Virgin join the anti-violin airlines

From a Slipped Disc reader:

We have a group from school in South West London, who are travelling to the USA on a performing arts tour this October, and are flying Virgin Atlantic. This will be the trip of a lifetime for some of these talented kids, but at the moment they’re getting kicked in the teeth by Virgin at every turn

They wish to take 5 (expensive) violins with them in the cabin, and Virgin’s totally intransigent attitude is that ‘computer says no’, and all they are doing is quoting their ‘standard’ terms at us repeatedly, and wish to force this school to purchase extra seats or be required to place the violins in the hold with all the dangerous implications this has for the instruments.

This despite:

–       The violins’ volume is far less than that of the maximum allowed hand luggage case (13 x 30 x 85 cm for a violin, 23 x 36 x 56 for a standard hand luggage case)

–       The violins weigh on average 3-4 kg each, as opposed to the maximum allowed 10kg

–       The violins would be their only item of hand luggage

–       This is a group of 30+ individuals all of whom are paying full fare for a seat.

Come on Richard Branson. Remember when you were in the music business?