bike box needed tomorrow at Malpensa

Check with other airlines at the airport to see if they have a box available.

Is it required to be in a box? Might the airport have plastic wrapping services that could at least wrap it to stabilize everything and offer at least a little protection? Can he ask his hotel for any suggestions?

Alison, you should post this on the Milan forum on Tripadvisor. There are helpful people there who live in Milan or know it well from their travels. They may have some good suggestions. He has time before the flight to go into Milan tomorrow to a bike shop, if he can locate one that will provide a box.

Malpensa does have that plastic luggage-wrapping service Nancy suggested. Don't know if they can do bikes, though. Here's the website: http://www.truestargroup.com/aerop-ita.php

THANK YOU ALL! Will pursue these ~ gratefully,
Alison

UPDATE : Help is still needed. Posting on Milan TripAdvisor forum too (thanks for that advice). He went to Malpensa today to try and sort things out in advance. Was told in no uncertain terms at Lufthansa desk that (despite what LH says on phone) a cardboard box is required, and no-one in the airport sells them. They said KLM used to, and now doesn't. Someone else emailed me and says KLM does sell them, and sent me this link:http://piciclisti.wordpress.com/2012/01/24/volare-con-la-bici/ But I don't speak Italian so will try calling KLM now.
again, thanks.

I'm astonished that your husband didn't locate a bike shop in Milan and go there this morning and ask for a box from which a bike had just been unpacked. Getting to Milan from the airport is so easy by train, or taxi if pressed.

That article in your last post has it right on. All the answers are there. If you don't speak Italian use Google Chrome to open the file and click Translate. It all makes easy sense even if, as the case here, two or three words don't translate. As I said, get thee to a bike shop.

Once again I thank everyone who replied. My husband has checked in and will be home tonight! The bike will come another time. He ended up taking a taxi from Malpensa to a friend's home and leaving the bike there. Nigel, your suggestions were great, and I had not even thought of using a translator for that page (duh ... but really I don't do this sort of thing at all, and I'm too old to be that smart about the web!) ... He did consider your course of action, but he calculated opening times of shops, plus taxis etc, and was not comfortable with the time he might arrive back at Malpensa to check in, especially as LH was adamant about allowing lots of extra time to check in the bike. Sigh. Anyway, THANKS!!! And I'll feel like a more savvy traveler next time ~
atjk

I so sympathized with you - we hauled DH's bike around France and Italy for years with varying degrees of frustration. We even rented special little trucks to carry his gear - they never had more than 50 hp and were very very uncomfortable on the freeways. No chance of looking like a European when you pull up to valet parking in a Kangoo. I finally told him if he persisted on dragging his precious cycle next time we would be travelling with an extra
person - my divorce lawyer!

It is frustrating. At one time airline, especially European, provided boxes or heavy plastic bags for that purpose. And I believe that European airlines were required to take bikes. But even now taking bikes on trains has become more complicated. Which is why we now use bikes that fit in a large suitcase and check 'em. Only once have we been challenged about a bike in suitcase, and that went away when the supervisor showed up and agreed that it was a big legal size and weight suitcase and not a bike. How did he get the bike there in the first place?