You may have seen the story over the weekend about Redhill Cycling Club, who flew to Mallorca for a training camp only to discover that Easyjet had left 16 club members' bikes behind at Gatwick. The missing bikes, said to be worth £30,000, were flown over the next day but as cyclists we can all sympathise with how the members must have felt as they waited by that empty luggage carousel.
"There was a sense of awful disbelief," club chairman Andy Webb told Get Surrey. "For many club members these few days abroad are precious time away from work and families, dedicated to training in the mountains of Mallorca.
"To be told that the bikes they had booked on the plane and paid for months previously had never even been loaded was appalling."
The airline managed to further infuriate the club by refusing to tell passengers where the bikes were, allegedly invoking the Data Protection Act.
Easyjet have now apologised, explaining:
"We would like to apologise for the delay and resulting inconvenience in reuniting Redhill Cycling Club with 16 of their bicycles following a flight from London Gatwick to Palma.
"49 of the 65 bikes that the cycling club checked in were loaded onto the flight the group travelled on but unfortunately, due to the higher than usual number and space constraints within the hold, it was not possible for all 65 to travel on the same flight."
Given that the bikes had all been pre-booked and paid for, it seems that this incident could have been avoided with a little foresight from the carrier.
We can hope that Easyjet will learn a lesson and take steps to prevent flights being overbooked with outsize baggage. In the meantime, if you're travelling abroad as part of a large group it might be worth contacting your airline ahead of time to make sure they'll have room for your baggage - or even splitting the group across different flights if possible.
Here's hoping Redhill club enjoyed their trip despite the setback.
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