Im going to be the bad guy and say that this packing was wholly insufficient for what was expected. If you want to bring a tower or other sensitive electronics, you have a custom, hard sided case on hand with several layers of medium density foam that completely cradles the equipment and is moulded around the equipment to absorb shock.

A pair of socks, two tee shirts, and a pullover (and one very thin layer of bubble wrap) is wholly insufficient.

True, but PCs are usually shipped on a shipping pallet with nothing but PCs of the same model and type - securely lashed, dunnaged, and packed. You don't have luggage being stuffed into, on top of, and around a pallet of PCs.

I was thinking the same and agree with others that it was likely not packed well.

That's to a distributor or in bulk. Desktops are shipped individually by UPS, FedEx all the time.

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Nowhere close to sufficient. The computer goes all the way to at least 3 different sides of the suitcase. A few thin layers of bubble wrap won’t protect it much.

Exactly! Think how a computer is packed when it's shipped! In a box, with protection at least as large, or larger, than the computer itself. To wrap it in a few layers of bubbles and call it a day is asking for trouble. Zero fault of AA, zero recourse, zero liability on their part.

That picture of the 737 hold takes me back many years to when I was a ramp agent. My back and shoulders ache looking at it! Incase you didn't know or were wondering, it's all done while shuffling around on your knees. Even for a shorty like me, it's not standing room.

Op, sorry this happened, but that glass panel was doomed unless you got lucky with your bag being on top.

My company ships samples of the electronic equipment we make, and we generally don't ship it in hard plastic, but what we do use is cardboard cartons with interlocking cardboard dividers such that the equipment goes in the middle-most section, and there are air gaps between EVERY side of the cardboard dividers that hold the equipment and the outside carton cardboard. Ie, on no side does the equipment make contact with the outside carton or anything close to that; there is an air gap on every side. Plus we wrap sensitive surfaces (like the glass surface that broke in this case) in bubblewrap on top of that.

But most people are not going to find that kind of shipping material in their house. You presumably have to go to a shipping supplies place to find something like that, and find a size that works with the piece of equipment you're trying to ship. (In our company's case, we've designed these shipping containers and their internal interlocking cardboard dividers to match the equipment we typically ship.)

I've not experienced this issue. It's possible that something comes loose, but desktops are shipped daily to businesses and homes. Power cables are secure, PCIe shouldn't come out as the gfx card is secured to the case.

IMO, it's not nearly as complex as being a mechanic. I was the IT repair guy for my dad's company as a kid - if a 7 year old can figure out how to change a motherboard, it can't be that bad.

Now, there are far more complex builds and cooling types that need some skill, but I'd take my chances on that over trying to rebuild a car transmission any day.
Yup. The original packaging is designed exactly for this and works really well. After experimenting with a few hard cases for conference equipment like TVs, I gave up and now just ship it in the original box with the original foam and packaging.​​​​​​

sorry but that bubble wrap won’t do crap. And checking a pic tower in anything other than its original box is not very wise.

Is that glass? You would need pretty significant packing material around it if so.

Sorry dude.

We ship TVs to tradeshows in pelicans every month and use loads of foam to protect them. Every 3rd trip we end up with a busted TV. Usually it’s the components not the screen. So sadly a computer in a suitcase with little protection has less a shot then we do. Sorry OP for your destroyed computer….

Just use the box you bought it in. Learned it the hard way.

I've got a TV that can make platinum every year.

If you call bubble wrap, packing securely, you have a lot to learn.

Anyone remember the Compaq computers in the mid-80s with the keyboard that clipped onto one end, and then the whole thing could be carried like a suitcase (it even had a suitcase handle)? Those things were indestructible. It was called “portable” in all of the Compaq marketing. Like everyone else, I called mine “luggable” - it weighed almost 30 pounds.

I had to take one on business trips periodically and (seriously) I would just wrap tape around it so the keyboard wouldn’t get lost, and check it. No outside container and no padding whatsoever.

It flew tens of thousands of miles with me, and always got some interesting looks as it slid down the belt onto the baggage claim carousel.