It could also be said that there is a reason why you see so few folders or coupled bikes on tour.

For folks who fly all over taking a bike with them on business trips the advantages are huge, but I have to guess that on average most of us fly to one tour a year or maybe even less. We also need to get our boxes or bags from the beginning of the tour to the end. So most hard cases just don't work out for many of us.

Getting to my tours, I typically just try very hard to use Southwest or Frontier and am happy to pay the $50 to have my bike go along on Southwest or FREE on Frontier. To get home I have been happy to have a bike shop pack it up and ship it home to save me having to deal with packing and moving a big box in a strange city. For domestic US travel that usually means $100 between the bike shop and the carrier.