DiamondInTheRough

Our family of 4 will be traveling out of MSP to ATL to move-in our son to college dorm. I shipped everything I could. We are only taking his clothes with us as well as the clothes the rest of the family will be wearing during the trip (we are making it a vacation by driving to the coast after moving him in) and laptops.

Additionally, my son wants to take his electric guitar with him.

We have one first class ticket (so 3 pieces of luggage allowance, bought the tickets before recent changes) and 3 E+ tickets with one piece of luggage allowance through Delta credit card. So in theory we can check-in 6 pieces of luggage for free and bring 4 extra pieces of luggage with us on a plane. In practice, I don't think we will be bringing that much with us.

I am not inclined to check-in guitar. It is in a hard case, but I flew enough in my life to know how baggage gets mishandled. However, the guitar is pretty large, so it clearly doesn't qualify as a carry-on.

I was wondering if whoever ends up seating in the first class could (nicely) ask the flight attend to store it in their closet?

Alternatively, the three other pax with E+ tickets can board with no carry on, but just a guitar, and store it in the overhead bin (I still need to verify the dimensions). We will be taking the entire overhead bin, but there are three of us. So if we each brought normal size carry on and stored it in overhead bin, we would have taken the entire overhead bin space anyway.

We are pretty much assured to have access to the entire bin either with sky priority (11 am Friday flight) or one of the E+ ticket holder could board with F pax.

So, my question is: Do you think one of the choices above is feasible? Or should we suck it up and check-in the guitar? If we do check it in, anything we could do to make delta handle it with care?

Thank you.

DJCobol

Using BNA as my home airport, I see guitars, banjos, and whatnot ALL the time as carry-ons. But please don't be that guy that takes up an entire overhead bin with a guitar. Its in a hard case, so check it.

dundalk

I agree with you about not taking up an entire bin but checking a guitar in a hardcase is an excellent way to justify purchasing a new guitar. Even a real flightcase is risky. In my experience, DL FAs are very helpful about storing guitars in the closets.

pleasantsn

I usually try to make sure I'm flying upfront when traveling with my guitar. Sometimes I'll put it in an overhead bin if F is mostly boarded and there is extra space. If overheads are getting full, I've had no trouble storing it in a closet. However, once I didn't get the UG and the FA's were not as friendly in Y. I had to gatecheck it, which turned out okay, but the hard case did get banged up a bit.

irishPirate

I'm in Austin and see a lot of guitars as carry on, too. Plus, I have a nice little collection, myself. Mostly I've seen guitars in gig bags and they fit easily in the overhead. Hardshell case? Probably better to check it, but that might depend on the type of hardshell case it is. Blown plastic, I wouldn't have a problem checking. Some of the other types I would be more worried about.

Osmo

Hubby has taken a guitar in a hard case from NY to Ohio to Memphis to LAX with no problems. Each flight, the case went into the overhead, even the smaller plane from Ohio to Memphis, had no issues with carry on guitar.

Good luck. My hubby would use a hard case on the chance they they force check-in. If they tell you that you have to check it in, ask if you can gate check it and then at the gate, carry onboard.

DiamondInTheRough

Thank you very much for all your responses.

You've convinced me to try to store the guitar in the FA closet. I was hoping that it would be possible, as I've noticed in the past that first class FAs are very friendly and helpful. I don't fly as much as everyone else on this board, so I was not sure if I was just lucky.

DLERT

If you were in coach I would suggest buying a cheap coach seat for one Mr. Guitar.
But you are not in coach - The front cabin be it the smallest ac MD80 or 90 &
the usual ac scheduled for this route is the 757 should be plenty of room to go around.
The only obstacles I foresee is the overly by the book gate agent
demanding that this guitar be checked and your seating in the first bulkhead
row of first class (these bins are smaller and sometimes have emergency gear
for the crew to use etc.
Don't select seats in rows 1 or 2.
Get a red coat to intervene - after all you all have FC tickets and that really
should make it an easy decision.
With 4 tickets that would be space in two overhead bins - the guitar is no
base cello so it would easily fit in one bin with some degree of room left for
a laptop and a small carry on bag of sorts a hat and a jacket.
Check in with gate agent early on to defuse the surprise "Oh this has to be
checked" !
The last stumbling block a rare event having deadheading crew members
with all their baggage assigned FC seats and needing the room.
What is the flight number and time of day for your flight ?
Full in coach should not have a bearing on FC bin space.

Good Luck and the best of everything !

Doc Savage

Or you could ship it.

Florida Boy

I would have the passenger upfront carry it on, and the FAs are typically willing to stow it in the closet. It will also fit in the overhead bin without a problem. I've done it for years with an acoustic guitar, and an electric guitar case is far smaller.
Here's a link to check out: http://www.fretboardjournal.com/blog...cal-instrument

avidflyer

I fly with very expensive electric guitars quite often and I have only been denied the FC closet once. As it turned out the gal in 1A (I was in 1B) did not have anything other than her purse and in general FC did not have many carry-ons so I put it up with no problem. Had that not been the case I would have pled with the FA for closet space. I have a hard case but have seen what happens when you check a guitar and I just do not want it out of my sight for that reason.

nwflyboy

I was on an Alaska Airlines flight yesterday. There was a handful of twenty-something guys, obviously a band of some sort, with a bunch of instrument cases: a guitar (bass, I think), a mandolin (I think) , a huge keyboard, and perhaps another one or two items. They were in coach. Before boarding, I was eyeing their gear and wondering how the heck they thought they would get away with those items as carry-ons. The keyboard case looked to be at least 4 feet long (my estimate was 4' long, 18" deep, 4" high). A gate agent challenged them, and their response was: "oh, we can fit all of these into a single overhead bin." She looked skeptical, I certainly was. She let them on the plane. They grabbed one empty bin, put the keyboard case in first, then stacked and arranged their other cases on top. Incredibly, the bin did close - although it was quite full. I was amazed.

I fly Alaska often, and almost always end up with a window seat right above where the checked bags get loaded. I watch how things are tossed around by the baggage handlers. I would never allow an instrument (that I cared about) to be checked. See: A few days ago I was on an Alaska flight, watching bags get loaded out the window, and I just cringed at how I saw my own bag, which had nothing more fragile in it than some clothes, was thrown around and abused. No way I'd leave anything breakable in a checked bag.

oldtirednbusy

This.
What if everyone on the plane decided they would ignore carry on rules? Yes I know this is often allowed, however it is not within the rules.

us2

I'm surprised that there is apparently nothing on the market akin to a hard shell Pelican case with a foam form fitting protective insert to protect musical instruments. It would seem to me relatively easy to design something that could withstand the most brutal abuse yet protect the instrument inside.

avidflyer

Sorry but that is not correct. Guitars are absolute allowed as carry on and fully within the rules.

http://www.delta.com/content/www/en_...al-items.html/

What Instruments Can I Carry On?

Guitars and other smaller musical instruments, such as violins, will be accepted as your free carry-on baggage item on Delta and Delta Connection® carriers flightsą. These items must easily fit in the overhead bin or other approved storage location in the cabin, based on available space at the time of boarding. Musical instruments may be gate claimed at the discretion of the passenger and as a result of limited overhead space.