Bloody airline cracks down on instruments

The clarinettist Sarah Watts has discovered that the British airline FlyBe has changed its rules on carrying instruments on board.

She tells us:

The 100x30x30 measurements for instruments allowed in the cabin has disappeared from their website. Now it’s standard cabin baggage allowance only.

I tweeted them to check this as I fly a lot with them with my bass clarinet that fits in this allowance and they have confirmed they no longer welcome musical instruments with the larger instrument allowance.

Hi Sarah, thank you for your patience. I am sorry to advise that this is no longer our policy, any item that exceeds our cabin baggage policy will have to go in the hold of the aircraft. Our website has been updated to reflect this but I apologise you … https://t.co/VOm0fU02Ta

— Flybe (@flybe) December 12, 2019

Avoid FlyBe for the moment until they sort themselves out.

UPDATE: They won’t. Here’s their sneaky new policy.

Dear Sarah Our Ref: 191213 – 000558 Thank you for your email to my colleague Rebecca, regarding the carrying of musical instruments onboard our flights.  Please accept my apologies on behalf of Flybe for the issues that you have encountered. We are currently investigating this matter internally and we will contact you again in due course once we have concluded our investigations. Thank you for your patience and please be assured that either myself or one of my colleagues will contact you with a full response in due course. Kind regards Malcolm Davidson Customer Support Executive