...but I am.
Kid does what millions of passengers has done before him, he brings his guitar on a flight. I've seen this on about 1/4 of my flights, some guy has a guitar. They used to go into the Closet, it was a typical routine. But now UA has taken the closets out, or is taking them out (would be curious if this was a bird without a closet, or the FAs would not let him use it).
Regardless, guitars go in the overhead bins, I've seen lots of them there.
Now I note that he was let though security with the guitar, and that is because they are items that yes don't meet the silly 45" rule (note that SW, AS and a few others have less stringent carry on rules (they allow 10"x17"x24" bags) but everyone knows you can carry on. Sort of like you can carry on a tennis racket, or a wedding dress. On some airlines the FA/GAs rather than saying "no, gate check" still say "hey congratulations" or "so what kind of music do you play" etc.
Now UA had a little issue with a guitar, it was a PR fiasco, added to UAs reputation for poor service. You would think that UA would want to prevent a repeat...
Which takes me to this forum. Now there are lots of folks who reflexively defend CO (and UAfkaCO) but I'm kind of surprised the response here. Reading the CO defenders posts:
(1) its his fault, should have know the 45" rules
(2) should have bought a special travel case
(3) it was already broken, is just trying to scam UA by buying a ticket, then waiting for them to make him gate check it, to claim its broken.
Actually, its none of these. Sounds like a guy wanting to get from point a to point b, he did what millions of guitar owners do, brought it through security, onto the plane, UA made him gate check it, UA broke it.
UA will pay compensation, UA should pay compensation, and no the guy is not - despite certain FTers accusations - some vile criminal responsible for what a great world beating airline UA has become...
