While I'd much rather fly on my bike, I am going to be flying to Seattle from NYC on Alaska Airlines in May, and I'm bringing one of my bikes with me. The whole purpose of the trip is to ride in my old stomping grounds. I've never brought a bike on a plane and I'm guessing it is somewhat of a hassle.

What is the preferred method of boxing up a bike? Should I get a hard travel case to put it in or should I just use a bike box from a bike shop? I doubt I'd use a travel case again, but I'm also worried that the box I use won't be in good shape when I'm ready to go home and I'd be stuck looking for one in Seattle. This isn't what I want to be doing there, and I won't have a car to use. This is a BIKE trip.

How much would it cost to ship the bike via UPS instead and have it waiting when I get there? I think Alaska Air charges $50 each way and that doesn't seem too bad, but would UPS be cheaper? And then I'd need somebody at the other end to receive it, either the hotel I'm at or a shop in Seattle. I don't know anybody out there anymore as it's been over 20 years now.

Either bike that I would take is relatively expensive and I am a little worried about damage. One is carbon and the other is steel. I keep reading horror stories of bent cranks, forks, rear triangles. Of course you can't bend carbon, it'll crack instead. I think I have spacers for the dropouts from another time when I had a frame shipped to me so I'd use those. Do I need to worry?

Any other good advice out there?