Originally Posted by
Mike Jacoubowsky
Presently, the "bike fee" is less, sometimes by a considerable amount, than the oversize charge for a bike-size piece of luggage. Be careful what you wish for, if you claim it's not a bicycle. :-) And yes, the smaller carriers are generally more favorable than the legacy lines.
As for tandems, what people generally do is two boxes. One for the frame without wheels, fork reversed. Wheels in a second completely-legit (under 62") box. They generally don't measure the size of a bike box.
The soft bag never got flagged as oversized - I can carry it on my shoulder and it could pass as a bag of hockey equipment if you didn't know better. I'm more squeamish about using it with lighter carbon frames, though. My GF rides small bikes and can take the fork off her track bike and stick them both in a large duffel bag, padded by clothes. Way back in the 90's I knew a guy who checked his wheels and handlebars and carried his track frame on in a suit bag and hung it up.
We managed to find some E-bike boxes locally that were big enough for a tandem - the shop had recommended mating two regular size boxes end-to end for the tandem, but it turned out to fit in one box.