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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!rayssd!hxe
From: hxe@rayssd.UUCP (Heather Emanuel)
Newsgroups: net.music.folk
Subject: Re: flying with instruments
Message-ID: <897@rayssd.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 28-Jul-85 14:19:35 EDT
Article-I.D.: rayssd.897
Posted: Sun Jul 28 14:19:35 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 31-Jul-85 04:17:19 EDT
References: <235@uwvax.UUCP>
Distribution: net
Organization: Raytheon Co., Portsmouth RI
Lines: 33


I have flown all over the world with my guitar and have had
different experiences with each airline and each airport.  I have
never had my guitar damaged, though!

As people have mentioned, some airlines will let you carry it on and
some won't.  Some in-terminal personnel will tell you you can, and
then the stewardess won't let you.  So what I do is this:  I check
it as I'm buying the ticket, so it gets tagged and all that, and
tell them I'm going to carry it on no matter what they say.  Then I
carry it as far as they let me.  Sometimes it's all the way on
board, sometimes it's right to the bottom of the steps, and
sometimes it's only as far as the check-in lounge.  What that
accomplishes is this - they must load it by hand at that point.
It's also the last thing on, so it's the first thing off, and I
usually see them hand carry it to the luggage cart.  Some airlines
even keep it behind a counter and make you present your ticket for
it, rather than sending it down the carrousel.

Yes, the hard-shell case has been nicked quite a bit, but the guitar
remains intact.  (Of course, I loosen the strings, pad the guitar,
etc.)  Actually, I'm much more afraid of it getting stolen off the
carrousel than of it getting damaged, so I *run* to the baggage claim
area and position myself right where the stuff first appears.

-- 
--Heather Emanuel {allegra, decvax!brunix, linus, ccice5} rayssd!hxe
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   I don't think my company *has* an opinion, so the ones in this
                  article are obviously my own.
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"Ain't life a brook...
 Sometimes I feel just like a polished stone"  -Ferron