We have travelled a fair amount for baseball and I have packed the wood bats in a large suitcase surrounded by clothes and hold my breath every time hoping that they arrive in one piece.
Just wondering how others transport their bats when flying? Is there a better way to ensure they don't arrive broken?
Thanks!
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Collapsible, hard sided, you can pack other baseball gear with the bats. Just put a TSA approved lock on it. Oh, and it works for spearguns real nice too
We bought large packing tubes with end caps for less than $10 each for the bats and packed them in a big soft side bag with all the rest of the gear. Have traveled with them quite a few times with no issues.
When our Goodwill Series American teams travel to Australia. Our Maple SSK bats are wrapped in the player's socks. The Australian immigration officials are alert to possible insects from wood products. They will remove the bats, if they suspect. The same with dirt on the glove, shoes.
Bob
My son used to put his bats in a 34" wheeled duffel bag along with his clothes. The rigid frame of the bag protected the bats. If you pack the bag to capacity, you'll probably get charged for over-sized luggage, but if you keep the L+W+H under 62", it gets checked like any other luggage.
Someone on this site years ago recommended a hard sided rifle case.
We’ve travelled with the standard 36”, wheeled, equipment bag a few times with no issues. Just check the bag like any normal bag. You can use the extra space for gloves, helmets, cleats, catchers gear etc.
My son packs his regular bag (meaning the one he actually takes to the ballpark to hold his equipment) in this bag as well for flights. He hasn’t used a wheeled bag in years for day to day baseball but it’s pretty handy for air travel so we never got rid of them.
We use the carry bag for a folding "soccer" chair. They are the perfect length and hold 4 bats (2 put in barrel end first, 2 put in handle first). I put duct tape around both ends to keep them secure. Do they get banged up? Maybe, but not that I've ever noticed and certainly nothing that affects performance. Frankly, I don't understand all this concern about them getting banged up. Do you see what the kid does the first time he uses it? The bat gets dropped on the concrete floor of the dugout, thrown against chain link, used to clean cleats, broken, etc.
Just updating this thread. My son is flying to a college baseball camp this weekend (we have been able to travel via car for his other trips, even one to Canada). Appreciated the suggestion of a rifle hard case. Found a 36-inch long hard case with interior padding for a little more than $100 that actually will fit up to three of his bats! Thanks!
Just put it in a suitcase with your clothes and stuff.
Over 30 years of flying to Japan, Korea and Australia weaved bats in catchers bag
Bob
One or two bats fit nicely inside the carrying case with a foldable chair. Put one bat in barrel first, the other knob first. Cinch up the end and you get the benefit of the bats and the chair when you arrive.
We've used a fully-zippering golf travel bag and just padded the bats in the middle with other items we are traveling with. Several trips and they have always arrived safely and undamaged. The trickiest part is just locating where the "oversized" or unusually-sized items arrive at each airport. 
Never got to actually put this to the test, but when kiddo was still seriously hitting we were going to use bats in original cardboard ship boxinside PVC pipe (2"), 3 bats and hence PVC pipes duct taped together for structural rigidity and then capped at ends with cardboard / duct tape. It's kinda like BBMomAz 's packing tubes idea. Heck, if you're really concerned I'm sure you can put PVC within a cardboard packing tube to more protection. ALL of this would go into cheap but strong TSA compliant lockable duffle.
