<p>There are several options. Buying a bass trunk is indeed expensive, with the good ones (David Gage, Kolstein) costing $3000 or so. They can be rented from several good bass shops usually on the order of $100 per week. We bought one of these used on Ebay for about $1000. They are not often seen for sale there, but one comes up every now and again. Be careful if you do this. Some older trunks were built so that they required a special tool to open them. In some places, cases that cannot be opened manually will either be refused outright or may be subject to being chisled open at the whim of security personnel.</p>
<p>Going down a step, there are the STS and Tuff-Lite trunks priced around $2100. These do not have the air suspension feature of the Kolstein and Gage cases.</p>
<p>With any of these, you have to be careful not to exceed the 100 pound limit for excess baggage, you have to show up extra early at the airport and you have to know how to beg in just the right way to get it accepted. Expect to pay $80 or so per flight segment in excess baggage fees.</p>
<p>Getting a double bass into an airline seat is nearly impossible these days. It might fit a bulkhead seat in coach or a standard first-class seat if strapped in upside down, depending on the particular plane and how tight the airline has decided to squeeze in the rows, but airlines have not been very accommodating to people flying with large objects in the last several years. </p>
<p>Check out the interview that Gary Karr did on NPR at [NPR</a> Music: Karr’s Double Bass Finds Biggest Threat at Airport](<a href=“http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6638789]NPR”>Karr's Double Bass Finds Biggest Threat at Airport : NPR) concerning traveling with a double bass.</p>
<p>There is some interesting information at</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.isbworldoffice.com/resour...your_bass.html[/url]”>http://www.isbworldoffice.com/resour...your_bass.html</a> and at</p>
<p>[Traveling</a> by Air with Your Instrument: Some Guidelines - Polyphonic.org](<a href=“http://www.polyphonic.org/article.php?id=79]Traveling”>http://www.polyphonic.org/article.php?id=79)</p>
<p>that may be of interest to anyone who has ever had a problem with getting on a plane with their instrument.</p>