How do you travel w/ your guitar when you fly?

stevieraveon

Dumb question but I'm going out of town for 2 weeks and am going to bring my electric in my hard case. Do you check in your guitar or do carry on? Everytime I fly it seems there's really limited space in the overhead compartments.

Pauk

Take it on with you if you can, usually the air hostess will put it in a special cupboard thing at the front of the plane if it won't fit overhead (but obviously depends on the type of plane and the airline). If you phone up your airline they'll probably be able to tell you what's best.

Novawind

For what it's worth:

I tried to take my Strat with me from San Jose back home to Florida last Christmas. I had everything packed appropriately (cables and picks and spare strings in my luggage) and just the guitar in its case. I checked American Airlines' website beforehand and they said they make luggage exceptions for musical instruments. I get up to the ticketing counter and this guy's like "Yeah, you can't bring that through security." I'm not about to miss my non-refundable flight and I'm about to get super pissed at the guy, but my girlfriend at the time told me it just wasn't worth it. Then after I get through the security checkpoint I talk to a TSA guy and ask him if there was any federal regulation that was stopping me from taking the guitar through security, and he says it's totally the airline's policies. Long story short, NOT flying American Airlines anymore. Or maybe next time I will get pissed.

And yeah, to answer your question: They will usually store the guitar sitting on one end of the case up in a closet at the front of the plane or a slender space where musical instruments are well-suited.

ianvomsaal

I travel with my guitar a lot - mostly for session work, but I've flow a bit on tour - usually when the bus can't get us
to the next show fast enough - like when the show's the next night in New York and the band just played a show in
California - or if the tour's in the UK, or Japan etc. (boats are slow, and who wants to take a boat that far anyway).

Anyhow - Here's my tips:

- Never go to the ticket counter with the guitar - ask a friend to hold it for you if you need to go to the ticket counter.

- If anyone ever asks what's in the case, always tell them that it's your instrument, and non-aggressively but quite matter
of-factly that you'll be gate checking it (even if you're going to try to get it on board the plane and put it in the overhead).

- I always travel with the smallest SKB hard case for my Les Paul (like this: http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/SKB56),
because I know that this case fits in a standard overhead bin (mind you with plenty of extra room to spare).

- I always board the plane when they announce people with small children, handicapped, and special needs, because I have
an instrument with me - Thus I have special needs (which is the need for space in the overhead for my guitar). I'm not going
to fight with people for overhead space when I can get on early and easily get the overhead space I need.

- I typically try to use airlines like Continental since they seem to be a little more lenient/understanding about instruments.

- Finally, I also always try to carry a copy of this document with me (I also keep one in my case, just for backup): http://www.yeodoug.com/resources/faq/faq_images/TSALetter.pdf
Cheers . . .

- Ian