Have you checked in your guitar on 2 connecting flights and survived?

silverspear · #1 06-08-2015, 06:13 AM

Just wanna get some feedback on people with real experience who have checked in their acoustic guitars (with hard case of course) on a flight that requires 1 or more connecting flights, and the guitar managed to survive the ordeal?

I'm going on a flight that requires me to sit on 3 different planes in order to get to my destination, and I really don't think hand carrying the guitar through 3 planes is a feasible idea for me, considering other hand carries that I have..

opinions!

guitarsrawesome · #2 06-08-2015, 06:18 AM

I guess it depends on the guitar, but I think I would avoid doing so if the guitar is >$500/$600 in value, and especially if it has any sentimental value. I've just read too many bad reports about broken manhandled guitars from journeys in the belly of the plane.

Sponserv · #3 06-08-2015, 06:46 AM

If you are not on regional jets just arrange to be early to board and carry it on. Period. It WILL fit in the overhead. No matter how many dirty looks you get.

jaymarsch · #4 06-08-2015, 08:16 AM

I have done it twice and one time it worked out fine and the other time my guitar was damaged. Are you gate checking it? It is most important that it does not go through the baggage tumbler and if it goes in with the strollers and the oversized luggage it will not go through the tumbler. The tumbler can whip the neck, which is what happened to mine. It was fixable but a pain in the you know what. I have stopped traveling with my good guitars and have a beater that I can take in case I have to check it, I don't worry about it.

There are just too many variables that are out of my control when I fly and / or change planes

Best,
Jayne

gatornavy · #5 06-08-2015, 08:33 AM

I've done it. The ship I was on got homeport shifted to Spain and then went on a deployment a few months later. There was no way I was going to be guitarless for that long. After the deployment, I was scheduled to transfer, and I flew back from Greece with my guitar. I was forced to check it. When my guitar didn't show up after my first flight, I freaked, and the airline said there was nothing they could do until I reached my final desitnation and put in a claim.

Once I landed at my desitination, I did just that. A couple of days went by and I got a phone call saying that my guitar never left Greece and they were working to get it sent back to me. A couple of weeks later I got another phone call saying my guitar had finally made it back and they even offered to deliver it to my house.

The guitar was in perfect shape, thankfully. I was so worried. I had traded all of my electric guitar gear towards this guitar so I'd have something to take with me on deployments.

The guitar was a D-35 in their standard black molded case. It survived fine, but if I had to do it again, I would not.

Treenewt · #6 06-08-2015, 08:53 AM

Yes. And lived to play another day.

But I think I was fortunate.

5 years ago I travelled with our church to Israel. I took my Martin D-15, which was my second acoustic at the time. It was in its regular hard case. I gate checked it for each leg of the trip. Started in Raleigh to NYC on Delta, then NYC to Istanbul on Turkish Air. Then Istanbul to Tel Aviv on Turkish again.

But when we arrived in Israel, it wasn't there. You see at Istanbul I couldn't pick it up and take it with me to the gate, so I had to trust them. It didn't make the connecting flight. The culprit: not enough time between flights.

Yeah....I was a bit worried.

But it turned up the next day, no worse for wear. The return trip went without a hitch, but I had longer layovers.

If I were to do it again, I would either buy/beg/borrow a GS mini or the like and carry it on, or throw a fit until they found a place In the cabin for it!

Don Hurley · #7 06-08-2015, 01:20 PM

My good friend, Bill Wardwell (6L6) did just that last week. Flew with a Martin 000 Custom from San Francisco to Newark. Then onto Dublin and, later, Dublin to London. Gate checked it every time. Guitar and case arrived intact and I played it last night. (It's killer!)

For decades I traveled extensively round the world with a D-35 without incident. My experience is that carefully packing the guitar and a little pre-planning/commonsense will keep you/it safe. There are occasional horrific incidents when guitars are damaged, or worst, destroyed. But we mostly hear the horror stories and not the many thousands of incident-free journeys.

Good luck, silverspear.

kydave · #8 06-08-2015, 01:30 PM

I gate checked (they went into the belly of the beast, not the passenger zone) TWO prized Martins, one in a Calton Deluxe, one in a Hiscox Pro II, when we flew to Nazareth, PA from across the country on the Left Coast a few years ago.

Connecting flights going and coming.

No issues whatsoever.

No mental/emotional gymnastics, either.

jbhiller · #9 06-08-2015, 02:21 PM

I've checked an Epiphone Masterbilt AJ-500R about 10 times in the last 5 years. I've never had a problem. I have the guitar in an SKB case that fits a Martin Dread--I simply add a towel to shim in the smaller slope shoulder guitar. I tune it way down. That's it.

I've managed to be ok with 1 connection on 2 occasions.

I really should gate check it, but I wonder if I would have to be pushy to get it through security. Will security allow it, like a stroller, without question?

I just got off a flight yesterday and picked it up in baggage claim. It was face side down.

It was fine though. The SKB case is not that great. If you stood on it you'd probably dent the guitar.

Yrksman · #10 06-08-2015, 03:03 PM

1 Make sure you are insured.

2 Always carry on if possible. DO NOT ASK IF YOU CAN, just take the guitar to the gate with you.

3 if you have to check it don't worry about it, what will be will be. 90% plus of the time I carry my guitars on board but I've checked them on multiple flight journeys over the years and on very long journeys, e g, UK to Australia/New Zealand and back.

PaulVanJohnson · #11 06-08-2015, 03:18 PM

I've gate-checked my GS-Mini in it's stock "hard-bag" and had no problems. I'm thinking about taking it on a trip to Beijing next month so I bought an SKB case for it. I hadn't heard of the tumbler before so I thought it might be OK to check it with my suitcase. Sounds like I may need to rethink that....

Photojeep · #12 06-08-2015, 04:02 PM

A few years ago my wife asked me to play the music at her Mom's funeral. I also had a conference to attend the week prior to the funeral. I checked my at-the-time only acoustic guitar as luggage in Las Vegas for the trip to Santa Fe. She arrived without a scratch.

Three days later I flew from Santa Fe to Nashville with a connecting flight at Chicago Midway. Again no problems at all. The return flight to Santa Fe was a non-stop and she made it just fine.

Then two days later I flew from Santa Fe to Las Vegas non-stop with no issues. Southwest Airlines all the way too. The only time I saw my guitar loaded was the first flight from LV to Santa Fe so I was a bit worried. Luckily she arrived and even still in tune!

The circumstances were a bit unusual so I did what I had to do, but I dont know that I would do this again. Of course, now that airlines are supposed to allow taking instruments onboard, I probably won't have to check it as luggage.

Best,
PJ

AllThumbsBruce · #13 06-08-2015, 04:04 PM

Seven weeks ago I checked my guitar on a three-flight trip to Asia and had no problems. In about three hours I am going to check it for the three-flight trip back to CA. On recommendations from the guys at Gryphon, I padded the headstock area with t-shirts and tuned it down a full note. I use a travel case for a slightly larger guitar, so I pad the extra space with t-shirts too.

I prefer not to bring a full-sized guitar onto an airplane, as I empathize with my fellow flyers and do not want to hog more than my share of overhead space. I usually bring my Brunner Outdoor Guitar when traveling, but for this trip I wanted to have something with a longer scale than the very short scale Brunner.

silverspear · #14 06-08-2015, 09:24 PM

Thanks guys for your responses and for sharing your experiences!

I will be checking in an ameritage case, and though I know it's sturdy and heavy, but I can't help but wonder if the baggage handlers will be tempted to throw it even more, since it's so heavy!!

And to think that my guitar will pass through baggage handlers 4 times (over 3 different planes) in 1 single flight, makes me worry! haha..

Any one else has experiences to share?

Quote:

Originally Posted by AllThumbsBruce

Seven weeks ago I checked my guitar on a three-flight trip to Asia and had no problems. In about three hours I am going to check it for the three-flight trip back to CA. On recommendations from the guys at Gryphon, I padded the headstock area with t-shirts and tuned it down a full note. I use a travel case for a slightly larger guitar, so I pad the extra space with t-shirts too.

I prefer not to bring a full-sized guitar onto an airplane, as I empathize with my fellow flyers and do not want to hog more than my share of overhead space. I usually bring my Brunner Outdoor Guitar when traveling, but for this trip I wanted to have something with a longer scale than the very short scale Brunner.

reidplum · #15 06-08-2015, 11:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AllThumbsBruce

...I prefer not to bring a full-sized guitar onto an airplane, as I empathize with my fellow flyers and do not want to hog more than my share of overhead space...

I used to be that way too. Until I found that nice guys don't even finish.

The last couple times I've flown SouthWest and Delta, people who don't want to pay for checking extra luggage have brought giant pieces along to boarding, sometimes two pieces. I've been quite surprised that they were given no hassle and just stuffed everything in the overheads. By the time I got on, there wasn't enough room for even a small bag in the overheads. I had to sit with no leg room at all with my bag under my feet the whole flight.

Law of the jungle out there.

Reid