Double Bass Travelling with a flight case

[Paul Warburton]

Jason...how did your bass come out after all this? Who did the work?
That's a helluva good looking Abe...Who did the original restore?
Again, sorry for the off-topic.

 

[pedro]

As I indicated above we flew to and from Boston last week on Northwest Airlines without incident. Each leg of the trip we managed to secure the bulkhead and all the flight attendents along the way seemed to know what was going on.

So my wife calls up NWA to book our flight to NYC and is told that we cannot bring a double bass onboard. We explain in detail how we just did it on their airlines to no avail. Ultimately, we book a flight on United. We're wondering if anyone has had different experiences with different airlines, and if so, do you have some airlines more cooperative than others.

 

[jazzbassnerd]

NWA was great to me for all of my college auditions. While I didn't even attempt to get the bass on the plane, they were the only airline I could find that had a written policy for the "DOuble Bass" which was nice. $80 flat fee to fly each leg. Only 1 problem which was that it didn't get on a plane when we went to new jersey. But they were very nice and got it to the airport that night and my dad and I were able to go pick it up. Northwest Airlines was very good to me. No damage at all. And the only hassle was solved very kindly and easily. my .02

 

[Paul Warburton]

Congrats, Man!

 

[pklima]

Flying British Airlines from Houston to Krakow (Poland) was no trouble at all. Having the Cremonasia case pre-measured and pre-weighed helped. I offered to make the case a bit lighter if I had to but 102 lbs was fine. Cost me $280, would have been $140 if I had no other luggage. The TSA screener just swabbed around the outside (handles, latches) and since that came up clean didn't even ask me to open the case. There was slight confusion in London - the people at the gate thought I was flying with the bass in a seat so a standby passenger had to wait till they cleared that up.

Picking up the bass in Poland and going through customs was easy, too - I just pushed the trunk with one hand and suitcases with the other and went through the "EU citizens" customs lane, nobody even asked me to prove the big piece of luggage was mine or asked what's in it. The cardboard on the outside of the case got two long scrapes from apparently being slid along the bottom but the bass arrived perfectly healthy in spite of some hefty turbulence during the second leg.

So, much easier and cheaper than the adventures with getting the trunk out of the Philippines I detailed in another thread.

 

[PaulCannon]

Somebody was telling me you can request to see TSA security examine checked luggage, including instruments. I've heard of security officers causing damage by being a little too "aggresive" in the examination.

Has anyone done this, or know if it can be done?

 

[Pete G]

I try not to demand too much of the TSA guys. I've flown with my DB in a hardshell Kolstein case six times, and I believe they've only inspected it once -- the most recent flight. On that occasion, baggage inspection was routinely done in front of you, and I was with the TSA guys when they opened the flight case. No big deal.

On the other hand, I've flown at least as often with my EUB in a golf bag case, and it seems to be opened and inspected nearly every time. No big deal there either, though perhaps I've been lucky.

 

[Anonymous75966]

I am currently working on getting some sort of exemption for working musicians to the overweight restrictions so I can continue to work, but it is looking like a hard sell.

JBG, I'm curious about the details. Can we help?

 

[kurt]

I've flown with my bass in a gauge case about 6 or 7 times now. most of the time they charge $100 or $150 dollars. The bass has survived each time but the case has a few good dings in it. The people at the check in desk are often confused, and when i've called airlines they often seem confused as to what their own policies are. Air Canada now has a policy that nothing over 70 pounds is allowed at all and I understand that many others have adopted this. I've had to start using an eminance most of the time which I'm not that fond of. Is anybody still flying regularly with their full size bass?

 

[Syd the Bass]

Those aren't flight cases, they're just supposed to give a little extra protection for "around town" transport. If you're going to personally load it on the van for an extended tour, cool. If somebody else is going to be loading it under the bus along with all the other ****, get an actual flight case.

I just took my bass from Australia to Germany in a Styrofoam case. It protected the bass beautifully. One problem though. I was on a crowded train in Germany and the top of the case was just touching the ceiling inside the carriage (near the end where the ceiling is just above door height). Unfortunately the case was resting on a small down-light and it melted the plastic.

Does anyone have any ideas for repairing the external fabric on the case?