Delta Airlines To Allow Carry-On Instruments

stringfollies
Sun, 29 Apr 2007 02:48:45 +0000

I was travelling on Southwest 2 years ago and there was no space left overhead to put my S’s violin in. An attendant offered to find a place for it up front and we handed it over (at their insistence). She returned with a claim check and said they had put it in the luggage compartment underneath!! When I asked to have it returned to us so that we could get off the plane and wait to take another plane, they said that the plane had been sealed for takeoff and that we could not get off. We were in a total panic - the violin would have been ruined on a conveyor belt. In tears, I got the supervisor of the flight attendants to agree to have it given special handling at the arrival airport (it was taken off and transported to the terminal on one of their little electric cars - never went on the conveyor belt) so luckily the instrument was not damaged, but needless to say, we worried for the entire flight. We wrote a complaint letter to Southwest to which we did not receive a personal reply.

My advice: if you are travelling with an instrument, make absolutely sure to be one of the first to board the plane. If they refuse to allow it now, we will simply not get on the plane, but I will never again risk having it taken from us once the plane is set to leave. On a very small Northwest plane last month, they warned us that it might not fit in the compartment and tried to get us to check it at the gate. I knew from past experience that it would fit, told them this and told them it was worth $50,000 (an exaggeration, but it is worth a lot). This bought us the right to try. I also said that we would not fly on that plane if the violin was required to be checked.