Air Travel Tips and Stories?

This is a question for those of you who use commercial airlines to get to a destination for backpacking, climbing, backcountry skiing, canoeing, etc. Assuming you were taking all of your own gear, and not relying on some kind of guide or outfitter when you got there, how did it go?

Do you have any stories of hassles or worse, ruined trips because of security rules that kept your gear or supplies off the plane? Do you have tips for someone who's never used airline travel to go on a wilderness adventure?

My only flight ever to a wilderness trailhead was in the nineties. A lot has changed in air travel since then. So I decided to investigate the issue in this week's edition of The WildeBeat, titled "Flying Backpacks": http://www.wildebeat.net/index.cgi/2008/04/03#E132

Of course, if you have a really good story, or a really useful tip, in addition to posting it here, I'd appreciate it if you'd call it in to our toll-free comment line: 866-590-7373

I just noticed that there's a discussion on this topic here:http://www.trailspace.com/forums/backcountry/topics/43961.html#44161