This is an awful story but not surprising: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/vintage-gibson-guitar-delta-baggage-leevees-214634001.html The worst part is that he apparently always carries it on and the one time they make him check it they destroy it.
It's sad but with a instrument that valuable I would have invested in a heavy duty flight case? that looks like the cheap original chipboard case?
The case was heavy duty enough to bend the rail. Besides, he's used to have it as a carry on so he doesn't normally need an ATA case.
Came in to say this, leave satiated without having to , of course, looking at the damage I am not sure anything short of a titanium case would have saved that poor Gibby
The case looks inadequate to me. That's why to every thread asking about airline travel, I respond: NEVER ASSUME YOU CAN CARRY ON. NEVER NEVER NEVER. Sooner or later some moron will deny you the option, and you have no appeal. None. Delta is losing millions in publicity value by stalling, too.
About 10 years ago a baggage handler at Logan Airport in Boston told me to never check an instrument even if it is in a flight case. Better off changing flights.
One option for bass players is to pick up a hard case for golf clubs - add padding and put the instrument inside that case in a gig bag. That gives you plenty of crush space. It will get thrown around, but so will a guitar case. And the golf club case isn't very expensive, and often available at used sporting goods stores.
Follow-up. Looks like if you get your sob story spread all over the internet the airline will finally apologize and pay up, and Gibson gives a free repair job and a free guitar on top of that: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/delta-gibson-guitar-schneider-leevees-zambonis-203119266.html
The follow up is a good ending. There was a huge mistake in handling somewhere and the guitar was jammed in between a gate and a terminal. The crushing of the guitar case bent a steel beam at the airport. I'm surprised the guitar is even repairable. The case seems to have done a good job protecting the instrument. Things happen. Car accidents happen too. Can't live in fear all the time. The ending is a good one, and Gibson comes out looking great.
I'm probably the lone naysayer here... But unless I'm in a successful group where I'm playing a vintage 335, I would NOT be flying with that sucker. And I think vintage instruments should NOT be museum relics. The issue is, regardless of whether he could carry on before or not, flying in the 21st century presents too many arbitrary factors to go lugging a $10,000 (but essentially priceless) instrument with you. If you must, spring for a reissue (which Gibson just did for him). But just SMH at this. Yeah, in a perfect world we'd all own vintage gear and take it with us on any airline without worry. But that ain't the case these days.
Not exactly the same, but I have some other story for you : 4 years ago, I worked at a company that yielded packages and such (like UPS). We had a customer in Belgium (a music store) that ordered a lot of expensive Gibson guitars from one of the biggest distribution centres in Holland. Price range about 3000 - 4500 Euro per guitar. And I expected that my colleagues would treat the guitars with caution... Well, they didn't.. They grabbed the boxes were the guitars were shipped in, threw them on the conveyor-belt and directly after that in the goodwagon were it needed to be loaded in.. Luckily these guitars were protected with styrofoam and wrapped in thick layer of bubble wrap. We never had any reports of broken guitars.
I haven't read the article...and I don't need to. I've posted several times in this forum about the arbitrary and capricious nature of airline accommodations for musical instruments in-flight...and how one simply cannot rely upon any spoken assurances one may receive from them - or even expect any consistent behavior from them - no matter what they may promise. The flight attendant(s) at the gate check point, just prior to departure, have final authority on whether or not your prized baby makes it into the passenger compartment...or into the cargo hold - and there's not a damn thing you can do about it. If you can't afford to buy an extra seat for it, buckle it up and sit right next to it, then the next best thing you can do in order to assure a certain degree of protection (or at least a bargaining position that will compel the airline to buy you a new guitar/bass guitar in case it's destroyed in transit), is to buy & use an ATA-approved flight case - check your instrument at the gate...and hope for the best. That's it. MM
