First night on this forum and found something i had to add my 2 cents to.
I'm just starting to get into touring. but i am a professional flier on southwest. as stated earlier it all depends on how clueless or experienced the person at the ticket counter is regardless of anything you hear on the phone. I fly with calibration equipment and get away with 3 checked bags for free periodically. the trick for that is just luck of the draw and finding the senior attendant at the counter who is busy helping ask questions and just wants to get you thru. when they're busy sometimes they just check it without the charge to save themselves 2 minutes. managed to save at least 100 a month on my 3rd bag on average this way. chances are you will get the full 50 bill every time you fly with an over-sized package. but if you plan on flying with your bike what is the offset in cost? is it worth the $500 to $1k extra to the bike to save $50 a trip?
When i get around to it, i'm going to contact the manufacturer and see how lax they are on selling the couplers to someone that isn't a frame builder. I don't know any frame builders in Austin but i have access to a few machine shops for the equipment i don't have so i can do it myself.