The pika packworks case is nice because it is small, but involves a little dissasembly of your bike.

I have a scicon aeroconmfort 2.0 TSA case. Its a larger than the pika, but unless you ride a very large frame you only have to remove the wheels. I can keep my bars, saddle, pedals in place.

- Not a soft case but I recommend the BikeBoxAlan.
- As far a marking goes, I mark the seat post at the collar and the stem face plate with a silver sharpie (sometime will go over with a fine black sharpie) and then take cell phone pictures for reference when rebuilding.

+1 for the Bikeboxalan.

As for marking: (1) electrical tape around the lowest point of the seatpost that is exposed, then remove the seatpost from the frame; (2) take the stem (with bars still attached) off the steerer - when remounting get the stem straight using your eyes.

+1 for hard cases. I have flown many times with a hard case and never had a problem. Make sure you pack it well, TSA will open it up and you dont want anything to fall out.

Trico Ironcase. I remove the RD and wrap it and the chain in bubblewrap, to keep them from moving around and damaging the frame. I also wrap the cockpit parts in bubble wrap, because they partly sit on top of the frame.

My seatpost has a scale. My fit is the 11cm marker on the scale. I don't need to mark it. If I had to, electrical tape or silver sharpie.

The cockpit is easy. Shiv nosecone, so just undo some bolts and lay everything down. It goes back together exactly the same way.

Loose parts, bolts skewers pedals, they go in a Ziploc bag and then that's wrapped in bubblewrap to keep it from moving.

depends on how much you care about the bike and philosophy. for example if you are travelling with a bike you care about and have a philosophy of investing in longetivity, i would say bikeboxalan. but if you want bang for buck, then trico ironcase

last 3 trips I've taken, I've used bikeflights.com to ship ahead of time. So much easier than dealing with the airport stress, cheaper, and no worry about TSA opening the box. Easiest was when I just used a cardboard bike box (that a shop was going to throw out). Also have used a Trico hard case (works well, not too hard to pack) and a smaller soft case (too much disassembly for a TT bike).

Like poster above I always remove the rear der. Also have taken to removing the der hanger, just in case.

Also use a hard case and a sharpie to mark the seatpost and handlebar/stem connection so the bars get put back at the correct angle.

x2. I have the Trico Ironcase & pretty much do what Dilbert does for packing, except remove the RD. I should, as the RD cable stop keeps getting damaged each season. One thing I'd like to add is, get a digital scale & weigh the case. Much of the time, a carrier will charge extra for over 50 lbs. I aim for 48-49, as their scales, in my experience, vary & often it is in their favor. So my 48.0-48.5 will be 49.5 or 50 on the nose. There have been a few times when it was exactly what I had, but usually they have it heavier at the airport.

Pick up a spare rear dérailleur hanger and keep it in your tool bag.

My BikeBox Alan has never let me down (or my numerous mates who've borrowed it). I use electrical tape to mark seat-post height. I also use foam pipe lagging on the bike's tubing (cut to size and labelled i.e. CSDS chain-stay drive side) and plastic spacers in the fork and drop-outs.

I just flew with my bike for the first time. I was quite nervous about it before but it turned out to be fairly easy. I bought and used an armoured hen house soft case. Flew in American and was not even questioned, no bike fees. I have status on American so no checked bag fee either so my bike flew completely free and arrived safe and sound.

Before disassembling and packing I took pictures with my phone of the seat post and cockpit. I marked the seat post with electric tape and used a silver sharpie on the cockpit. With the hen house there is a decent amount of dis assembly but it only took about an hour and that included a nice cleaning for all the parts disassembled. Putting it back together took about half the time.

Pretty easy. The hardest part was transporting all the bags thru the airport and to the rental car.

Lastly, I was worried about fitting the assembled bike in back of rental car but even with getting a Toyota Corolla, the bagged bike fit easily in the trunk and the completed bike barely fit in the back seat with the rear wheel removed.

I was using B&W bike travel case for last two seasons. I just traded up to a scicon aerocomfort triathlon 2.0 Case.

The only thing you remove is the wheels for that case.

If you get a case that requires more disassemble, i use red tape to mark the seat post and other parts so I know how far to install.