Man gets bumped off airline for violin, implications for mandolin

[Bigtuna]

I feel like this happens a lot these days. Here's the story. Sounds like we all need a carry a copy of the FAA Modernization and Reform Act. I know I will call and check for any possible rules before I choose my airline but I'm sure things are always subject to change the day of travel and a lot depends who's working the gate. Could we start a list of airlines that are friendly for those who travel with instruments? Or even better a list of who aren't friendly.

Not friendly:
US Airways

[mjb128wv]

I got to the story with this link -
http://www.indystar.com/story/news/l...light/9621147/

[Gary Hedrick]

It is all over on the Indy TV stations....seems the folks were tossed off the one flight but then got a copy of the Fed Law and voila' they were allowed on a second flight and got there for the concert......
Seems the poor fellow didn't want to surrender his $350k "fiddle" to the baggage handlers....

The investigative reporter for one station is pulling US Air's chain wanting to know if they can read the Federal regulations!

[TEvans]

I have flown into Fayetteville, AR (the very airport they are flying to) with my mandolin. Those regional jets are pretty small. However, my mando in a gator case fit just fine in the overhead bin.

Section 403 of the new FAA regs say you can take an instrument. Heck, I've taken an acoustic guitar to Africa. I've flown to Seattle with a bass guitar on board! They usually let you take your instrument. The strategy is to not say anything about it. Just keep holding on.

[bohemianbiker]

I got to the story with this link -
http://www.indystar.com/story/news/l...light/9621147/

The part of this article I find the most bizarre is:

"The crew told the musicians that the FAA would fine the airline if they were found not to have complied with FAA regulations, which, according to the captain, said Kendall, prohibited musical instruments to be carried on the plane."

The relevant statute (again, according to the article) says pretty much just the opposite. Ignorance of the law is one thing, but professing to know the law, and having it 180 degrees wrong, is taking it to another level .... bb

[kkmm]

This simply shows that US Airways crew were not well trained and informed on carry-on items, professing the law totally wrong is not an acceptable behavior. That crew member needs to be disciplined.
I carried my mandolin on fights for the last 3 years (about twice a month) and guitar once, either under the seat or in the overhead bin, no problem.

[jmp]

I've never had a problem with my octave mandolin and I've seen many people bring acoustic guitars carry on. I think if there was an official looking copy of the FAA act with appropriate text that would be handy to bring with. However, I've only seen webpages which don't look all the official when printed out. The one caveat: you must be able to fit the instrument into the overhead bin. So for a smaller sized puddle jumper plane that could be a problem.

[Petrus]

With a $350K violin, I'd pay for an extra seat for it.

[Gary Hedrick]

Even with a $350k violin I would expect the stupid airline to pull their heads out of the anal cavities....he bought a ticket and the Federal Regs are very direct...I wouldn't want to give them any more money that I should....I have flown with my Loar (the 25 years I owned it) a number of times in a Pag case.....never had a problem with it.....

[Ivan Kelsall]

Personally, i'm not surprised that this should have happened.The US government brought in a new law regulating what can be carried on board an aircraft,but i'd bet that they never sent any notification of the new law to all the main US airlines 'directly.
From JMP - ".. So for a smaller sized puddle jumper plane that could be a problem.". In my 45 years in the aircraft industry,i've been involved with aircraft from the 'puddle jumper' size to trans-world wide bodied planes, & all of them had baggage bins of a size that would easily take a mandolin in say, a Travelite / Calton sized case.
Whatever laws are passed on almost anything,there will always be folk who aren't up to date on them,as in this case,
Ivan

[Bertram Henze]

I am sure it was just a spelling error - no airline will tolerate violins and violint behavior on board of their flights...

[bratsche]

And don't forget sax. Violins and sax. Wouldn't they bump off passengers for having sax, too?

bratsche
glad to be finished with flying, and to have discovered the allure of solitary road tripping

[John Ritchhart]

Cellout.

[John Flynn]

I am a multi-million mile traveler and I can tell you where you are most likely to find "not friendly" not just to musical instruments, but medical assistive devices, computers, etc.:

Not friendly: Any small "regional," "operating as" airline. These "economic-remora" outfits have the name of a major airline on their planes, but they actually are operated by companies that typically have "Express," "Commuter," "Connection," the name of a state or some esoteric geographical area like "Mesa." They fly little props and jets made by Embraer, Canadair, etc. aka "Barbie Jets" "Vomit Comets" and "Lawn Darts."

A lot of their gate agents and flight attendants are good, but some were obviously flippin' burgers for a living the week before they started. Some of them don't know federal regs and some won't read them if you try to show them. If these guys have a full flight they will try every trick in the book to get around the rules. One rule I've had used against me is "weight and balance," a legitimate flight safety rule that they can misuse to supercede the carry-on regs. Here's the trick: If they use "weight and balance," tell them you want to get a ruling from the Captain. The Captain can supercede the gate agent on any safety matter. I had this work for me once.

[Alan Lackey]

I fly US Airways exclusively between Nashville and New Jersey and have never had an issue with carrying on my mandolin. The only time it came close to an "uh oh" moment was after I had boarded and was in place one of the later boarding groups came through and a women had brought on a "carry on" [yeah...how about enforcing the size restrictions for a change] and wanted to put it where my mandolin was placed. Guess because it looked like there was extra space there they thought their over sized carry on should trump my mandolin case. Stewardess asked if my mandolin could be checked and I said politely "no ma'am". They moved on.

[sunburst]

As others have said, I've always been able to carry instruments on, but that doesn't mean people won't meet up with airline jerks who decide to make their own rules rather than follow the real rules. Who is there to turn to for a ruling on the tarmac, after all?
I once walked to a "puddle jumper" with a gate check tag on a Calton guitar case (containing a guitar, of coarse). The flight wasn't full, and the attendant said "you can carry that on, just take it back to row 27 (or whatever) and lean it in the corner". I suspect there are plenty of other stories of airline personnel being accommodating too, but when they act like jerks, that's when it all 'goes public', and with good reason, I might add.

But the real reason for this post is this:
I had never heard of "time for three", but this lead me to their "tiny desk concert". Pretty good! I bet I'm not the only one to "discover" this group through this publicity. Perhaps a silver lining?

[8ch(pl)]

Maybe the airline thought he had a Thompson in the Violin case and that he was going to bump somebody off.

[Jim Garber]

A mandolin-playing friend of mine suggested that we print out this regulation (attached) and keep it in our cases for these airline moments.

[Mark Normand]

On a trip to Anchorage a few years ago, three plane changes coming and going... six times I very politely asked the desk clerk if wife and I could board during first class calls, due to our concerns about finding bin room for our expensive (?) mando and fiddle. Every single time they said just stand off to the side right there, and when they called first class, they let us slip in behind them with a quick undercover nod. Couldn't believe it worked every time!