do you know people at your destination? if so my suggestion is to ship it via FedEx.

i have flown with my bike before, as already mentioned many places charge an oversized fee, if not a "Bike" fee, which can be hard to get around. they know what a bike box looks like. the cheapest i have ever flown my bike for is $50. however if i break my bike down into 2 boxes, one for the wheels and one for the rest of the bike, they both fall under the oversized limit of FedEx and together cost me $37 to ship halfway across the country.

as for how they will treat your bike. wrap everything you can in bubble wrap and pipe insulation. i have worked as a baggage handler at an airport and i will tell you that we treat your luggage like crap and pay no attention to any fragile stickers or anything like that. when i've flown with my bike it has arrived okay, but i could see it potentially getting damaged. i have also worked for FedEx loading trucks, and i will say that generally we treated packages better there than luggage was treated at the airport.

hope that helps.