Air Canada Cargo - Now Shipping Motorcycles...Cheaply
 

Well they always have but at out of this world prices.

For the riders on here that have been lucky enough to have toured Europe, Air Canada is promoting motorcycle shipping by air. By "promoting", I mean at 1/3 the cost that it ran me in 2010.

While at the Toronto Motorcycle Show last weekend, Air Canada had a booth staffed by Air Canada Cargo personnel. They will have their web site up shortly, but this is what I walked away with:

Toronto or Montreal (and other cities as well) to London, Frankfurt... (there was a list of cities) $700 with ticket purchase or $1000 without, for one way. I paid about $2250 one way in 2010. Check with them for other destinations.

Considering motorcycle rental runs about $1000 a week, a three or more week tour makes this worth it.

From their site...
 

February 18, 2015

Fly your bike with Air Canada Cargo

Did you know that Air Canada can also ship your motorcycle?

This convenient service is available from Montréal, Toronto and Vancouver to multiple destinations around the world.

When your travel is booked with Air Canada, you'll benefit from a special rate for your motorcycle.

FIND OUT MORE

For more information on shipping your motorcycle with Air Canada Cargo, please contact us:

MONTRÉAL: 1-800-361-2159 yulff.lcacc@aircanada.ca
TORONTO: 1-800-387-4865 yyzff.acconnect@aircanada.ca

Very interesting, thanks for sharing. They even put out a news release on motorcycle shipping! What's new - Air Canada Cargo

I just sent them an email. I want to get a bike from Toronto or Montreal to South Africa. It doesn't appear Air Canada flies to South Africa directly according to a map on the website, but we'll see...

Note the 2nd post. They put that out February 18th, two days before the Toronto Motorcycle Show where I came across their info booth.

When you find out, please post their reply.

Had a fast reply to my email. Air Canada doesn't fly to South Africa, so they're not interested. Would require transfer to a different carrier in Europe, as expected.

South Africa Airways does a Toronto-Munich-Johannesburg route, and I have a good quote of $1500 USD through a broker for that option, including bike crating.

I also asked the Air Canada rep if they had a list of destinations -- not exactly. Basically, "most of the major stations we fly into" ... handled on a case by case basis depending on available cargo space in an aircraft.

And they'll take bike shipments into Canada, of course -- good news for anyone wanting to get a bike to North America.

They did have a list at the show. Unfortunately it was not a hand-out.

Available cargo space was always the case, even when I shipped with Air Canada through Kuehne & Nagel the first two times. It is why I always dropped the motorcycle off some 4 or 5 days prior to my flight and I always wanted it to go out a day or two before so that I am not waiting for it to get to the AC cargo facility even though they are right at the airport.

This AC deal is also flagged up in Trip Transport:-

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...ler-deal-80707

Just so all are aware. This program will be a trail for the whole of 2015, to virtually all their wide-body jet locations world wide, any direction. I even got them to guarantee my return price over a year later in 2016 from any of their destinations in Europe (London, Paris, Venice, Rome). They also offer insurance for shipping at $3/$1000 value and this includes all accessories and contents in the panniers as long as they are left open and manifested for customers both ways.

Yes you can also fly out from any of their destinations as long as you arrive in Canada for the same discounted amounts. Prices do vary depending of location obviously.

If you want to speak with their rep in person, they will have a booth at the HU meeting in Ontario in June where you can book as well within 30 day window.

:scooter:

Yes, I noticed that later.

I'm not on here very often since all I tour is Europe and after 20 straight years of doing so, chances are any new tips of importance are already known to me.

Another reply from Air Canada since I advised them it would be a good idea to mention dimensional maximums. I have done this many times, so what is obvious to me, may not be to others.

That means taking the windshield off on certain motorcycles.



And here are other responses from Air Canada that motorcyclists might have...

On the shipping in advance topic, as I mentioned I always shipped a day or two before my flight. I've never been charged a "storage charge", not for two days. That might have changed since 2010 or if your motorcycle sits there for a week.

Due to their response above, I then asked "But if it arrives with the passenger, how long does it take for the motorcycle to reach the cargo facility from the aircraft?"

Air Canada's response:
Six hours is a bit long to have to wait. I am usually on the road 6 hours after landing and that covers getting my luggage, clearing customs, taxi transport to Air Canada Cargo, clearing the motorcycle through customs, getting gas, installing parts, etc.

As for clearing customs, I always had to do the legwork. The office the last two times was a 15 minute walk from Air Canada Cargo on Shoreham Road East at London-Heathrow. Once there, maybe 30 minutes and I was done.

There's more discussion of this same subject at this post:

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...ler-deal-80707

Below is a picture of my motorcycle (a Honda ST1100, also known as a 'PanEuropean') inside a Uniform Load Device (ULD, also known as an 'air freight can'). This particular size of ULD is used on wide-body flights.

When I shipped this motorcycle to Europe from Canada, the guys in the freight shed told me to not bother putting it on a pallet, instead, I just drove it into the can and tied it down in the can. But, some freight depots prefer to have the moto put on a pallet that they can then forklift into the can. So, find out in advance what the local preference is. Be aware that if you build your own wooden pallet, you have to use pressure-treated (chemically treated) lumber, otherwise the agricultural inspectors at the other end will have fits worrying about whether some unwanted wood-boring insect might be sneaking into the country undocumented inside your pallet.

There are more photos at the other post, the one I referred to above.

Michael

Motorcycle inside an air freight container
http://i979.photobucket.com/albums/a...psazpqfzvk.jpg

I've shipped my moto back and forth across the Atlantic many times, and never had to wait anything remotely close to 6 hours to get it.

In practice, the freight comes off the aircraft itself very quickly (just as quickly as the passenger baggage comes off). Once off the aircraft, it has to be transported to the air freight warehouse, which is usually some distance away from the passenger terminal.

But, if you are on the same plane (as a passenger), you'll have to go through immigration, get your luggage, go through customs, then take a taxi over to the air freight warehouse, and by the time you do that, the motorcycle will most likely be at the warehouse. I've never "beaten the motorcycle to the freight shed" in my life... it's always been there before I get there.

What you do need to know is that the taxi ride from the passenger terminal to the freight shed will not be cheap (the freight sheds are almost always on the other side of the runway, that means a $50 taxi ride), and it will take you an hour or two to do the paperwork and get the motorcycle cleared out of the freight shed by Customs (a much faster and easier process in Europe than it is in Canada). Then, finally, you will have to pay the warehouse fees, which will include one day of storage even if your bike has only been in the building for 30 minutes (figure on about $100 in warehouse fees), and finally, you will need to get the bike out of the can - or off the pallet, as the case may be - and out onto the road.

Don't take it for granted that you will simply be able to drive out of the air freight warehouse. Often, the warehouses have truck docks on the public (the exit) side, and no ramp to run the motorcycle down. That means that you then have to hang around until you can find a sympathetic truck driver who will lower the bike down to the pavement using the liftgate on his/her truck.

Best time I have ever experienced was going into Paris - the plane landed at 0600 in the morning, I was riding down the road on the bike at 0810. But that was quite exceptional. Typically, it takes about 3 hours from touchdown to getting on the road (that's for Europe), and it can easily take a whole friggin' day in Canada.

Michael

That didn't seem to be an issue since it was never mentioned at either end of the transport.

In every case, I either modified pallets (first pic) or made my own (second pic) simply because I wanted to make sure nothing happened to my motorcycle and that it was tied down rock solid. I did all the prep work. The base of those containers look flimsy as in they look as if they could bend in on themselves.

First trip over in 1995...
http://edelweiss.smugmug.com/Motorcy...Z/0/O/9501.jpg

Last time I shipped...
http://edelweiss.smugmug.com/Motorcy...P5210036-L.jpg

Same here in my 20 years of riding there, but as Air Canada indicated to me, it can take up to 6 hours to get the motorcycle to the cargo facility. Something I am not willing to risk with jet lag...I want to get going.

Who have you been flying with? I've never paid any warehouse fees and my motorcycle gets there a day or two before I arrive.

You won't be able to do anything to the motorcycle till it has cleared customs.

Hi Alex:

The whole 'warehouse fee' issue seems to be dependent on whether the air carrier that you ship the motorcycle with owns and operates their own freight shed, or whether they use an agent to handle their freight at 'out' destinations (meaning, destinations outside of the home country of the air carrier).

Most of the time, I've shipped with Air Transat, a Canadian charter carrier. They don't operate their own freight facilities anywhere, instead, they contract out their freight handling to independent facilities at each airport. I have always had to pay warehouse fees at the receiving end of the shipment, but never at the drop-off location.

I don't know what Air Canada's policy on warehouse fees is - my guess is that it is going to vary by location, and also vary depending on whether it is Air Canada themselves or a third party that handles the freight at the destination.

What I do know, and this is from a lot of experience, is that one always has to be prepared to pay a very wide variety of fees (customs fees, inspection fees, port fees, etc.) that can be imposed by any number of participants (the air carrier, the warehouse operator, the airport operator, customs & agricultural inspectors, etc.) at the receiving end of the shipment. Sometimes one might get lucky and pay very little, sometimes you get the shaft and have to pay $100 to $100. It's a bit like buying a passenger air ticket, in the sense that there are lots of little surcharges that might get added on.

Personally, I think it's great that Air Canada is trying to make it more attractive to customers to ship motorcycles by air. I think Air Canada is a trustworthy and honest company - I've flown over 1 million miles with them, and been given an award for that.

What I have been trying to stress to novice motorcycle shippers in the posts I have made recently is that the the whole process of shipping a motorcycle internationally by air is not as simple as just checking in baggage at the passenger terminal. There are forms to fill out, and processes that have to be gone through (mostly at the destination end). The paperwork is not especially complicated, but for someone who has not done it before, it can be intimidating.

In particular, the legal requirement (IATA regulation) that states that the cargo carrier and their representative who receives the shipment cannot complete the DG paperwork (the person shipping the moto has to do that) can present a last-minute surprise to novice shippers, and problems can arise if the folks at the freight shed are not familiar with the classification (UN 3166, vehicle, flammable liquid powered) and packing instructions for the moto. That stuff is easy for me because I am a retired aircraft pilot who used to teach DG documentation courses. It's not going to be quite so easy for someone who has not ever shipped air cargo internationally.

Hence my recommendation that first-time shippers visit the freight receiving facility well ahead of time to become familiar with the process (and possible pitfalls, such as how to get the moto onto the dock and into the freight shed), and that the ease of getting the moto cleared through customs at the destination end will vary very much depending on the destination country.

Michael