The scoop with AA:
When I flew to Shannon, IRE last year, then toured to London, and flew home from Gatwick (in and out of Newark), this is my story:
Bike packed in normal bike box. DO NOT TAPE UP YOUR BOXES AHEAD OF TIME ANYMORE!!! The TSA will make you open them, remove the bike from the box, and they rub this wand all over the bike to inspect for explosives. AA charge me the $80 "bike fee". They no longer care about size, now if they know its a bike, its gonna be $80. I actually didnt mind paying this because I knew about this next tidbit...
After touring, when I got to Gatwick, I called ahead and asked for a bike box. They only had a few (I had a group). My personal bike, a Surly Long Haul Trucker went into a box, while some of the other bikes such as my company's rentals, got "bike bags". Now, if you show them your receipt from the first leg, and say "the gate agent at Newark (or wherever) told me this was good for round trip" they believe this and you wont have to pay the $80 back. This has also worked at Shannon Airport for return flights on Continental Airlines.
Now for the bad about AA: When I got back to Newark, the bikes were being given back to us before Customs. I was worried about the bikes that were in "bike bags." (glorified oversize trash bags). They actually came out just fine, because they were handled as they should have been. The bikes in boxes on the other hand were a mess. Many of the boxes were torn open, one of the customers bikes (a Rivendell Atlantis) had the top tube scratched up, and then last but not least, the grand prize came out. My LHT was delivered in the box, however the box was now only about 5" wide. When I asked the man bringing it out what had happened, he shrugged, said "we ran it over" and walked away as if he didnt care.
Well, it was flattened. The bike was destroyed. Miraculously, the only thing that actually survived was the frame itself. The fork was flattened, the bars were broken off at the stem, the wheels trashed, etc. The frame was scratched up, and a little bent, but some minor work with a set of Park dropout alignment tools and a ***-1 have it back to as good as new. It is due back from the powdercoater on Friday, and will be the ONLY Vikings purple LHT that I know of in existance. Pics will follow.
In the end, AA agreed to cover the bike, but not after much argument. They first claimed that they didnt cover damage to bikes. I called their BS and had a lawyer call the woman I was dealing with. Soon after, she called me back and said she "found" a rule that lets her cover the bike. Even at that, they still only gave me $780 to purchase a new fork, replace the handbuilt wheels, handlebar, shifter, brooks saddle, seatpost, blackburn racks, new stem and crankset. On top of that, they wouldnt give me the money until I drove the 70 miles back to the airport and gave them all of the wrecked parts. It was a headache.