The way the airport staff threw our bikes into the hold at Manchester airport convinced me never to use a soft bag.My mate had his brand new Planet-X Pro-Carbon in my old bike-bag and he was horrified when he saw his pride and joy being handled so carelessly!
Luckily there didn't appear to be any damage but he had packed all his gear/clothes around the frame.
No way would I ever consider a soft shell case or plastic bag - seen too many damaged bikes thrown around by luggage handlers. It does make it difficult though if you want to go on a touring holiday as you need to store the case for when you get back - and assuming you go round in a circle!!
I bought a Bianchi for £2,000 and £1,000 of that was for the frame and fork. I booked a flight to Spain from Manchester and on arrival back I saw the baggage handlers throw my bike bag 10 feet down onto a pile of suitcases. The bag was clearly marked as a bike bag so they knew what they were throwing!
Here's what they did to my 2 week old frame ...
(The black dots are marker pen. I wanted to see if the crack was spreading!)
After that I spent £400 on a SciCon bike box to protect my bike on future holidays.
The handlers threw that out instead on another holiday and broke the corner of the box, but at least it protected the bike! I used epoxy resin to fix an aluminium reinforcing plate into the corner of the box and that held for all subsequent trips.
My bikes are fairly large (58 cm frame). I
did have to take the handlebars off and remove the seatpost to get the bike to fit the box. I detached the rear mech because it rested on the bottom of the box and I had seen another rider's bike arrive at the airport in Spain with a broken rear mech hanger - I didn't want to risk that.
Disassembling/reassembling the bike only takes 20-30 minutes so it isn't a big deal.
