Delta to violinist: Put your $6m Strad in the hold
NewsAnguished tweets just in from the Canadian violinist Christina Bouey, concertmaster of the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra and a member of the Ulysses String Quartet. After United’s recent bad behaviour, it looks like the US airlines are right back to where they were – among the worst in the world.
Awful boarding process today with @Delta for flight 5720 from LGA to MCI. I was travelling with a rare Stradivarius violin and the gate attendants said if there was no room I had to gate check a 6 million dollar instrument or get rebooked on a later flight. #musician #flying
— Christina Bouey (@ChristinaBouey) September 2, 2021
I was able to get it on the plane because the flight attendant was nice, but @Delta, I urge you to include instruments as a part of your pre-boarding policy just like @AirCanada. Musicians have had a tough year as it is. @TheStradMag @NLebrecht @violinchannel
— Christina Bouey (@ChristinaBouey) September 2, 2021
Why do we have to keep going over and over this with the airlines? Isn’t there a federal regulation about instruments in the cabin? Good grief.
Airline did not say she could not bring it, only that she could not bring it if there was not space. The regulations do not mandate that space must be provided, only that bringing them into the cabin is allowed, but if you think you know otherwise, quote the relevant regulation(s) here, please.
Same thing. Once everyone has brought everything but the kichen sink on board in the cabin on these American planes, of course there won’t be any room on any day of the week for a violin.
Bill, I can tell you are not a musician. Don’t make broad comments when you clearly don’t understand what’s at stake. Are you an advocate or not?
You are mistaken.
Bill is correct. The airlines are obligated to allow violins as carry-on baggage IF there’s space in the bins when you board. If you’re flying on an economy fare and you’re in a later boarding group it’s best to politely ask a gate agent if you can pre-board. If they say no then it’s just up to chance. If they decline to let you stow it despite there being space available when you board then they are violating federal law. It’s that simple.
Stoking outrage is a great way to generate clicks. But a useful post would list those airlines which are BEST at handling musical instruments.
Turkish Air is fantastic with musical instruments guitar-sized or smaller, according to their regulations and my experiences.
In Business Class airlines can handle anything!! We don’t call Economy/Coach “cattle class” for nothing.
Not sure about US airlines but if you want to get to Europe, the very best, in my opinion, is KLM. If I can help it I will never fly with another airline in and out of Europe
Really?!
I will NEVER fly KLM ever again….
https://www.thestrad.com/klm-airline-refuses-to-allow-viola-in-the-cabin-despite-misleading-hand-baggage-policy/3400.article
No doubt about it, traveling with something you are unwilling/unable to gate check is stressful. That needs to be considered when making travel arrangements. It’s not like catching a flight with just a pair of sunglasses and a paperback book! This problem is not limited to musicians on aircraft, either.
The problem is, though, that airline ticketing/gate agents don’t always follow their own airline’s policies. Your post below shows Delta’s policy, but there are stories galore of passengers printing out the official regulations and/or using their phones to show the airline’s website to the employee, and the employee says “I don’t care, you can’t bring that on the plane.” And they are, apparently, the final authority. Appealing to supervisors and managers takes time, and risks missing the flight.
Even people who purchase an extra seat for their instruments (I’ve heard of this being done for violins, not only for cellos) can be refused, no matter how much careful consultation of the rules was done in advance or how many hundreds of dollars were paid. (There was a story on this here just a couple days ago… ah, here it is: https://slippedisc.com/2021/08/united-airlines-ally-breaks-musicians-heart/)
What the online policy of an airline says often differs to what an officious check in attendant says. That’s when it gets stressful when a $1 million rare centuries old violin is concerned. The policy needs to be clarified to check in staff.
Delta’s policy on musical instruments in the cabin:
CARRY ON AN INSTRUMENT
Guitars and smaller musical instruments like violins or flutes will be accepted as your free carry-on bag item on Delta and Delta Connection flights. Your carry-on must easily fit in the overhead bin or other approved storage locations, in the cabin, based on available space at the time of boarding. Please note, if overhead bin space is limited or if you prefer, you may check your instrument at the gate.
We’ve travelled three times with Emirates Business class – virtually around the world. Each time loaded to the hilt with extras; they took control of everything, including clothing items, fragile glassware and prints – and put them in special lockers – and handed them to us as we exited the aircraft. I should image them easily managing a precious violin.
Unfortunately, not all of us can afford business class. Good for you.
Sue, Travelling Emirates Business Class is not a solution available to most working musicians. But I suppose they could their butler to hand-carry the violin, and run behind the aircraft.
This is from the Department of Transportation:
Section 403 of the Act and this final rule provide that carriers are required to allow
passengers to stow their musical instruments in an approved stowage area in the cabin only if at
the time the passenger boards the aircraft such stowage space is available. With the exception of
certain disability assistance devices, overhead bins or under seat stowage space is available to all
passengers and crew members for their carry-on baggage on a “first come, first served” basis.
Accordingly, carriers are not required to remove other passengers’ or crew members’ carry-on
baggage that is already stowed in order to make space for a musical instrument.
They should be able to take one on the many suitcases passengers bring on and check that rather than a musical instrument. Treating them as equal and subject to “first come first served” is stupid.
All the luggage filling the overheads is important to someone. Responsible travelers make the necessary arrangements to not be the last ones standing when the music stops, or are prepared to take a different flight if putting their precious baggage below is simply not an option.
At any institution with hundreds or thousands of customer-facing employees, there are inevitably some who do not correctly apply every policy, whether through ignorance or malice, and often some who will bend the rules in favor of a customer when treated nicely (no claim is made that Ms. Bouey did not do so, merely a general statement that in my experience, throwing a tantrum should be the last resort, not the first arrow out of the quiver).
My qualifications for making these statements: 4 airline pilots in the family, 1 flight attendant, many musician friends who tour extensively with fine instruments, some instrument dealer friends who travel extensively with their merchandise, and plenty of experience traveling with my own valuable instruments. It would be great for those carrying such burdens if airlines uniformly treated them with compassion and concern for their needs, but why shouldn’t all passengers receive such treatment?
Thank you. Some serious light on the issue. Two possible solutions:
1. Prior to the flight, a musician might explain to the airline his/her particular circumstances and ask for priority boarding.
2. In a situation in which overhead space has been fully taken, the airline might put out a call for a volunteer passenger to free up some space, perhaps adding a sweetener such as free drinks or bonus airmiles.
A more strategic remedy is for the airlines to abolish the ludicrous principle that cabin baggage is free of charge, but that checked baggage has to be paid for. This is an absurd motivation for passengers to take as much as possible on board.
I don’t get it. Why not just take your seat, be quite, and do what the authorities tell you to do? The airlines are the experts in their field and who are we to question their guidance?
Are you serious? Their guidance… put it in the hold… it will be fine…. oops… sorry about that… the instrument is destroyed….here’s a couple of thousand dollars compensation…. no worries …. move on and forget it. I assume you are joking?
This is a joke post, right?
Qantas forced me to put my 3/4 size violin into the fragile hold en route from London to Sydney, many years ago.
I was a child, obviously, so they refused to hear me out about the danger to the instrument.
The case was smashed and the bow broken. The violin itself was also damaged.
Enough said.
I wasn’t thinking about this kind of thing at age 9 when I started, but this kind of story makes me glad I chose the flute 😛
Whenever I have to travel with my violin, I make sure to shell out the extra bucks to upgrade for early boarding and guaranteed overhead. It’s a small price to pay to insure your instrument.
Just get insurance!
Nothing is that special anymore. We learned that from the “peaceful protests”.
You’re absolutely right, Mia. We’ve been assured that things are just things and can be replaced in the event of theft or destruction, so people should just “get over” their irrational attachment to their stuff.
Right again. There are lots of other violins that look just as good. If your strad is smashed, you can easily get new-for-old at your local music shop, and they might tune it for you before you leave !
For a Strad, why not purchase a seat?
For starters, a seat next to you may not be available. It will have to be a window seat (the FAA requires that cargo carried in seats must be located such that no one’s path to an exit be hindered). And just because you have an expensive instrument as a companion does not mean that you have an income stream that would support purchase, maintenance and insurance on same, not to mention all of those extra tickets. Ms. Bouey is playing a borrowed violin, owned by Juilliard.
Why not take a private jet?
If I owned a $6M musical instrument I’d travel in Business Class. No issues after that.
She doesn’t own a $6 million instrument, she has one on loan. And I’d say there is a good chance that the fees she is getting might not cover a regular diet of business class travel. A quick look at fares for travel LGA-MCI on Delta two weeks out shows a seat up front is twice as expensive ($560 vs $280). For international travel over the ocean, the cost spread balloons, with a similar Delta booking from JFK-AMS at $600 coach vs $5000 business!
tl;dr once again SSF is all wet
Sue … she is a professional violinist… it’s a tool of her trade… of course she doesn’t OWN a 6 million pound instrument … ( it belongs elsewhere)….to pay a business class ticket would probably cost more than the fee for the concert… you really do not have a clue about the lives of professional musicians.
So how does this equate to US airlines being “among the worst in the world”?
So there was never a situation where they didn’t have room for her fiddle. Soooooo… What?
Gosh, if that Strad were mine, I would never let it out of my sight!
So in the end she had NO PROBLEM whatsoever? This is an article about the possibility of that problem? And we’ve deemed all US airlines terrible as a result of this? Ok…
She sounds bad. She should not be playing on a Strad in the first place. She should hit the gym first.
I’ve never had any issues traveling on Delta with my instrument. They clearly tell you the carry on bag rules on their website. She probably exceeded the airline carry on limit containing all of her cupcakes, cookies, and doughnuts…
Same as ever. No variants with Delta.
And yet another quandary is that the more you let airport people know what the value is of the thing, hoping that sways them to change their mind, the LESS you want the baggage handlers to get their mitts on it. At some airports it is notorious what those folks have stolen and sold.
MCI is an odd destination for a Strad…..
Really? They have a symphony orchestra there, conducted by Isaac Stern’s son Michael, and I see at least one soloist I know to play a Strad booked to perform this season. The last concertmaster in KC is now the Seattle Symphony CM.
The American Federation of Musicians US and Canada has a written agreement with the airlines and the TSA. It can be downloaded from their web site and I always carry a copy when I fly.
Hi Norman, why don’t you write a couple of paragraphs of how an airline should b have and then we can approach each airline to see if they will commit to that policy? Put the statement on the web with a list of airlines that are “culture compliant” and warnings not to fly about the rest of them. Passengers could then show this to the jobsworths when interfere.