On this page we attempt to make available the experience of individual bicycle tourists who have travelled with BUZZ (you can share your experiences here).
Bikes on Trains to London Stansted Airport; Buzz Airlines from Stansted
Bikes on trains to Stansted Airport:
Stansted Express from London Liverpool St: You are officially supposed to have a bike not measuring more than the size of their luggage racks - definitely a case of taking both wheels and luggage off.
Alternatives from London Liverpool St: (1) stopping train, just over an hour total from London Liverpool St, no restrictions I'm aware of. (2) Take a (faster and more frequent) train from London Liverpool St to Bishop's Stortford, and ride from there to the Airport (only 2 or 3 miles/15 mins).
Stansted from rest of country: (1) Central Trains run trains from all over central England to Stansted. They have spaces for two unloaded bikes which you are supposed to pre-book. We used these successfully Cambridge->Stansted. Just be warned that these Central trains sometimes run up to 1/2-hour / hour late - leave yourself buffer time. (2) Again, riding from either Stansted Mountfitchet station or Bishop's Stortford station to Stansted is 2-3 miles/15 mins, so cross-country travellers could use any more reliable service to get to Cambridge and then Cambridge->Stortford and ride.
Buzz airline (travelled Stansted->Bergerac->Stansted): Now charge £15 for carriage of bike, covers both directions if a return flight. You have to phone-book rather than website-book to register your bike, but this is supposed to guarantee its transport. Certainly we experienced no problems. Official packing policy quoted to me at July 02 was "deflate, take both wheels off and tape/attach them to bike" (nothing about turning handlebars flat and taking pedals off), but in my experience so much depends on the check-in staff you actually meet at the airport - we weren't asked to do any of these things, but preferred to detach front w and fasten over chain area, and turn handlebars flat, to protect bike.
No problems tho, and Buzz airline v friendly about it at both ends.
Buzz
George:
Recent experience with Buzz from Bordeaux to Stansted:
Buzz will take a booking for a bike over the phone (you can book your ticket first by internet then phone) and take the 12 Pound payment by credit card.
Although they reserve the right to limit the number of bikes on a flight, booking this way makes you pretty safe. Usual rules: handelbrds turned, pedals off, tires let down.
Our bikes were very well handeled at both ends.
Buzz Airlines - Buzzaway
Excellent.... We flew from Stanstead to - Toulouse with Buzz. They welcomed us and our bikes with open arms. No problems checking in and on the return trip all we had to do was let down the tyres, no removong pedals, etc......
10/10 for buzz. and 10/10 for Stanstead airport.