Originally Posted by PanEuropean

Well - I don't know what to say in reply to your post. I was trying to help you out the best I can, having shipped my own motorcycle back and forth between Canada to Europe numerous times in the past 20 years - both by ship and by various airlines - and having learned in the process that shipping by air is by far the least expensive way move the motorcycle.

Anyway, to try and address the points you raised one by one:

How can it be significantly cheaper to fly a ~ 275 kilo bike which is considered dangerous goods from A to B than a human being of 90 kilo????

That's easy to answer: The 90 kilo human being is what we in the aviation industry (I am a retired aircraft pilot - not from Air Canada, though) call "self-loading freight". The person gets on and off by themselves, and in this e-ticket world, does not require any documentation to be generated by the airline. The motorcycle, on the other hand, needs hand-loading and unloading at each end, transport to and from the aircraft at each end, and warehousing at each end, and a whole pile of paperwork must be created for a DG freight shipment.

The 90 kg person takes up approximately 2 cubic meters of space on the aircraft, assuming they fly economy class. The 250 kg motorcycle needs to be put into a container that, when empty, weighs 230kg, and takes up 9 cubic meters of space on the aircraft (see photo below). So you have a total weight of 480 kg (5 times as much as the person), with 4 times as much space occupied as the person. Yet, the motorcycle costs less than twice what the passenger pays for the same trip.

...Air Canada are making money on their so-called «fly your bike» program with mandatory personal tickets ...

No, the passenger tickets are not mandatory. You can ship the bike by itself without getting the approximately $200 discount that Air Canada gives you if you travel as a pax on the same flight. I know this because I have done this - not because I didn't want to fly Air Canada with the bike, but because I was piloting an aircraft myself from Canada to the same destination in Europe as my bike the same week I shipped my bike.

...They make it look so cheap by offering relatively low fares freighting bikes but takes it back many times by EXCESSIVE prices on the personal ticket...

Anybody who knows anything about intercontinental passenger travel knows that you never, ever buy a one-way ticket on an intercontinental flight - the fare will be very high (e.g. $1,400 CAD for a one-way ticket Toronto to Frankfurt).

What you do instead is buy a round-trip ticket, pick a return date that is in the lowest volume part of the year (e.g. a Wednesday in February), and throw the return portion of the ticket away. As of today, a round-trip economy ticket Toronto-Frankfurt-Toronto with a departure in 2 weeks time and an (imaginary) return in February is less than $900 CAD. It would probably be even cheaper if you booked your outbound flight a month in advance.

...Talk about clickbaiting potential customers...

No, not at all. There are only two air carriers that I know who offer "ride on - ride off" (meaning, no crating, no fuel draining, etc.) intercontinental services, and they are Air Canada and Air Transat. Their prices are similar and I have used both of them. If you compare the average Canada - Europe shipping cost with these carriers (about $1,500 CAD) to the total cost of breaking down, crating, and shipping a motorcycle anywhere else in the world, their prices are dirt-cheap - less than 1/3 of what it would cost to ship by other carriers as crated freight.

Last time I shipped my motorcycle Canada to Europe, the plane landed at 6:30 AM, and I was on the motorcycle riding down the road away from the airport at 8:30 AM, two hours after landing. Do come back and let us know how many days after the ship arrives it has taken you to get the motorcycle out on the road.

And furthermore - I don't want to or like to do things the way all others do, I like to do things my way.
Well, you go ahead and do just that - fill your boots until you are happy.

Once you have shipped it by sea, come back and tell us what your TOTAL COST OF SHIPPING was. Don't forget to include the following:

1. What the sea freight provider charges you for transport,
2. Insurance for the voyage (it ain't included),
3. Port charges at departure (acceptance, warehousing, inspection, loading on board, and what the port adds for their overhead),
4. Cost of your hotel the night(s) you have to stay at the port city,
5. Cost of transport from the port to the airport,
6. Your air ticket (it ain't gonna be any cheaper whether or not your motorcycle is in the belly of the plane),
7. Port charges at destination (same details as c) above),
8. Hotel and personal transportation at destination (same as d) + e) above),
9. Customs broker fees at destination (likely obligatory, since you won't have security clearance to enter the port area),
10. Government inspection fees at the destination.

It will be fascinating to hear back from you once you have had a chance to add all the numbers up.



Well, surprise, surprise... I never would have guessed that.

Michael

Motorcycle in ULD for air freight