The cycling part of the first few days of our 1998 cycle trip turned out to be a disaster. Let me walk you through it.
There was no way to get directly to Milan from either Ottawa or Montreal. We could get to Washington, Chicago, Boston, Newark, New York, London, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Paris, Rome and then to Milan but nothing direct. So we chose British Airways to London because we could fly out of Ottawa rather than Montreal and the aircraft was larger than the small "regional" jets that would fly us to American airports and which might not have handled the six bikes. Once in Milan, rather than taking a couple of days to cycle around the very large metropolitan area to get from Linate airport to Lago d'Orta where we were starting our tour, we arranged to rent a large van which we would load up with our bikes, our luggage and ourselves and we would drive the 80 km to Orta San Giulio. Then, the next day, two of us would return the van to Malpensa airport and cycle the 50 km back to Orta. With this in mind, we had booked a hotel in Orta for the first two nights and had even made reservations at a restaurant for the first evening.
Everything went smoothly at first. Out of Ottawa was easy - it's a small airport. We had an hour and a half or so to wait at Heathrow in London before we boarded our connecting flight to Milan's Linate airport. At Linate, it fell apart. We waited for our luggage and the bikes. The other two couples got their bags but our large sack with our panniers inside did not appear. Nor did any bikes! Finally, we asked a woman from the British Airways staff where our bikes were. She checked her clipboard and there were all our names. The bikes had not made the transfer to the connecting flight and they would be on the next flight at 6:00 p.m.. It was now about 3:30 p.m.. We checked the flight schedules and saw that the flight with our bikes would be delayed and would arrive at 8:30 p.m.. We went to the lost luggage counter and asked what we must do, since our dinner and hotel reservations had been made. After a long and complicated discussion - thank God Rosie speaks Italian - we were told that our late arriving luggage would be sent along to our hotel in Orta and would be there in the morning. This was good news. I'm still not convinced that we could have stuffed all those bikes, etc., into that van. So we took off in our rented van to Orta.
Next morning, no bikes! Rosie spent about an hour and a half at this pay phone, in the rain, a lot of it on hold, trying to get an answer from the people at Linate - Where are our bikes?? We took turns dialing the number so she could get an occasional rest. Finally, they told her the bikes would be delivered that day to the "sister" hotel, up the hill from the one we were staying at. Brooke and Rosie returned the van to Malpensa and then had to take a taxi back to Orta - the only possibility since we had no bikes! Cost: 150 000 £. About mid-afternoon we got a message from our hotel staff that everything had arrived. We all trekked up the hill to the other hotel and found.......the bag with our panniers. Still no bikes!! Back we went to our hotel. The young woman at the desk then got on the phone on our behalf. She got the number of the courier from the airport and called him. He said he didn't have room for the bikes on his load so he left them until the next day. She had him promise that they would be the first things delivered the following day.
Next morning, still no bikes after breakfast. The hotel needed our rooms and kindly loaded our bags in a car and transferred them to the lobby of the hotel where the bikes were to be delivered. By 12:30 there were still no bikes. We walked up the hill from the hotel where we had lunch at a pizzeria and when we returned, the bikes were there!! Forty-six hours after we landed in Milan!! And they were damaged!
The damage to mine was minor - the mudguard had buckled. I was able to pull it straight and it still functions although the crease in the plastic is ultimately going to separate. The damage to Mary's bike was much more serious. The outer chain ring looked like a potato chip! If I wanted to duplicate the problem, I would need a vise and a lot of leverage. Fortunately, the inner two rings were undamaged and so she could still ride the bike. However, the derailleur assembly had also been bent so that she could not drop into the lowest gears because the derailleur began hitting the spokes. It was a mess that was nicely repaired a couple of days later in a shop in Pallanza (for about 90 000 £).
So the cost was 240 000 £ (the taxi and the bike repair) and a priceless day of cycling (actually two for me since I was going to be one of the two cycling back from Malpensa). And the culprit? The delays were caused at Heathrow, at Linate, and by the courier. The damage to the bikes? It could have been any of the players: Canadian Airlines, the British Airways partners who flew us to Heathrow from Ottawa; Heathrow, where the bikes were transferred between flights; British Airways, who flew us from London to Milan; Linate, where the bikes finally got to Italy; or the courier, who transported them from Linate to Orta. And to whom would I ascribe responsibility? British Airways. It was their ticket. It was their responsibility.
We will be very reluctant to make another flight where the bikes must change planes!