I know it's a little off topic (mod's move it if there's a better forum?) but all my good travel advice comes from UA FT'ers so I'm askin' ;-)

Has anyone experience with FedEx-ing or UPS-ing a suitcase cross-country? I'm doing a left coast two week trip, and need some sporting gear for a long weekend in the middle... given the fees and hassle and blah blah, I think the Fedex $35 to ship it from my house to my destination rather than checking it through the UA system might be well worth it.

Has anyone done this? I was thinking that all I'd really need to do is pack it securely, and then wrap it in a few layers of that saran-wrap like material and stick the shipping label to that. Seems far less hassle than finding a box, etc. I don't really care if they bang the suitcase a little bit (they can't be any harder on it than the airlines, can they?)

thoughts? I'm really interested in finding out if anyone has shipped just a suitcase by itself rather than boxing it up, etc.