I am thinking of flying over a long weekend from Hong Kong to buy a bike at a Giant Store. If I just buy the bike in the box, will airlines allow me to check it in? Anyone have experience with this?
I don’t to buy it in Hong Kong cause it cost an extra 17000 NTD for the same model. And I want to stop by Taipei for a weekend anyways.
years ago I brought back my own road bike from US to Taipei on EVA. Put it in a bike box myself that I got from local store. It was like regular luggage and so free.
Check with airline first. Theyll confirm yes/no.
I sometimes see people bringing boxed bikes into and out of Taiwan.
Especially now with annual KOM international bike event.
Common to travel with bikes but don’t know process.
Taiwan is great for biking so take the bike out of the box and enjoy it!
Check with the airline. You should be able to fly with it, but they may charge an extra. Less likely if it’s your only checked baggage.
It should not happen, but there’s the risk of some damage happening to it. Factory packaging is not designed for passenger airplanes. You may want to open the box and stuff some extra protection here and there.
Yes, it’s doable and no extra charge, at least when I did it over 10 years ago. I checked a Merida mountainbike in its original box as my luggage. The thing is I had to pay someone to assemble it when I got to the U.S.
On EVA you need to call them and declared the luggage is a bike. Then it just count as one of your checked luggage.
I flew with a bike from Taipei to the US on Delta in 2022. I got a cardboard bike box for free from a bike shop. (The first shop I asked wanted to charge me for the box 
, so I asked a different one that just gave it to me). I then put a bunch of extra stuff in the box as padding and because it was my second checked item. The delta website said that there would be a sports equipment charge (I think around $30 usd), but when I got to the airport they just treated it as one of my included checked items and didn’t charge me anything extra.
If you go the cardboard bike box route, you’re going to need to, at a minimum, take off the handlebars and probably pedals, back derailleur and wheels too. I’d also try to figure out some sort of inside-the-box padding so things don’t get scratched or bent. If you’re not on the cardboard box budget, (like I was), or if you’re planning on traveling with the bike a lot, it might be worth looking into a hard-shelled bike case.
Most, if not all, of the disassembly and reassembly should be pretty easy to do yourself with an allen wrench and other common tools.