Mission Accomplished Blog: Flying with 200 Pound of Gear through 4 Countries

For those of you curious how I get my load on the planes....

It had been over a year since I had to move my 200+ pound load of bicycle and filming equipment by airplane and I gave myself the ultimate challenge in June-July, 2007 indeed. My mission was to fly from Rwanda to Tanzania for the ZIFF Film Festival, then from Zanzibar to France for a vacation with a lovely friend Kelly from the Bay Area, and finally take yet another flight from France back down to West Africa in Lome, Togo. 3 Flights. What made the mission even more challenging was the fact that I made the decision to do all this flying last minute and thus did not have the proper lead time to contact the airlines for permission to waive my excess baggage. It was time for maximum creative action!

First there was the flight from Rwanda to Tanzania. I was way behind schedule and the buses were not an option as there really are not any going where and when I wanted. So I wrote a proposal to Rwandair Express and went directly to the headquarters to meet the manager and then to the ticketing office to meet the marketing manager. Fortunately I had met a reporter who wanted to cover the Peace Pedalers story and I asked him if he would mention Rwandair Express’ support in the article and he agreed. This was the ammunition I needed to get my proposal approved—-not only for free excess baggage, but for a free flight as well! The marketing manager assured me that if the article came out he would approve my request and set me up with a free flight and waived my excess baggage, thus saving me about $800 on the flight! Mission accomplished! I was able to teleport myself from the mountains of Rwanda to the beaches of Zanzibar for pennies and got there in time for an incredible sunset at Africa House Hotel!

My second challenge would be a highly discounted flight from Zanzibar to Paris on a German airline called Condor. I had only 5 days from when I booked the flight until it left to somehow get permission to waive the 130 pounds of excess weight, which would have cost me upwards of 500 dollars. After several calls over the internet to the airlines in Germany and many unanswered emails all I could manage to get was a waiver to bring my bike on the plane free of charge. However, the email confirmation did not say how heavy the bike could be, so that was my open door. I went to work finding a strong box that could handle not only my bike but all the heavy gear in my kit to create one “bike box” that ended up weighing 55 kilos, or over 125 pounds! The other bag was my trailer and Ortlieb dry bag at about 25 kilos so it was a “standard checked bag”

When I arrived at the airport in Zanzibar I was set for the bike and other checked bag but I still had two massive carryon bags weighing 20+ kilos and you are only allowed one weighing 8 kilos. How to get over this hurdle? I had my good friend Anna with me and she kept one of my carryon bags outside while I went through security to the boarding gate. I then made a dash out to give her one more hug goodbye and grabbed the second carry of my Pelican camera case and proceeded to reenter security again. The guy at the door unfortunately recognized me and questioned me about the bag. I gave him my best puppy dog eyes and made up a story that Anna decided not to come with me and be my filming assistant and I now needed to bring the camera to France with me. His reply was, “tip?”. I had 10,000 shillings left in my pocket, about 7 dollars, and he was more than happy to let me pass with this. I was soon boarding the cheap flight up to Paris only paying 7 dollars for my excess baggage and teleported from a rocking music and film festival to sipping Bordeaux wine in Paris with Kelly. Mission Accomplished.

In Paris I gave myself just one day to get a proposal to yet another super discount airline Royal Air Moroc to allow me to bring my excess baggage back down to West Africa. Kelly and I made the mission to the ticket office in hopes we would find a manager to accept the proposal and get it green lighted while we were off riding and camping on the beaches in the south of France. We met a manager named Owett who appeared to understand the request, made a few phone calls, and said the bike would be “no problem”. She gave me no papers or documentation, just her word that all would be okay and it was taken care of. She spoke little English and I no French so I trusted that somehow it was okay to stop thinking about this and go on vacation. I took her business card and that’s all the proof I really had.

We went on my exquisite holiday thinking all was set with good old Royal Air Moroc and after some long delays due to visa issues (you actually need prearranged visas for most countries in West Africa, I was soon to learn) the day of July 20 finally arrived to catch my flight from Paris to Lome, Togo. This would be the trickiest mission of all, flying out of a major airport without the ability to give “tips” to gate masters and with computer systems and regulations far more strict than most places.

I arrived at 4:45AM for my 6:30AM flight to Casablanca, Morocco with my massive cart with the a huge 55 kilo bike box, 25 kilo trailer bag and my two big heavy carry on bags. They are VERY strict about only having one carryon in Europe, versus two in USA, so I brought two carts with me and left one strategically out of line in my sight but just enough out of theirs. The trick was keeping it close enough so when security saw a cart sitting alone I was close enough for me to claim it was mine before they destroy it, but far enough so the ticket folks don’t know what I’m up to. I’m so sneaky!

When I hit the checkin I told her my story about Owett giving me the okay to bring my bike up to 50kilos. But, as I feared, there was “nothing in the system”, “no telefax” and nothing that gave any indication that she approved it. Because it was so early, there was no way for them to call the office. The quote for my excess baggage was almost 600 dollars—about the same as my airfare!

I was persistent, friendly and had full intentions of NOT paying a cent for my excess baggage. I had put Royal Air Moroc on the website per the proposal I gave to Owett and got the manager to see this, my letter I presented to Royal Air Moroc, and gave her some stickers and bracelets to prove we were legit. She would not budge. She was to the book and was calling everyone she could to see if there was any way to get in touch with Owett. She finally caved just 30 minutes before the flight was to depart and I gave her my one lighter laptop bag and a helmet to check as my one carry on and one “personal item”. Both items get a coveted “Cabin Baggage” tag allowing you to take it through security. This was a my second strategic move on my part as you’ll soon discover.

After I said my thanks to the manager I darted off to security. But before I entered I had to gently remove the “Cabin Baggage” tag from my cycling helmet and put it on the 25 pound Pelican Case and then strap the helmet to my laptop bag. Now I had two “legitimate” carry on bags approved by the ticket agents, and supposedly weighed. I went through security with full confidence and carried my 25 pound camera case as if it were a light, simple case so as not to let on that it was a beast of a load. The guy stopped me, looked at my bags and I confidently showed him my two cabin baggage tags and walked right by. I was in! Mission Accomplished!

So, I managed to get myself from Rwanda to Tanzania to France to Togo for 7 dollars in extra fees and for a price so low on budget airfares it was impossible to pass up a holiday in France. It’s not easy, but with some creativity and finagling my mojo with excess baggage continues to flow! I won’t need to test this again for a while as I’ll be on the ground all the way to up to and through Europe. Shouldn’t need to test this until February 2009 when I head to Brazil for Carnival and to start stage 3 form South to North America.

Over and out from Casablanca, Morocco!