[Ginger]

I carry my pedals, helmet, shoes, and gloves in my carry-on luggage. First, it keeps the pedals from being an issue in the case and more important, even if Fed Ex looses my bike I have the option of renting something at the other end of the plane trip.

Remember to give Fed Ex a bit of a cushion. Lots of people I know have had no problems shipping their bikes to vacation destinations. On my last trip to AZ, one of my traveling companion's shipped his bikes the day before I did and we both shipped the bikes from Detroit with plenty of time according to Fed Ex. The bikes should have shown up the day before we did. (5 people with 10 days of mtb and road riding planned.) His mtb showed up on time with everyone else's, my mtb showed up the next day and my road bike showed up the day after that. My buddy's road bike showed up the day before we left AZ. Problem was it was the weekend and we couldn't find a Fed Ex shop open to ship the darn thing back (we did finally find one...)