Travelling with bike on Qatar airlines

[ycowley]

I will be travelling with my road bike (packed in the Thule Roundtrip box) from Johannesburg to Spain - via Doha.

Few questions: -

1. I am flying Qatar Airlines. I know Emirates require pre-disclosure of bike. Is it the same with Qatar as I cannot find anything like that on their website?
2. Do you think it will be necessary to wrap the bike with bubble wrap or should I trust the box?
3. Should I buy pool noodles and put that in the box to stop the bike from coming loose (it should be sturdy in the box but one never knows)?

[Sprockets]

29 minutes ago, ycowley said:

I will be travelling with my road bike (packed in the Thule Roundtrip box) from Johannesburg to Spain - via Doha.

Few questions: -

1. I am flying Qatar Airlines. I know Emirates require pre-disclosure of bike. Is it the same with Qatar as I cannot find anything like that on their website?
2. Do you think it will be necessary to wrap the bike with bubble wrap or should I trust the box?
3. Should I buy pool noodles and put that in the box to stop the bike from coming loose (it should be sturdy in the box but one never knows)?

I flew Qatar to Geneva. Very positive experience.

I did not disclose I was taking a bike before the time, only when checking my bags in. They allow you to take bikes in as checked luggage (but fine print - although its free they charged me a R1300 oversize fee)  

No harm in using bubble wrap, the local airlines trashed my box but Qatar seemed more gentle. 

My bike packed pretty tight, and had no problems.

But all in all they were good with handling the bike and my bike survived the journey despite the box. 

** I used a cardboard box

Edited 2 hours ago by Sprockets