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@gav
From flying with bikes a number of times, always put bike locks and tools in the bike bag. They will be confiscated if put them in your carry on.
I have successfully used a cheap Cordura bike bag with no padding whatsoever on about a dozen flights and have never had any damage, a few times I have put 2 bikes into the bag and still got in under the 23kg limit (or slightly over but they didn't care). Just wheels off, keep the air in the tyres and remove pedals.
This is all based on taking fairly sturdy steel frames, if I owned any carbon fibre I would go the bike box route. The main advantage of the cheap bag with no padding is that it rolls up into the size of a sleeping bag, so you can ride away from the airport. With a bike box, god knows what you are meant to do with it, maybe hide it behind a bush near the airport and pick it up when you return home?