I shipped my bike to a festival in Moab one year. But they had so many demo's and rental's that it outweighed paying a shipping charge. Just sayin' 

Half-a-fork wrote on 09/10/13 at 2:52pm:


Thanks Justin.
Like Hippy I too have been to an event full of demo bikes and did not need to bring my bike, but not everywhere I go is a festival. I have flown Southwest with my bike. (Bike and gear bag got a trip to San Diego while I went to Texas). Southwest has a good bags fly free policy and the boxed bike fee beats anyone elses. They have good customer service and I never feel like a cow going to the packing house.
That said the Ship Bikes program is by far the best price. Just have to plan ahead and give the bike five days head start.   
The rub flying comes if you have a separate gear bag and a carryon. I stay for a week or 10 days and need the non cycling duds.
How do you dodge the rip off checked bag fee on every airline except Southwest?

KB wrote on 09/15/13 at 10:12pm:


Can you go into a bit more detail as to how it is done?  I saw that I could take my DH bike on a train for about $20-25, but I didn't look into shipping with Amtrak.  Did you bring your bike and have them handle it, or did you box it up and use their cargo service?

Thanks!