is important to book at an early date! Our flightWe decided to fly with the airline Garuda Indonesia. Our outward flight (Linz - Frankfurt - Singapore - Denpasar - Darwin) was quiet arduous since we had longer stops at every intermediate landing (in Singapore almost a day, which we used for sleeping and a short guided city tour offered for free at the airport). During the return-flight (Darwin - Denpasar - Jakarta - Singapore - Amsterdam - Linz) we still had the possiblity to stay a few days in Bali without additional costs. Unfortunately we had as aforementioned problems with our bikes at our return-flight. The partner airline KLM refused to transport them from Amsterdam to Linz at all, and finally they charged high additional fees for the transportation. Taking the train from Amsterdam to Linz would have been cheaper, but it was not possible to cancel the flight since it was part of a package. On the other side Lauda Air - partner airline at the outward flight from Linz to Frankfurt - imposed no charges at all.PackingBefore the flight it is important to ask how the bike should be packed, because every airline has other guidelines for the transport of larger items, and some airlines even provide compulsory packaging material for bikes.We dismantled the pedals, the handlebar, saddle and the tyres and then simply packed our bikes into a bike dispatch cardboard box which is usually available for free at every bike shop since they have to chuck them away anyway. A hard-top case would probably be more suitable (because after the outward flight the cardboard was torn open at some places, a frame had claw marks, a gear lever was broken and a rack was twisted), but if you have to throw the case away at the destination airport it would be to expensive. Before the return-flight we were more cautious and additionally wrapped the frame, dismantled the sequential circuit and loosened the gear levers. But this time the cardboard survived the trip undamaged anyway. It is very important to clean the bike and the remaining equipment prim (if already used) before the packing, because during the entry to Australia there are strict controls whether grass or earth or something else soils the equipment, because this way epidemics can be imported. Flight insuranceThe insurance conditions of airlines are interesting too. For example Garuda transports bikes for free, but claims not to be responsible for any loss or damage (they just make good a fixed amount per kilogramm of the luggage, not the actual value). The travel insurance company Elvia assumed no liability for the case of loss too. On the other hand Garuda assured us that no bike has disappeared yet - although other bikers told us about the contrary (but with another airline).In spite of all the problems we would buy our bikes and equipment again in Austria and not in Australia, because thus we have the desired material for sure and the certainty, that we are ready to go and do not have to wait for parts of our equipment which are not stored. Furthermore especially in Darwin we were not overwhelmed with the bike stores. |