Damage to cello during flight for auditions

swedemom
Wed, 18 Feb 2015 18:01:08 +0000

My son flew to the US for several auditions last week from Germany. He used a flight case from his teacher (professional cellist) for the flight. We double and triple checked all the requirements and even made 2 trips to the airport before his flight to get everything organized since he flew out early in the morning. His cello did not arrive with him in the US even with a 4 hour layover in England. He arrived on Sat. and the airline said the earliest he would get it would be Tuesday since Sunday and Monday were holidays. My husband ended up driving 2 hours yesterday to pick it up as we were concerned it would not be delivered on Tuesday due to bad weather and he is flying back to Germany today. When they opened the flight case, my son was surprised to see the entire fingerboard was pulled away from the cello (some pieces of wood from the cello were on the back of the fingerboard) and the board had pushed the bridge a bit. There is not other visible damage. My son’s cello teacher has flown the world with this case and never had a problem and was shocked to hear this. Her cello is worth quite a bit more than my son’s and she assured us this was the best case to use. We have the cello insured, but are not sure if we should also complain to the airline. The case is very sturdy and marked all over with Fragile. Any input from any of you with what we can or should do? He is leaving the cello in the US for repair and his teacher will loan him one of hers for his last months in Germany. We have not lived in the US for 20 some years and he has never flown with a cello. When we explored bringing it on board, one airline said they would not have the “right space available” on their flight for him to do so.