Originally Posted by
Tourist in MSN
I have never taken one of my full size uncoupled bikes on a plane. Even though the time to pack and unpack a coupled bike is a big hassle, when I travel solo with a bike on a plane, a coupled or folding bike is a much easier thing to get to the airport in a regular taxi trunk. So although I no longer save the oversize fees on Delta, packing a coupled bike is worth it to me. My road bike in the photos is a Ritchey Break Away bike, badged as a Raleigh. Have not flown with it yet, but I expect to some day.
I can see that if you need to use a taxi at one end or the other. For me in my home town I have always had someone to drop me at the airport (or the light rail stop closer to home). At the start of the tour I most often ride out of the airport so assembling a coupled bike would be a big hassle with little to no benefit for me. I guess if I was inclined to get a room upon arrival at the starting point of my tour it would be different. The thing is that times even when I arrived late I still rode my bike a few miles to a motel once, got picked up by a warmshowers host once and a couple times I was picked up by someone I was going to ride with.
When I have taken a bike on business or other non-touring travel I really can see where I'd have liked to have a coupled bike, but I'll never do enough of that to justify buying one at this point in my life. There were trips where I'd have saved by not needing a rental car.