Gigging and flying: guitar as checked or carry on baggage?

Gilmourizing

Gilmourizing

Inspired
Hi guys,

I've listened different approaches by the airlines company regarding the transportation of guitar when flying, and probably some of you have a lot more experience to share.

Once I was carrying a Gibson LP in the original hard case and the attendant at check in told me that only the soft cases should be carry on baggage. I didn't know that...
I was terrified because I have a friend that had his guitar's headstock broken by their gentle handling with checked bags, so I insisted to carry the case with me. She let me do that but I was advised they could need to check the guitar when boarding. Luckily, I got no problem when boarding, as the flight attendant got room for it in a special compartment, for their coats I think.

Another friend of mine was forced to check his ESP guitar that was in a hard case.

Please share your experiences:

Do you mind to transport your guitar as checked baggage?
Anyone had his guitar damaged or lost when checked? Was the airline refund you?
Is it best to put the guitar in soft case if you want to take guitar with you inside the plane? Is it guaranteed?
 
Last edited:
Soft case is best, and carry it on. Generally, baggage handlers for the airlines do a good job of getting your luggage to the same place you are going, but they can be very rough on baggage. I have logged in a few million miles and seen a lot of airplane horror. Of the major carriers, United is the worst, followed closely by American. Delta is the best of the current carriers. Southwest is OK, but you cannot select your seat and board by groups. With the other carriers, you can pay an up-charge for preferred boarding.

As for guaranteed, nothing is guaranteed with airlines. Their customer service leaves much to be desired. I have had many issues with all of the carriers over the years. When I was working, I was top-tier with United, Delta, and American. If there is an issue, they are not good at resolving it. All the carriers are notorious for poor customer service.
 
I only flew twice abroad for gigs carrying guitars. Each time I used hard cases. I checked with a guitarist whose band toured all over Europe and he said using a hard case was fine, but when to check in it was best not to lock the case, as they would break open the case if they wanted to check inside. That it was better to secure the case with a belt, as they could easily unlock and refasten the belt without damaging the case.

I experienced no problems with my guitars on both occasions, but we did ran into trouble the first time checking in at Schiphol with KLM as each guitar case counted as a single piece of luggage. As we had 4 guitars, and other stuff (like a pedal board), and were only allowed a single piece of luggage per person we had to pay extra. A hardcase that could carry two guitars (and stayed within the maximum allowed weight limit) would have saved us a lot of money. Oddly enough on the return flight they made no problems. But that was with Alitalia on Sicily. Italians are apparently much easier in that regard. And maybe us duct taping guitar cases together to create 'single' pieces of luggage helped. The other time we travelled with Turkish Airlines and they had no single piece of luggage per person policy, just a weight limit per person. They caused no problems.

On holidays I've taken guitars with me on board in soft cases as hand luggage with no problems. But times are changing, I hear that in order to compete on ticket prices airlines are limiting what passengers can carry for free on board. So they can tempt you with cheap tickets. And then make you pay extra for your luggage.
 
My guitars and pedalboards are flight cased and go in the hold. The latches are always gaffa taped down and we always leave lots of spare strips of tape on each side of each case on the off chance that security at the oversize baggage counter want us to open the cases again.
Had a few incidents (smashed lid off the front off my Axefx 2 units suspended flight case on arrival in Germany for a festival. Fortunately, the AxeFX was fine and just had a wobbly front handle. My local flight case company have lifetime guarantee on their stiff so fixed that case for free.
Have now switched to AX8. Have two of them flight cased. Only problem I have had is with the AX8 handle/guard vibrating off in transit. Again, might just revisit the company that custom made the cases and see if we can re-foam the insides to maybe try and stop that happening.
Baggage handlers are VERY rough on gear. They seem to enjoy it but I have not lost any equipment to it yet. I tour with two John Suhr Classic guitars in flight cases and they are always fine on arrival.
I prefer just getting rid at checkin. Nothing to carry through security or drag through the airport until you board.
We have thought we have had stuff go missing several times upon arrival at the destination airport but they have generally just put them on a different carousel for fragile stuff. :)
I would never trust being able to just board with a guitar in a soft case anymore. As has been said, the times are changing.
 
Last edited:
For over 20 years, I carried my guitar onboard in a gig bag and it was never a problem. I'd just cheerfully carry it aboard, and place it in the overhead baggage storage. Starting in about 2000, airlines started to become unpredictable in their willingness to allow this practice. The "fee for ANY checked bag" policy meant that pretty much everybody was hand-carrying their bags, so the overhead bins were often full. There were a few incidents in which I was unable to find space overhead, and obviously, checking a guitar in a gig bag would be terrifying; in both of those incidents, someone on the flight crew kindly agreed to place my guitar in the crew baggage storage for safekeeping.
At that point I started using regular Anvil-style ATA cases for touring, but they are heavy beasts, huge, and costly to check as luggage. These days I tour with my guitars in SKB i-series ATA cases. They're pretty lightweight but provide great protection. My guitar cases are scuffed, but the guitars arrive intact. The TSA-accessible latches are super handy. Also, those i-series cases are not much bigger than a standard rectangular guitar case, so they're a lot easier to fit into a rental car / minivan; the Anvil-style cases are a lot bigger, and always required us to have a full-size gear van on fly dates.
Either way, a handy tip : I always carry an empty gig bag on tour, and just find space to cram it into one of the road cases. After gigs, I like to take my main guitar back to the hotel room for noodling / practice, and it's a lot easier to throw a gig bag over my shoulder than to drag a regular case around. When we check out, I put the guitar back into the flight case and stuff the gig bag back into another road case. Extra super bonus : a gig bag happens to be about the perfect size for unobtrusively carrying two bottles of wine and a baguette. Not that I have ever done that. Much.
 
Last time I tried to take the guitar with me as a carry-on I was told that I would have to book another seat. Decided to go by car instead.
 
A hard case will do the job, but I take a few extra precautions like gaffa taping over the latches and stuffing any spare space with either my socks/underwear or some tee shirts.

Air France let me carry my guitar on in a hard case but every other time I've checked it and have been lucky to not have anything but a scuffed case.
 
Checking the gtr means danger of having it lost or destroyed & not having your instrument at the gig. It means also to pay for a 2nd luggage. I prefer to have my gtr as hand luggage but some companies don't allow it. No problem with Air France, Alitalia, KLM. Easyjet is OK as long as I buy the SpeedyBoarding option. Austrian Airlines, Lufthansa, Air Portugal have been problematic. Vueling, Ryanair - impossible, they just force you to pay for more checked luggage. With Air Berlin I had to buy a 300€ new seat since I didn't want to check my soft case. By the way, do you know that computer & electronics are getting forbidden in checked luggage ? Because of lithium batteries that may explode... When checking never say you have electronics (AxeFX, FX8 & AX8) inside your luggage !!!
 
Last edited:
That battery thing was discussed when the Samsung S7 appeared to catch fire during the flight. The S7 is history just like the discussion.
 
thanks for you very kind reply which is not true at all. I'm talking about rules that I read during my last flight a week ago.
 
Nunu said:
Checking the gtr means danger of having it lost or destroyed & not having your instrument at the gig.
Click to expand...

That is why I fly with two guitars and two AX8 all in flight cases. Would be some freak occurrence for none of them to show up at the destination airport. :)
 
Southwest, walked on with acoustic hard case, put in bin above, both there and back. No hassles at all. US flight
 
Nunu said:
Checking the gtr means danger of having it lost or destroyed & not having your instrument at the gig. It means also to pay for a 2nd luggage. I prefer to have my gtr as hand luggage but some companies don't allow it. No problem with Air France, Alitalia, KLM. Easyjet is OK as long as I buy the SpeedyBoarding option. Austrian Airlines, Lufthansa, Air Portugal have been problematic. Vueling, Ryanair - impossible, they just force you to pay for more checked luggage. With Air Berlin I had to buy a 300€ new seat since I didn't want to check my soft case. By the way, do you know that computer & electronics are getting forbidden in checked luggage ? Because of lithium batteries that may explode... When checking never say you have electronics (AxeFX, FX8 & AX8) inside your luggage !!!
Click to expand...

Wouldn't they find out about it anyway once your baggage goes through the scanner?

vinnyburns said:
That is why I fly with two guitars and two AX8 all in flight cases. Would be some freak occurrence for none of them to show up at the destination airport. :)
Click to expand...

Must be quite expensive then. How many pieces of luggage are you allowed to check in?
 
I reckon that with baggage handling that you pay your employees minimum wage you get minimum performance. Add in fun stuff like zero hour contracts and temp workers and you create the perfect s h i t storm of absolutely zero f***s being given by those who handle your luggage.
 
Hi Folks,
Did anyone had issues with neck after a checked luggage flight? Due to temperature/humidity/pressure variations?
If so, any suggestions to minimize these impacts?

Thanks!
 
Keep in mind most ATA/Flight cases- don't just mean they're safe for under airplanes

They have approved TSA locks that the TSA/Airport can open with a special key- then you don't have to worry about locking it/it being broken open
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom