A bit more expensive? Try a lot! FedEx, DHL and UPS are into revenue-enhancement mode these days, and what used to cost $230 (shipping a bicycle from the US West Coast to anywhere in Europe) now runs... get this... $450. Each way. Yikes! My customers have dealt with this often. The primary advantage over taking it with them on the plane comes with new bikes... if someone from, say, England, is visiting the US and buys a bike from me, and I arrange to have it shipped directly from the shop, they don't have to pay sales tax. If they pick the bike up with them and take it on the plane, sales tax applies. So if we're talking a $5000 bike at 8.25% tax, you've got over $400 in savings that you can apply to shipping it. The airlines are going to charge something between $0 and $200 (KLM is apparently now charging 150 euros per direction).

Also, note that we've seen a fair amount of damage on bikes we've received from manufacturers when shipped FedEx/DHL/UPS. For all the horror stories you hear about the airlines, they're not that much worse than elsewhere. Still, when I bring my own bike to Europe, I do so knowing ahead of time that something bad could happen, but that I'm not going to let that ruin my trip.