We also had a bad experience with UPS, about 10 years ago. DS #2 shipped his new bike to Tucson, for school, and it arrived with a scratch/dent. They came out and looked at it and said "it's not our fault." Maybe the fact that they were dealing with an 18 year old influenced their crappy treatment of him, but we would never use them anymore.
This is why we have bikes with couplers and our own regulation suitcase sized cases for bringing on the plane. DH also had a Friday for a few years.