Can you take a guitar on a plane these days ?

y2karl — Sun, 09 Oct 2005 21:54:48 -0800

I am flying to another city soon and would like take my guitar with me. On the plane--not as baggage. I would like to read about the experiences of anyone here who has tried to do the same. My research thus far yields no fixed answer.

Is there any good advice to help my sister recover her carry-on bag?

kittyb — Fri, 24 Dec 2004 06:11:09 -0800

My sister had the worst travel experience the other day, resulting in an airline losing her carry-on bag. Her carry-on! She's been playing mad phone-tag with ambivalent airline personnel, but I'm wondering if anyone has any experience or advice that would help her. [mi, natch] She paid a small fortune to get to New York at the last minute for our grandmother's funeral. Her flight back home was three legs, and before she hopped onto the 30-seater from Indianapolis to Chicago-Midway, the passengers were told that the overhead compartments were too small for their bags, and that they'd need to put them on a handy little cart, which was then packed into the cargo hold. She got off the plane in Chicago, headed over to the cart with everyone else to get her bag, and it was nowhere to be seen.

It might be too much to assume that it wasn't stolen, but the airline seemed to think that wasn't the case. They searched the cargo hold, shrugged, and told her to check with baggage claim, since that's where lost baggage ended up. She went there and was hassled because, since it wasn't actually a checked bag, there was no proof she'd ever brought a bag with her at all. They eventually believed her, and told her to just "give them time" to find it. They also told her that they were not responsible for the lost items because it wasn't a checked bag.

Her boarding pass for the final leg of her flight was in the bag, and the rest of her story (I'd need about 800 more paragraphs to tell you, and I've rambled on enough) was possibly the very worst story of airline and airport personnel incompetence that it just makes me sick to think about. The poor thing was having a hard enough time, having forked over two mortgage payments to be there, and with the sad business of saying goodbye to our wonderful matriarch. I've told her to write down every detail of every phone conversation, and to make an itemized list of everything in the bag, but does anyone else have any advice?

Over-the-shoulder carry-on?

adrianhon — Sat, 11 Sep 2004 08:47:06 -0800

LuggageFilter: Can anyone recommend a good bag that will hold a few days clothes and be small enough to carry on to a plane? Preferably not a hard case or a backpack, but flexible enough to be carried around anywhere over the shoulder. I live in the UK so it'd be better if the bag was available there but if there's something amazing from the US I'd be willing to order it.

Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with carryons

Can you take a guitar on a plane these days ?

Is there any good advice to help my sister recover her carry-on bag?

Over-the-shoulder carry-on?