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X -> Flying with guitar (Jun. 1 2010 2:34:35)
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Hi, all,
In the Philippines now for almost two weeks and settling nicely into a routine. I'm posting this on the chance that my experience may help someone else worried about air travel with guitar(s).
I flew in from Los Angeles on the Taiwanese airline Eva Air, with a plane change in Taipei, from a Boeing 777-300 to a Boeing 747.
Basically I followed Kai Narezo's advice, Kai being a well traveled guitarist, to wit: (1) Try to handcarry your guitar, but if they say no, it's OK to check it in AT THE GATE, to be handcarried to the hold; (2) If the cabin attendant takes it to stow it somewhere on the plane, that's OK too; (3) choose a seat that lets you board early = more available storage space; and (4) be extremely nice to everybody.
My personal addition was, I packed the guitar in a soft gig bag instead of a hard shell case. Figured that way they'd have less incentive to insist that I check it.
I approached the check-in counter carrying the guitar and a suitcase, but only placed the suitcase on the slot. "Two pieces," the agent said. "One," I said. She looked questioningly at my guitar. I blurted out, "I'm gate checking my guitar." "So," she said, starting the paper work, "Two pieces." She then proceeded to tag both suitcase and gig bag, but only checked the suitcase.
(On thinking about this later, I think it was a mistake not telling her that I intended to handcarry my guitar; I would've learned more about the process.)
In any case, I proceeded to the gate and carried my guitar on board with me. No one gave it a second glance. On both main and connecting flights.
The overhead bins come in two widths on both the 777 and 747. A guitar fits easliy in the bigger bin with about a foot to spare. Which makes me think it should fit in the smaller bin also, but I didn't test this out.
The only close call was when a late boarder looking for a bin to stow his rollaboard chose mine. As he lifted his rollaboard to ram it in, I said, "Careful, my guitar's in there." The attendant then rearranged the stuff in my bin so his rollaboard fit nicely in a space beyond the headstock. Crisis averted.
So now i'm happily esconced in country with my guitar. Now to find a talented luthier who can reverse engineer this puppy. Ta-ta!
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