Just for grins, I checked first class rates when I booked a flight recently to the Bay Area. For roughly the same price as two coach seats, you might well be able to purchase a first-class ticket. The airlines are a lot more accommodating about baggage for first-class passengers, plus you get a comfier seat and free drinks. Worth checking.
Guy -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected] Sent: Monday, August 10, 2009 1:01 PM To: [email protected]; [email protected] Subject: [LUTE] Re: Traveling with lute When I looked into this a month or two ago, I concluded that there are no easy answers. A shipping case or box hefty enough to really protect the lute is extremely likely to incur oversize and possibly also overweight charges. By the time you account for that cost both ways, its nearly more effective to buy it a seat. But here is where it matters where you are. I think the info I read resulting from Lynda's experience are for Europe. It seems that there you can buy an instrument a seat, and all that is required is that it fit in the seat under the overhead bin, and be a window seat. In the US I believe that the FAA rules are stricter. Flying with an instrument requires you to get seats just behind a bulkhead. The one time I tried this about 5 years ago, United call center folk weren't clever enough to give me the needed seat assignments. And now with the policy of Economy Plus, and United's attempt to sell upgrades to those seats both at check in time and even on the flight, I expect that you'd have to actually purchase 2 Economy Plus seats to actually make this work. Hence a little more expense. I wish there were easy answers. Suzanne -------------- Original message from [email protected]: -------------- > It's been several years since I've flown, and I'm wondering if there's > a safe way to travel with a lute by air. Do any airlines still sell a > seat for a musical instrument? Or is there a lute case available > that's designed to withstand the abuse flight baggage may encounter? > (Having an extra instrument and shipping it ahead is one idea that's > occured to me, but someone willing to accept it is needed). > > > > Ned > __________________________________________________________________ > > -- > > > To get on or off this list see list information at > http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html --
