Long, thin musical instrument as cabin baggage
April 11, 2017 1:46 PM Subscribe
Cabin-baggage-gamble question. Long thin keyboard inside a fabric slipcase; including the case, it weighs 4 lbs [1.8 kg] and is 34 x 6 x 2 inches [86 x 15 x 5 cm].
I've never tried to take oversized baggage on a plane. Airlines have theoretical musical instrument policies that vary a LOT in actual enforcement (and are intended more for valuable acoustic instruments than for a $150 mass-produced keyboard).
Any way to guess whether this would be allowed as cabin baggage on domestic U.S. flights (always coach class)? It's so short [2 inches 'tall'] that it could sit across the top of many bags I see in luggage compartments, but only if the compartments were at least 34" long.
This is an odd gamble because the fabric slipcase is no protection against a journey in the baggage hold (but a proper flight case would make it bigger and MUCH heavier, and would cost more than the keyboard's own value).
If it's likely to sometimes not be allowed in the cabin, would bringing it in its original box be the best hybrid? In its original box, it would weigh 4.9 lbs and be a couple inches more in each dimension.
I've never tried to take oversized baggage on a plane. Airlines have theoretical musical instrument policies that vary a LOT in actual enforcement (and are intended more for valuable acoustic instruments than for a $150 mass-produced keyboard).
Any way to guess whether this would be allowed as cabin baggage on domestic U.S. flights (always coach class)? It's so short [2 inches 'tall'] that it could sit across the top of many bags I see in luggage compartments, but only if the compartments were at least 34" long.
This is an odd gamble because the fabric slipcase is no protection against a journey in the baggage hold (but a proper flight case would make it bigger and MUCH heavier, and would cost more than the keyboard's own value).
If it's likely to sometimes not be allowed in the cabin, would bringing it in its original box be the best hybrid? In its original box, it would weigh 4.9 lbs and be a couple inches more in each dimension.
I've done maybe 4-5 round trips carrying on a lightweight instrument whose soft case measures about 31x3x7 inches (at its widest; 31x3x5 at its narrowest). I carried it in over my shoulder and then slid it under a seat, where it stuck out a bit. I did this accepting that in the worst case it might need to be checked at the last minute and possibly get badly damaged. It had replacement cost probably similar to yours, and little sentimental value.
Nobody took a second glance at it, but I may have been lucky. These were domestic flights, probably all on Southwest.
But the sane thing to do might be to leave it home and find some other alternative.
posted by floppyroofing at 2:31 PM on April 11, 2017
Nobody took a second glance at it, but I may have been lucky. These were domestic flights, probably all on Southwest.
But the sane thing to do might be to leave it home and find some other alternative.
posted by floppyroofing at 2:31 PM on April 11, 2017
Response by poster: It is a carry on according to the DOT; the issue is compliance/enforcement. It's 6 inches shorter and MUCH smaller in overall mass than the guitars the DOT's ruling refers to.
posted by kalapierson at 2:44 PM on April 11, 2017
posted by kalapierson at 2:44 PM on April 11, 2017
Best answer: I've carried much bigger keyboards (at least 45") in softcases on many flights, it's always different. I've traveled with guitarists many times and the issues are similar. Your instrument's not that big, with a little patience and flexibility you should be fine. (In this instance a flight case will not likely make anything simpler and would be hard to justify with the cost of your instrument.)
The people who check your ticket may stop you and tell you you'll need to hand check it; that probably happens right outside the plane. The first person who greets you on the plane will probably help you, too; if they think it'll fit they'll usually tell you where you can try to put it, or they'll already know by looking that it won't fit and ask you to step off the plane hand check it, and there's usually someone waiting right there to help.
If you make it on the plane, sometimes you can fit in overhead across multiple doors and other people can still fit bags and smaller suitcases and such around it, you probably won't know until you're on the plane if it'll work though. (I try to stand mine up and in the back of the overhead maybe propped up by my own laptop bag or something to keep it in place, but I try to keep other carryon below my seat to be neighborly and leave some space for others. Having my feet cramped is a small price to pay for knowing I've got my axe safely settled on the plane.)
In the event there's not space once I'm on the plane, or it won't fit, sometimes an attendant has swooped in and stored it with their own clothes in a crew closet or something and I got it after the flight.
Your original packaging would probably be pretty decent protection if it's hand checked, it'll be with strollers and wheelchairs and other stuff that's not necessarily meant to be smashed in a luggage hold. I'd consider checking with the airline before the flight and make sure you know the procedure and circumstances for requesting hand checking when stuff is too big for overhead, but in my experience they are used to dealing with odd packages and try to make it work.
I'm always a little edgy until it's finally worked out but I've always made it through fine just with soft padded gig bags, and one of my friends travels constantly with rare boutique electric guitars just in a leather gig bag and he's never had an instrument damaged. He makes a point of being patient and very polite with whoever he's working with and he always ends up getting the help he needs, although he can be politely assertive-with-a-smile when they try to hand check his $7,000 guitar.
One final untested anecdote; unlike musical instruments, people seem to check golf bags and rolling golf travel cases all the time without any special rigamarole. If your instrument would fit safely (wrapped with clothes, padded, whatever) into any kind of golfy-looking rigid case, it could probably be amply protected as checked luggage, hold a good amount of your other stuff, and attract no undue attention. It might look a little goofy but if it could hold everything you needed to travel with, then you wouldn't have to worry about the carryon issue.
posted by mullicious at 3:43 PM on April 11, 2017
The people who check your ticket may stop you and tell you you'll need to hand check it; that probably happens right outside the plane. The first person who greets you on the plane will probably help you, too; if they think it'll fit they'll usually tell you where you can try to put it, or they'll already know by looking that it won't fit and ask you to step off the plane hand check it, and there's usually someone waiting right there to help.
If you make it on the plane, sometimes you can fit in overhead across multiple doors and other people can still fit bags and smaller suitcases and such around it, you probably won't know until you're on the plane if it'll work though. (I try to stand mine up and in the back of the overhead maybe propped up by my own laptop bag or something to keep it in place, but I try to keep other carryon below my seat to be neighborly and leave some space for others. Having my feet cramped is a small price to pay for knowing I've got my axe safely settled on the plane.)
In the event there's not space once I'm on the plane, or it won't fit, sometimes an attendant has swooped in and stored it with their own clothes in a crew closet or something and I got it after the flight.
Your original packaging would probably be pretty decent protection if it's hand checked, it'll be with strollers and wheelchairs and other stuff that's not necessarily meant to be smashed in a luggage hold. I'd consider checking with the airline before the flight and make sure you know the procedure and circumstances for requesting hand checking when stuff is too big for overhead, but in my experience they are used to dealing with odd packages and try to make it work.
I'm always a little edgy until it's finally worked out but I've always made it through fine just with soft padded gig bags, and one of my friends travels constantly with rare boutique electric guitars just in a leather gig bag and he's never had an instrument damaged. He makes a point of being patient and very polite with whoever he's working with and he always ends up getting the help he needs, although he can be politely assertive-with-a-smile when they try to hand check his $7,000 guitar.
One final untested anecdote; unlike musical instruments, people seem to check golf bags and rolling golf travel cases all the time without any special rigamarole. If your instrument would fit safely (wrapped with clothes, padded, whatever) into any kind of golfy-looking rigid case, it could probably be amply protected as checked luggage, hold a good amount of your other stuff, and attract no undue attention. It might look a little goofy but if it could hold everything you needed to travel with, then you wouldn't have to worry about the carryon issue.
posted by mullicious at 3:43 PM on April 11, 2017
Meh, a cheap keyboard can take serious non-direct-impact abuse in most cases. There's very little that can break merely from being tossed around or weighed down by other bags in a sturdy box. I'd wrap it good in bubble wrap and put it in the box. That's how it got from China to you. On a ship.
posted by spitbull at 5:13 PM on April 11, 2017
posted by spitbull at 5:13 PM on April 11, 2017
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Boarding crews rarely measure bags and people frequently get away with something that bulges an inch or two beyond the limit in one direction or another. But this is going to be such an odd-shaped thing that it won't escape notice. It strikes me as very likely you'll be disallowed from carrying it on.
If you're going to use the original shipping box, I'd wrap the hell out of the keyboard in bubble wrap first, and then seal the box well. Long term get a hard case if this instrument is worth traveling with, and plan on checking it.
posted by Joey Buttafoucault at 2:07 PM on April 11, 2017