We asked for a XL Uber to pick us up and take us to the airport but when the driver showed up he couldn’t fit the bike boxes. Backup plan was to load everything in the back of our Prius and drop one of us off at the airport with boxes and panniers then drive back home. Parked the car at home and got another Uber to pick me up. At the airport we grab one of the luggage carts, stack the boxes then the panniers and make our way to the airline counter. It’s all too big to go through the roped off queue so we ask an agent the best way to proceed. They usually take us around the lines through the exit area and we wait until called. After a nice chat with the agents working the counter we take the bike boxes over to over-sized luggage handlers. At this point we take a few pictures of the boxes and airline tags. The luggage handlers then take them to TSA officials who will open the boxes and double check no contraband then tape them back up. BTW, we take our panniers as carryon luggage and sometimes wear our helmets onto the plane. Depending on length of flight and layover airport we can check our panniers. On this trip it was easy enough to carry them with us.
We arrived in Barcelona after a long layover in Philadelphia. Surprisingly, we managed to sleep on the plane ride over in the cheap seats. Not comfortable, but we were very tired and nodded off. Arrived 9:30 in the morning and after a long time in customs line found our bikes waiting for us in oversized baggage claim. One of the boxes had an open bottom, apparently the box had been sitting in the rain in Philadelphia. We need to upgrade our packing tape to really sticky tape, this transparent tape failed in the rain. The main reason we attach everything to the bike, no loose parts in the box, they often get opened and sometimes holes. If we can’t attach it, like the small seat post wedge our bikes have, we make sure we take it with us. Easy to loose little parts and very difficult/impossible to find replacements when traveling.
Getting the boxes from Over-Sized Baggage Claim is easy enough, and going through customs just takes time, but when you’re done you still need to get to your first night’s lodging. Most of our trips we assemble the bikes and ride from the airport but the place we are staying suggested it’s easier for them to store our bikes if they stayed in boxes. Took a bit of maneuvering to get the big boxes near the taxi area, fortunately we found some freight elevators. We got a nice taxi driver with a van to load us up and take us to our hotel.
At the hotel, the day before cycling out of Barcelona, we put the bikes together to assure we had all the parts and everything worked well. Then went over to a nearby hostel for cyclists and asked them if they wanted a couple of bike boxes and packing supplies. They would usually take them but had just received some from a couple that recently arrived. So we took the boxes to the cardboard recycling receptacle out on the street.
