Rowan

On the long-haul international flights that I have travelled most recently, this is less of an issue than it used to be because the passengers' luggage is put into containers which are then loaded. These are the moderately large aluminium "cells" that are taken across the tarmac to the loading ramp.

Perhaps this makes easier the job of locating the luggage of errant passengers who have been offloaded or are being left behind in the bar after numerous boarding calls.

I am not certain what happens with oversized luggage such as bikes, surfboards and the like, but I suspect they aren't just tossed aboard. Which might be why there is less argument about a bagged bike.

Domestic flights might be somewhat different.

I would still be leery of using anything other than a stout cardboard bike box for travelling. I value my bike too much not to have additional protection around certain parts. Certainly, the Madone box that Machka has is one of the best I've seen.