Since his road bike didn't have couplers it was considered an oversized case and of course he paid a fee when he told them it was a bike. I guess there were two ways it could have worked. One is to just let them treat it as oversized luggage and pay that fee, the other was to fess up and call it a bicycle and then pay the bicycle fee (which is more) but then it gets special handling. Since it was a carbon fiber bike he wanted the special handling and there were no problems. It was a fabric type case with thick padding and everything went into the one case. I don't remember the brand of the case but it was made in Park City, Utah. I could look up the name if you want. This fall when we take our tandem it will fit in one airline legal hard suitcase and the wheels will go in an airline legal Wheel Safe Pro so there should be no extra charges at all. Of course I don't know how well that will work until next October! I think going on your own is another option but I thought we might like the social aspect of going with a group and having a van shuttle our luggage every day. Oh, I forgot to mention case storage. He rented a car and just left the case in the car. The only time he used the car was going to/from the airport or into town in the evenings for dinner.