Although only traveling in the States, my airline "horror" story traveling with a jet is as follows;

I'm all checked-in with luggage and Bobcat awaiting my flight at a very small "international" airport (Yuma) to catch my connector in Phoenix, and the flight is cancelled (pilot issues). No problem, I had a 3-4 hour layover in Phoenix to catch the red-eye so I decided to drive to Phoenix to catch my flight instead of waiting for the next flight the following morning. I make it to PHX with just enough time to return the rental car and get checked in for my flight. During the check-in the clerk says the "case" is too large, fine, I'll pay extra fee. Then she proceeds to say it's too big and I can't check it. I tell her to measure it all the while the Bobcat case has US Air stickers all over it from previous travels which I point out to her. She continues to insist I cannot check it, finally I ask for her supervisor. The supervisor arrives and proceeds to say it's too large, blah, blah, blah. I tell them to measure it, show them the receipt of the fees I paid when I had checked it 3 hours earlier. After some time, she finally agrees to check it. FINALLY, now I can go, but wait! She then asked me if I could open it. I told her it was quite a bit of trouble, but yes I could; thinking that since they had agreed to check it and I had nothing to hide, I would open it as a courtesy. BIG MISTAKE!!!!! As soon as I opened the case, the residual smell of Jet-A was immediately encountered, needless to say, but that was it, they said I could not check it! I don't think I was ever madder at any point in my life than I was at that moment!!! I wanted to straggle her!

It is now literally almost midnight and catching the flight was out of the question, the bigger problem was, what was I going to do with my Bobcat if I couldn't take it on the plane? I had already turned in the rental car, no going back to Yuma and trying there again. So I called a FedEx store that happened to close at midnight and they agreed to stay open to take my "package". I found a taxi that was willing to take me there, wait, and bring me back. After it was all said and done, I ended up getting home later than if I would have just stayed put with more hassle and expense than it was worth.[:'(]