Sorry, but no I haven't, so I can't provide any personal experience with that. Not sure about internationally shipping a bike. I'd probably stick with just checking it as baggage, but it might be worth double checking what shipping would cost. Companies like Bikeflights or Shipbikes have reasonable rates for domestic shipping, but I am not sure about their international rates. I think it was something close to $300 one way to ship from my hometown (Tallahassee) to London when I checked once.

I will also say that I found it to be a pain to post a soft case forward to the end of the trip when I did so. It isn't as bad as dealing with a hard case, but it does mean finding a post office, ups store, or whatever in a strange town and at a time when they are open. Airports are often well outside of town and I often arrive at a late hour. I like being able to ride out of the airport without having to deal with that kind of details. At least with a soft case you can probably manage to carry it on the bike until you ship it. On a ten day tour I even carried it the whole way, but I don't think it was a very good choice.