I have to take smaller planes to get to a large airport. FW's don't fit under or over well on them. I ship mine ahead. Bubble wrap around the machine in its case. Then get a slightly larger box and pack with bubble wrap around the case. As long as nothing can jiggle around in the case or the case in the box it will ship just fine and its there when I get there and I didn't have to worry about it getting put in the cargo area because there was no more room in overhead.