I have shipped gear many times to Anchorage, Alaska from Burlington, Washington. I called ahead to my hotel and told them about my package arrival time. They had it ready for me when I checked in and even carried it to my room. I used UPS because of convience of location of UPS package store near my home. I would ship in both directions. The guy that operated the UPS store near my home knew me and knew how I wanted my rods packaged. I sent them in thier tubes, then contained in a heavy cardboard tube the store had. If I shipped other gear such as waders and such it all went into a standard cardboard box but usually I used checked luggage for this stuff in a gear bag. Never had an issue. Well, Alaska Airlines lost my gear bag once with about two grand worth of gear in it. Kind of a hassle.