I will be touring in France this June, but I have goten so fond of Ireland that I'm flying Aer Lingus into Dublin for a couple of days before going to Cork for the ferry to Brittany. I don't know for sure what the policy will be, but I bet that with fewer travelers in general these days, they won't have a problem with the bike going free.

No. I didn't expect that I would have to, based on Aer Lingus information on their website, and I didn't have to. That was one reason for using Aer Lingus in the first place. (I have always wondered why baggage handlers would be BETTER able to handle a huge flimsy cardboard box full of bike better than a bike on wheels that one could ROLL anywhere, and apparently Aer Lingus wonders the same thing.)

The first time I flew to Ireland, the check-in clerk had a big bag materialize from nowhere and asked if I wanted to put the bike in it (no cost). The bag was a large transparent polyethylene bag, about big enough for half or 2/3rds of the bike to fit.

I tried to put the bike in it and somebody else came up with another bag to put the back end in, and I used tape they supplied to tape (loosely" the two bags over the bike. This was "to prevent scratches" they said as I was doing the taping. I asked if it was necessary and they said no, but they had the bags in case I wanted to use them.

The second time I flew to Ireland, I skipped the bags entirely and nobody said anything. The bike didn't have any major damage either time; I didn't closely inspect it for new scratches, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary either time so I doubt there was much damage. The bike (a Trek 520) had front and rear racks, but I packed the panniers in a cheap thin nylon athletic gear bag as my second (free) piece of checked luggage.

The first trip, I actually forgot to deflate the tires, and remembered half-way through the flight that I probably should have. But somebody had done so for me; both tires had been deflated by someone (the presta valves were open). The second time I deflated the tires almost all the way before I took it to the counter.

I had called ahead to confirm fee amounts and was told by Horizon it was to be fifty US dollars per direction per bike. This was confirmed at the airport and policy seemed consistent no matter who we asked/tried to get out of it by talking to. I reached Aer Lingus by phone and talked to the most pleasant people, who chuckled at my question of fees for a bicycle and said, "Of course not!"

Having one bubble wrapped and one boxed bike turned out to be an interesting experiment and both bikes arrived damage free in Ireland, both had damaged derailers on arrival home in Seattle. We located a B&B on the day we arrived in Ireland, made a reservation, and mailed our packing materials (a light box full of old inner tubes, bubble wrap, etc.) to the woman who owned it, who was glad to keep it for six weeks for us and presented it to us in our room when we arrived at the end of the vacation. It worked out really nicely.

Also-had no difficulties returning through the airports after 9-11-01...just the occasional odd/suspicious look as everyone was jumpy.