Originally Posted by
notquiteaff
You are assuming there was still space in the overhead bins (do violin cases fit under the seat of a regional jet?). With BG5 that may not have been the case.
I would certainly not risk BG5 with an instrument (I have enough trouble sometimes with BG1, if I linger too long over my coffee and BG3 is halfway done!), but in this case it sounds like the encounter may have been at check in.
Yep, that's the DOT policy.