From Sydney, Australia to Santiago, Chile - March, 2005

First, BTI have had a lot of staff changes and are now very recommendable. The main contact, Mark Christmas, is extremely helpful.

To fly the bike you have to crate it, drain fuel and engine oil, and jettison the battery; this is because a bike is classed as hazardous cargo and may go on the rampage attacking the passengers.

The BMW dealer in Sydney was very helpful - Tom Byrne M/C, contact Peter Kelly Tel: (02) 9557 1610 sal...@tombyrnemotorcycles.com.au. They sorted a crate, and did the work for Aus$200, and provided the letter certifying that the fuel/oil/battery thing had been done. BTI collected the crate that afternoon, and arranged the Customs visit (be warned, they wanted the panniers and everything emptied so I almost had to dismantle the crate again). Customs is free at the shipping warehouse but Aus$150 to do it before crating at the dealer.

Mark Christmas was very helpful indeed (and they take credit cards). He even managed to arrange that the bike was on the same plane as me.

In Santiago, Mark took the trouble to text me that the bike had indeed arrived and was in the warehouse at the airport. I emailed to LanChile cargo (having failed to find an English-speaker telephonically), and a helpful lady called Ninoschka (Tel: 565 3925) rang me at my hotel and explained in detail the procedure. This was:

1. Go to the airport to the AirFast (warehouse 5) customer service office to get the Airway Bill ($10).

2. Walk 100m to Customs to have the bike verified (checking frame and engine numbers).

3. Use the airport circular bus to go to the Customs office on the airside of International Arrivals to
obtain the temporary import permit (they use the carnet merely as a cribsheet).

4. Go back to the warehouse to pay for the dangerous
cargo/storage/etc. stuff (35,000 pesos = $60-ish).

5. They uncrate the bike and you reassemble it. Easy.

The whole thing was really very simple if labyrinthine. What made it rather easier for me was that I hired a driver for the day who spoke some English. This cost me 40,000 pesos ($70-ish) (and included stuff not documented here because it's not relevant). Worth every penny.