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Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Hand baggage ban lifted on in-flight musical instruments
The Stage: "Professional musicians travelling to domestic or overseas engagements from UK airports will now be allowed to carry their instruments into aircraft cabins as hand luggage, the Department for Transport has announced."
being a musician i have had to carry my instrument on a plane many times and i would never even consider checking it. im glad this rule got over turned because if it was introduced in the US, there is no way i would trust the (no offence) stupid airport baggage people with my personal instrument.
I know a professional french horn player who checked his instrument and had it returned to him utterly destroyed...my brother never checks his clarinets. Let's face it, airlines do nothing but destroy your baggage - why would you trust them with something that important?
Its not all horror stories. When I travelled to Belize one summer I had to bring my guitar with me. I made sure that I went out and bought a hard case to keep it in and sent it on its way. When we arrived in Belize City, it was fine. It even had to take a few little jumper plane flights. Granted, this isn't something that I was worried about having be destroyed or that was particularly valuable to me since I brought my trash guitar, but I never once thought about carrying it on.
I can totally understand why a musician would not want to check an instrument at the airport. I know personally that I get a little bit worried when my sisters just hold my flute, so imagine a random airport employee. Not only do they not really care what happens to the instrument, but a lot of them don't know how delicate they are. I actually had a conversation with one perso who basically said, "the flute is metal, doesn't that make it almost indestructable?" Seriously . . . The only issue I can think of now is that there needs to be extra checking of the instruments going on the planes. A lot can be hidden in an instrument case, so extra care should be taken. -Natasha Alejandro
4 comments:
being a musician i have had to carry my instrument on a plane many times and i would never even consider checking it. im glad this rule got over turned because if it was introduced in the US, there is no way i would trust the (no offence) stupid airport baggage people with my personal instrument.
I know a professional french horn player who checked his instrument and had it returned to him utterly destroyed...my brother never checks his clarinets. Let's face it, airlines do nothing but destroy your baggage - why would you trust them with something that important?
Its not all horror stories. When I travelled to Belize one summer I had to bring my guitar with me. I made sure that I went out and bought a hard case to keep it in and sent it on its way. When we arrived in Belize City, it was fine. It even had to take a few little jumper plane flights. Granted, this isn't something that I was worried about having be destroyed or that was particularly valuable to me since I brought my trash guitar, but I never once thought about carrying it on.
- Jen Owen
I can totally understand why a musician would not want to check an instrument at the airport. I know personally that I get a little bit worried when my sisters just hold my flute, so imagine a random airport employee. Not only do they not really care what happens to the instrument, but a lot of them don't know how delicate they are. I actually had a conversation with one perso who basically said, "the flute is metal, doesn't that make it almost indestructable?" Seriously . . . The only issue I can think of now is that there needs to be extra checking of the instruments going on the planes. A lot can be hidden in an instrument case, so extra care should be taken.
-Natasha Alejandro
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