We flew into Copenhagen, arriving on a Saturday afternoon. The rear brake arm on my wife's bike was damaged, and no shops were open until Monday. My wife was OK with just the front brake, so we still could do some short rides until we could find a shop on Monday. We had already planned to spend a day there anyway, but we could not get it into the shop until Monday. We were lucky; when we found a shop on Monday they happened to have a set of the same model of brakes that were on the bike.

The point is that we lost 2 1/2 days getting the brakes. It was not a big deal because we were going to be on the road for 2 months. However, if we were going to be there for just 2 weeks, it would be a significant amount of time.

I usually fly with my folding MTB, the only really "expensive" bits are the new brakes and rotors I put on. The rest of it is used 8spd components. Even if it was an expensive bike, I'd be more bummed out about the lost time trying to either fix or replace things.

^- +1 to both of those. Especially so, because I have limited vacation time, and generally only take 10 days or so off in a row.

Since you bought your ticket early enough that you should be allowed to use bike boxes, could you take two boxes and your friend check your regular luggage bag on his ticket?

If WOW maintains that you can't have a box when you could have one at the time you bought your ticket, not sure which agency you could complain to, maybe FAA?

Even if you are successful getting your bikes to Iceland, once there you might have trouble getting them home again. Put the phone number for the USA embassy in Reykjavik into your phone so you have it if you need it to get your bikes home again.

I never thought I would be lucky in that my only travel nightmare to and from Iceland was Delta stranding me in the Minneapolis airport overnight. But it sounds like I was much luckier than you at this point.

I think getting the embassy involved would be a bit extreme :)

TO be honest, I'm not too worried about the bags. It was my original plan to get them home originally, I'm not too concerned about damage. I'd prefer a box on the way, but I'm not really letting it ruin my trip. We had a day planned in Reykjavik on arrival anyhow, to get food, gas, etc., while I don't want to deal with any damages, at least it won't cost us riding time.

Also, flying out of Toronto, so I don't think The FAA can help. Worst case, if they don't make the policy clear in follow up emails, I'll show up early with the bike in a box wrapped in a plastic bag, and if they balk at the box, I'll pull it out and hand it to them in the bag. Also, I didn't print the policy page at the time of booking as I normally do, so I can't really prove what they originally said.