msm2000uk

I know you meant golf club sets, but you've written gold club sets...which got me wondering the wonderfully off-topic question of what would be included in such a BA set 😀

M

ACARS

Oh there were a fair few of them onboard too, but only a couple deserved their own mention in the DYKWIA thread 😄

As for the set, it would have to include something pillaged from the lounge as a starter 😉

CT-UK

It makes no difference, you can go through the hassle of doing it and explaining the dimensions and weight and then be told at the end of the call all is fine as it is included in your allowance.
Your delay was more likely down to the fact all bikes for every flight have to checked in at one counter (68 I think) and the moved, when their are lots of flights after a big event there are lots of bikes.. Ironman 70.3 there has 2500 cyclists as an example.

EuropeanPete

I thought this might be about the Gold Card and labels that BA (doesn't) send out.

PUCCI GALORE

He meant tales but wrote tails. This did not detract from a rather telling story about people and the golfbags and bikes. I’m curious. Surely this stuff is weighed before loading. How else would they adjust the trim?

ACARS

My dearest Pucci, I hadn’t even noticed. I have amended, however golfen golding shall remain for prosperity I thank you for pointing out the faux pas.
That aside, do you have an offering taken in tribute from the lounge to place in the gold bag?

Yes you have a good point, surely these vast numbers would need some sort of pre planning? Ultimately it might mean some items being left behind, and we can all imagine the uproar that would have caused.

Pjk_1

I also read the warning about notifying BA that I am planning to fly with golf clubs on my upcoming trip to EDI. Its something that I have never been asked before on any other airline, but ok, I guess St Andrews is popular in May. I called BA, they said they needed to know the dimensions of my golf bag. I told them its about the same length as a golf club, but the support agent didnt seem to like the joke :-)

xooz

I had visions of a polo-like game where cyclists with golf clubs in one hand ride around whacking a golf ball. Perhaps that will come someday...

zymm

I feel like cycling golf would make a great phone game, and between levels there can be a tetris mini-game where the pieces are all bikes and clubs!

HSR1234

Is this true? I have travelled club Europe with skis several times, never notified them in advance and never had a problem! Have I just been lucky?

ACARS

I’ve been on two charters in the past using BA that clearly stated skis needed to be pre booked as they will only be capable of taking 35 sets on any flight. I guess on mainline services they might not have quite as many given there will be a mix of people travelling for a variety of reasons, yet with a charter there is only one purpose in line for the passengers. That information came from the charterer and not BA directly as the booking was handled by themselves, so until we arrived at the airport it was unlike the normal booking and pre travel routine of comms etc.

ACARS

Would it be called Golfyling or Cygolf?

muscat

Only if they had head torches with them. I’ve been told that there were also issues with someone who had left their laptop running in hand luggage which was placed in the hold. (Worried about overheating and fire?)

13901

I went and had a look on FLY. I could only see a couple of BIKE SSRs. Had it been known that 60+ were travelling, well, a number of things could be done, such as adding more colleagues to build the flight, upgauge - if possible - send messages to come to the airport early and so on.

I really don't want to sound like a pretentious know-it-all, but I worked in Baggage (weird brag I know) and know a few things you, with all due respect, might not and the advice you're giving is erroneous.

A BIKE SSR requires a whole of 5 minutes to be added via the chat. I've even written the script upthread. And it does help. The PMI flights in the spring often are notorious for this issue, for it's normal for groups of 30-40 people to travel there, and back in 2018 we had a situation where seventy people turned up for a single A320 flight with bikes. And there was a non-collapsible wheelchair. Nothing had been pre-notified, and we left 40 bikes behind. In 2019 we heard, through a colleague, that we'd have both La Marmotte and l'Etape du Tour at the same time in the GVA/LYS region, and we started asking cycling clubs, friends of friends and so on to notify us. We had more than 150 bikes booked across all services, and in turn we upgauged some flights to GVA, and alerted both the stations and our crews. In the end we flew 350+ bikes, all on the day. Some flights went volumetric, but had we not heard about it, it'd have been a disaster.

Based on what the organisers of Ironman tell us, those athletes often ship their bikes separately, with vans and so on. Especially the pros.

Skis are slightly easier to deal with. They can be a problem on charter flights, but otherwise they're rather easy to stash in the bins.

Blenheim

I have travelled with skis on BA more than 20 times and have never notified them in advance and never had a problem