Before The Trip

I did quite some research on how to get to South America from Vienna. For the longest time, my plan was to fly to Lima, then bike south to Santiago and fly back home from there. A year earlier, I had seen a rather cheap flight with Delta – such a trip would have cost just around €800 return, but it would have meant transferring in Atlanta both ways – where there is no possibility of transit; one has to enter the United States, including the luggage and my bike – only to have to recheck it again. No, thanks. I spent several hours trying other alternatives. (Funny detail: I am right now sitting in the very same armchair writing this blog where I had made the reservation from.)

From a previous “life”, I still had miles on the global airline alliance SkyTeam, enough for a business class trip for one leg of the journey. Then I stumbled upon an airline called Level (a subsidiary of British Airways and Iberia) that now offers relatively cheap flights to South America via Barcelona.

Anyhow, after a lot of trial and error, I finalized my trip. My conclusion was that it would be a lot cheaper flying first to Santiago via Barcelona with Level, biking north to Lima, then flying back from there via Amsterdam with KLM. The Level flight cost around €1,000 for a premium economy seat including the carriage of the bike; the KLM business class cost just €150, plus the majority of my remaining, idling points. I booked both flights, so for around €1,150, I had flights in premium classes including the carriage of the bike – a pretty good deal. The outbound trip was on January 26, the return leg on March 19. I hoped the time would suffice to cover the distance of some 3,500 kilometers – including a large, dry desert between the two cities.

Now came the hard part. Booking the bike on KLM was easy – it was a lot more complicated on Level. The issue was that the Vienna–Barcelona section was operated by yet another low‑cost carrier, called Vueling. Now that was quite a horror. Despite me talking to the Level customer support, the carriage of my bike did not appear on the Vueling booking. I feared that at check‑in in Vienna, Vueling would deny the carriage of the bike. I thought the best course of action was to head to the airport a day before my flight and talk to the Vueling staff. They did confirm that the carriage of the bicycle was not included, so I had to pay an additional €70 for that. (I have since claimed that amount back from Level; despite promises, it has not been reimbursed.)

Regarding my bike, there was a pleasant surprise. A few days before the trip, I headed to a large bike shop of the brand Cube close to my home and, it being mid‑January, they were practically empty. A very friendly guy told me to leave the bike there and he would box it, and I should return a day or two later. For the boxing of the bike, I had paid up to €100 earlier. This nice young gentleman told me the cost would be €0 – free! I thanked him with a couple of boxes of chocolates (he did not prefer wine).