Originally Posted by
indyfabz
1. Not that I would lie, but not everything goes through x-ray. It can depend on the airport. When I flew with my bike to Venice, Italy last year, our airport did not have an x-ray machine large enough to accommodate the bike box, so it was opened and searched. When I flew home, Venice had such a machine. The box was passed through as I stood there and the screener literally gave me a thumbs up.
2. One of my friends on the aforementioned trip had his CF framed cracked by what appeared to have been a forklift. The airline, U.S. Airways, replaced it at no cost to him. Perhaps it depends on the airline.
My observations mostly agree except on the x-ray thing.
There is often mention of x-raying boxes as if that mattered to the airline one way or another in what the airline might charge you. I have flown out of a lot of domestic airports and never seen any x-ray machine where I checked my bags. My assumption is that if my bags get x-rayed it is done by the TSA after the airline already accepted my baggage. I have often had my bike box opened by the TSA, but always out of my sight and after the airline accepted my baggage. I don't see how in that situation the x-raying and/or inspection would have any direct impact on what the airline charges me.
Were the instances where folks mention seeing their boxes x-rayed domestic US flights, international flights from US airports, or non US flights?
BTW, I pick an airline that is reasonably bike friendly and tell them it is a bike if they ask. For me that almost always means that I fly Southwest. I have not flown international flights with my bike though, so I have no experience with that.