Mark_T

Remember though, your specific issue is trying to bring the violin and a 21" roll-aboard with you.

Nothing in the preceding posts gets you around that problem unless you do buy a seat for the violin.

You absolutely can bring the violin on as your carry-on as long as there is pace for it, the problem is you can't be sure they will let you bring the 21" roll-aboard as well. Since this contains electronics and irreplaceable documents you are gambling with something I know I'd prefer not to gamble with.

So consider packing those items into something smaller if you can, or back to the original suggestion of buying the seat.

Fornebufox

Big difference between a violin and a cello, which is roughly six times bigger and would never fit in the overhead. I have never heard of violinists buying seats for their instruments, but cellists have typically bought seats for their instruments, except when certain misinformed agents don't permit it (as happens occasionally). One international soloist had a frequent flyer account for his instrument but famously got banned by the airline.

Transport of violins especially has been fraught because the value can be so great, and degree of misinformation so extreme. I have a friend who, faced with an agent who insisted on her checking her violin, removed the instrument from its case, saying "this is my baby", and held it on her lap during the flight.

The law which took effect on March 6 unequivocally allows as cabin baggage any musical instrument which fits overhead or under the seat, provided there's room available when the passenger boards.

The ruling: http://www.dot.gov/sites/dot.gov/fil...nal%20rule.pdf
Press release: http://www.dot.gov/briefing-room/us-...travel-musical

Any instrument-toting traveler needing more carryon capacity than a small personal item might consider specialty outerwear with many pockets.

http://www.scottevest.com

ridealong

The suggestion to buy a seat for any violin is appreciated, but impractical and unnecessary. Given a violin's small size of 31x10x5", the DOT ruling was designed to deem it a carryon, to clear up exactly this kind of confusion. In my 20+ year career, I have never known of a violinist who bought a seat or even considered it. (I'm a cellist, and I buy a seat for the cello).

The type of self-insurance needed to navigate the carryon situation for a small instrument is to buy group 1 boarding for yourself, not to buy an extra seat.

Mark_T

Just to keep this in context, the advice was due to the OP requiring a full sized carry-on which contained irreplaceable material which they could not risk having to check into the hold.

Absent that requirement there would be no suggestion of the need to buy a seat for the violin ...

ridealong

Understood; I apologize that I didn't reply to the full context. The problem with suggesting one could buy a seat for a violin is that to an uninformed reader, it perpetuates the falsehood that violins aren't carryon size.

I suppose then I would suggest the OP buy a seat for the other bag containing irreplaceable materials, if other arrangements can't be made, like fitting those into a personal item or sending FedEx, etc.

JDiver

As did Mr. Rostropovich for his cello on the Concorde. No intent to imply that an extra seat had to be secured for a violin.