Ferry travel to France
- Thread starter grldtnr
- Start date
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mjr
Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
- Location
- mostly Norfolk, sometimes Somerset
Oops!
Cathryn
Legendary Member
- Location
- Marlborough, Wiltshire
Thanks for Kasper's details. Poor Kasper.
Cathryn
Legendary Member
- Location
- Marlborough, Wiltshire
Update. Still no email so I phoned again on their 14p/minute phone line. On the phone for 20 mins. On hold for at least 10.
I get put through to France because UK is all busy. Lovely lady. Apparently, I'm NOT a group booking (I'm less than 10 people) so she puts me thrugh to another lovely French lady. She does find my reservation (I have the number written down now) and confirms it. Says she'll put my reservation through to customer services. I ask if I should hold? Oh no..they'll contact me. By email? By phone? By email.
4pm. Still no email. That's a least £4 in phone charges so far. Once this is resolved, I'll be emailing DFDS.
I get put through to France because UK is all busy. Lovely lady. Apparently, I'm NOT a group booking (I'm less than 10 people) so she puts me thrugh to another lovely French lady. She does find my reservation (I have the number written down now) and confirms it. Says she'll put my reservation through to customer services. I ask if I should hold? Oh no..they'll contact me. By email? By phone? By email.
4pm. Still no email. That's a least £4 in phone charges so far. Once this is resolved, I'll be emailing DFDS.
Cathryn
Legendary Member
- Location
- Marlborough, Wiltshire
Shall I talk flights too?
All I want is: 3 adults (son is 12) with bikes. One way. Geneva to Heathrow. I go with Swiss because they're cheap and much better than Easyjet when I've flown with them before. Their website talks about booking bikes on - needs to be in a box, you can get boxes with Swiss at Geneva airport. Brilliant.
Cannot book the bikes on. Can't find any way to add them to our luggage. Use the BOT chat thing and it tells me eventually that I need to add my bikes to my booking afterwards. It's a bit of a gamble. So I try three different helplines from their websites. No-one picks up and I'm waiting for a long time.
So I book the flights. All good. Then i fill in the Bike Booking Request form and wait. Nothing.
So I tweet Swiss. Within an hour or so, a person has replied asking me to DM her details. I do so. She can add the bikes..yay! Just as well as they only carry THREE BIKES PER PLANE. What happened if we had another child?? She has provisionally added bikes to our reservation because....she also needs: height, length, width and weight of all the bikes! Cue much tape-measure/bathroom scales action! I've sent her all the details and am awaiting her confirmation. This is grim.
All I want is: 3 adults (son is 12) with bikes. One way. Geneva to Heathrow. I go with Swiss because they're cheap and much better than Easyjet when I've flown with them before. Their website talks about booking bikes on - needs to be in a box, you can get boxes with Swiss at Geneva airport. Brilliant.
Cannot book the bikes on. Can't find any way to add them to our luggage. Use the BOT chat thing and it tells me eventually that I need to add my bikes to my booking afterwards. It's a bit of a gamble. So I try three different helplines from their websites. No-one picks up and I'm waiting for a long time.
So I book the flights. All good. Then i fill in the Bike Booking Request form and wait. Nothing.
So I tweet Swiss. Within an hour or so, a person has replied asking me to DM her details. I do so. She can add the bikes..yay! Just as well as they only carry THREE BIKES PER PLANE. What happened if we had another child?? She has provisionally added bikes to our reservation because....she also needs: height, length, width and weight of all the bikes! Cue much tape-measure/bathroom scales action! I've sent her all the details and am awaiting her confirmation. This is grim.
mjr
Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
- Location
- mostly Norfolk, sometimes Somerset
Let's not because they are too grim for the planet as well as for booking bikes
Cathryn
Legendary Member
- Location
- Marlborough, Wiltshire
OP
OP
grldtnr
Senior Member
Not a fan of flights with a bike, but oddly never had a problem booking flights with a bike , admittedly last time I flew with a bike must have been 20 + years ago ,before t'interweb booking thing became a thing.
But still, clicking through a website should not present difficulty, and yet it does, .....WHY !
Cathryn
Legendary Member
- Location
- Marlborough, Wiltshire
I haven't flown with a bike for maybe 14 years and I don't remember this much trouble either. So weird.
shnjmsn
Über Member
- Location
- Somerset Levels
Exactly this, we've had years of experience now........ We mostly head along the back road to Mardyck nowadays and stop for a beer in the village......! Getting off the ferry is a bit hit and miss, some years we've been first off, other years last off....... Think it's just how they feel on the day ! But if you get off first you do get the head start out through the port....... Roll on 19th June where we'll be heading back over to Bruges for the first time in 3 years !
Cathryn
Legendary Member
- Location
- Marlborough, Wiltshire
It’s definitely easier on the day! I’m excited for you though!
Cathryn
Legendary Member
- Location
- Marlborough, Wiltshire
Given this week's shenanigans, I was amused at the Cycling UK newsletter which came out yesterday! I'm gathering notes on my booking fiasco and will write to them (in a helpful way, not a snotty way obvs).
Taking your bike on a ferry
When it comes to travelling with your bike, there are few methods more convenient than going by ferry. In most cases, it's simply a case of rolling into the port, walking on board pushing your wheels and then heading to the passenger deck. It's that simple. In this simple guide, Cycling UK's Sam Jones provides some tips on what to expect and where you can travel with your bike.
Oldhippy
Cynical idealist
I thought exactly the same thing as you when I saw that yesterday. Someone needs to do a bit more research on the subject at Cycling UK methinks.
