I was just talking to a guy yesterday who made the mistake of taking a bike on an airline. It was in a hardcase, and all he put all the small loose parts from disassembly into a bag. It was a high-end CF bike.
When he arrived at his destination, he found the TSA had opened the case, dumped out the contents of the bag, (half the parts were missing), and they broke off one dropout when they clumsily forced the frame back into the case. The frame was trashed.
When he complained about it, their attitude was: "So sue us."