Originally Posted by pdlamb

Assuming you're not traveling ultra-cheap (Jetblue), most of the major airlines in the US have discontinued predatory pricing on bicycles. (Now they're just being predatory on checked luggage.) But if you're traveling 50%, you'll build up frequent flier status pretty quickly, and then you'll "only" have to pay ~$40, $80 round trip. And if you're really smart about it, you'll be able to use upgrades to fly first class fairly frequently, so that'll be two checked bags free (one for clothes, including bike clothes, and one for the bike).