| Flying experiences with your bass
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I was hoping that we could all share our experiences here on flying a commercial airline with our basses in tow. What did you take? How did you pack it? Did you check or carry-on? Did the bass make it on the plane with you? Hopefully by doing this we can determine the best way to transport our instruments by air. Maybe we can even force uncooperative airlines to accommodate us by traveling musician-friendly airlines! My quick story...
A month ago I took my Carvin LB75 in a Fender/SKB molded “flightcase” with TSA compatible locks through Southwest Airlines, from Oklahoma City to Chicago to Columbus. After down tuning one step and packing the bass carefully with rags around the headstock/neck joint and under the body, I tossed in a kind letter to TSA asking to repack the instrument carefully. I carried my bass through security and onto the plane without so much as a second glance all the way to my final destination. No damage, as it was never away from my side. Coming back, I took a gamble and decided to check it for the sake of this article. TSA looked inside to make sure it was indeed a bass, and put it on the carousel with the other bags. While changing planes, I watched a baggage handler unloading my bass. While he did drop/slide it off of the plane and onto the luggage cart, he didn’t seem to do so very hard, letting gravity do most of the work for him. Upon arriving home, I opened up my bass to see the damage. To my delight, the bass was perfectly fine!
I also want to add that while traveling I talked to a couple of pilots and flight attendants, and they all assured me that they enjoyed having musicians fly with them and had no problem with us taking our instruments onboard as long as they fit safely on the plane. Also, a friend of mine, who works as an airline mechanic, says that Southwest only flies 727s. | 
