Ironman, US Airways and bike shipping

I also wondered about this and about the success of shipping a bike.  To my mind, with the number of BT-ers we have here, it almost makes more sense to box up your bike and additional gear and ship it via UPS to another BT-er in the area of the race.  That's assuming you'd have to pay extra on the airline.  US Airways handled my luggage OK this weekend with nothing lost, even during a flight change.  On the other hand, my wife's checked bag did get opened by TSA, as there was a note inside when we retrieved it.  Now if they end up opening your bike case, just because of the size of the box, you worry about them repacking it OK.

If I travel with my bike, I'm leaning towards the UPS shipping option.

It is not the airline who will open your checked baggage to look thru it. It is the Transportation Security Administration.

If you think the TSA will know how to repack your bike correctly after they undo the straps to root thru your gear, especially if you have a bunch of parts to disassemble for your bike to fit in the case.....well....I don't know what to say.

Have you considered a service like TriBike Transport? You never have to take your bike apart, it gets shipped upright, you can throw in the rest of your gear in a bag for an extra $25, and it gets delivered right next to your event's TA.

You don't have to worry about renting a bigger vehicle to get your bike from the airport to the race either. 

I'll admit that I don't know enough about my own bike to tear it down like that and rebuild it. Ugh, I can't imagine having an essential part of my bike missing after it goes thru the TSA drive-thru.

The last time I had my bike fly in a corrugated plastic box on an airline, they couldn't even figure out how to wrap my straps back around the box after they opened it. Like that one, the straps functioned as handles AND held the box together so the stuff inside wouldn't clank around and come loose.