The "fee for ANY checked bag" policy meant that pretty much everybody was hand-carrying their bags, so the overhead bins were often full.
Starting in about 2000, airlines started to become unpredictable in their willingness to allow this practice. I'd just cheerfully carry it aboard, and place it in the overhead baggage storage. As has been said, the times are changing.įor over 20 years, I carried my guitar onboard in a gig bag and it was never a problem. I would never trust being able to just board with a guitar in a soft case anymore. We have thought we have had stuff go missing several times upon arrival at the destination airport but they have generally just put them on a different carousel for fragile stuff. Nothing to carry through security or drag through the airport until you board. I tour with two John Suhr Classic guitars in flight cases and they are always fine on arrival. They seem to enjoy it but I have not lost any equipment to it yet. Again, might just revisit the company that custom made the cases and see if we can re-foam the insides to maybe try and stop that happening.īaggage handlers are VERY rough on gear. Only problem I have had is with the AX8 handle/guard vibrating off in transit. My local flight case company have lifetime guarantee on their stiff so fixed that case for free. Fortunately, the AxeFX was fine and just had a wobbly front handle. Had a few incidents (smashed lid off the front off my Axefx 2 units suspended flight case on arrival in Germany for a festival. The latches are always gaffa taped down and we always leave lots of spare strips of tape on each side of each case on the off chance that security at the oversize baggage counter want us to open the cases again. My guitars and pedalboards are flight cased and go in the hold. And then make you pay extra for your luggage. So they can tempt you with cheap tickets.
AIRLINE GUITAR CASES FOR FREE
But times are changing, I hear that in order to compete on ticket prices airlines are limiting what passengers can carry for free on board. On holidays I've taken guitars with me on board in soft cases as hand luggage with no problems. The other time we travelled with Turkish Airlines and they had no single piece of luggage per person policy, just a weight limit per person. And maybe us duct taping guitar cases together to create 'single' pieces of luggage helped. Italians are apparently much easier in that regard. Oddly enough on the return flight they made no problems. A hardcase that could carry two guitars (and stayed within the maximum allowed weight limit) would have saved us a lot of money. As we had 4 guitars, and other stuff (like a pedal board), and were only allowed a single piece of luggage per person we had to pay extra. I experienced no problems with my guitars on both occasions, but we did ran into trouble the first time checking in at Schiphol with KLM as each guitar case counted as a single piece of luggage. That it was better to secure the case with a belt, as they could easily unlock and refasten the belt without damaging the case. I checked with a guitarist whose band toured all over Europe and he said using a hard case was fine, but when to check in it was best not to lock the case, as they would break open the case if they wanted to check inside. I only flew twice abroad for gigs carrying guitars. Is it best to put the guitar in soft case if you want to take guitar with you inside the plane? Is it guaranteed? Luckily, I got no problem when boarding, as the flight attendant got room for it in a special compartment, for their coats I think.Īnother friend of mine was forced to check his ESP guitar that was in a hard case.ĭo you mind to transport your guitar as checked baggage?Īnyone had his guitar damaged or lost when checked? Was the airline refund you? She let me do that but I was advised they could need to check the guitar when boarding. I was terrified because I have a friend that had his guitar's headstock broken by their gentle handling with checked bags, so I insisted to carry the case with me. Once I was carrying a Gibson LP in the original hard case and the attendant at check in told me that only the soft cases should be carry on baggage. I've listened different approaches by the airlines company regarding the transportation of guitar when flying, and probably some of you have a lot more experience to share.
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