Zorak

Obviously. Given that, isn't it worth taking some "insurance" in the form of buying an earlier boarding position, (granted, may not help if you have a tight connection) or an extra seat?

(For the record I also feel like they should have been more accomodating on board, and that the response from WN that was posted here seems tepid.)

nsx

FWIW, long time FT member InkUnderNails travels for work with a very expensive and difficult to replace set of tools which he must check as baggage. If they lose the baggage he loses income for the time needed to replace the tools, plus the cost of the trip and the replacement cost of the tools. Yet there's no better option for getting to work.

NoStressHere

Yes, I agree that insurance in the form of a better boarding would not only be a great idea, but almost a requirement. (Insurance for the instrument itself is a different topic)

I also tend to agree the WN staff could have found a way to make it work, but apparently opted to play by the book, or have a power trip. AND - any response really is meaningless in this day and age - it will always be the SAFE wording.

ilcannone

Difficult to replace rather than one-of-a-kind then, and most likely not instruments that are extremely likely to be able to cause harm. I have major doubts (although it isn't impossible) about musicians ever using their instruments to cause damage. Well, classical musicians at least...

I'm 100% with you on this one.

It wasn't even a top of the range model either. Those ones will be double that, if not more. And all this is not even factoring in customisation.

glg

I want to re-highlight something ilcannone posted earlier since a number of posters seem to have a rather simple attitude of "if you can afford an $80k instrument you can afford BS" or "should fly first class and buy a seat for the instrument" or whatever. While the number of these very expensive instruments is not large, it is still larger than the number of classical musicians who are famous enough and make enough money to easily afford expensive plane tickets (ie few of them are Yo-Yo Ma). A good portion of the people who possess these instruments can't afford them. They're like this guy, stringing together a performance and some teaching and other things to make a living for their art.

Zorak

Do they require such an instrument to make their living?

I'm sympathetic, but at the same time for example I wouldn't own an ultra-high-end car that I couldn't afford to safeguard properly.

EDIT: I mean I get that, through circumstance, you may be forced into a situation where you have to rely on others to be accomodating, and as I said above I think WN failed in that regard here. But I'd do my best to avoid needing to rely on this as much as possible, is all I'm saying.

MSPeconomist

pinniped

I think the key difference here is large-instrument musician vs. small-instrument musician.

The large-instrument musician knows that travel with this bulky-and-valuable object is a pain, and also probably knows all the ins and outs of various airline procedures for traveling with the instrument. They know which carriers are easy to deal with, which ones make it easier to buy two seats together, which ban instruments from being members of the loyalty program, which handle IRROPS better than others, etc.

The small-instrument musician just assumes that if everybody isn't a complete jerk during their travels, things will work out fine. (You literally just need one non-jerk somewhere and things will be okay.) I guess the lesson is that you can't count on that in America in 2018.

Allan38103

This.

joshua362

Yes, but this easily could have gone the other way too. Small-instrument musician boards last, seconds from push back, is told no space is left and is told he has to check. Suddenly he's carrying the Hope Diamond and refuses and is made to decide whether to check or get off. A fuss is made. Is a lap belt really going to secure a small instrument? Should they poll the passengers and see who is willing to give up their bin space under the pressure of getting the first flight of the day off?

Again, I don't think the entire story has been told to us.

pinniped

I would give up my bin space for someone's valuable violin, but I would not give up my seat for it unless the airline happened to offer me whatever my personal VDB threshold was at that moment in time. If the instrument really requires its own seat, then yeah...that's on him and he should have bought 2 seats just like cellists do.

In my head I was just thinking he wanted overhead bin space for it. But I don't really know that for sure.

toomanybooks

ursine1

Nothing, of course, is 100%.

exwannabe

So, by your argument I am a complete jerk if I do not get off the plane to let the musician go to his destination.

Sorry, it is posts like this that creates the pushback against musicians' sense of entitlement, He was no more entitled to be on the flight than I would have been, and if I was properly boarder before him I see no reason why you expect me to deplane.

I am sure his meeting was more important than mine. It always is.

rsteinmetz70112

The one jerk most likely to screw it is the passenger. They have a number of options.

1. Failure to purchase EBCI
2. Late check in.
3. Failure to purchase upgraded boarding at the gate.
4. Late to the airport.
5. Bad attitude at the gate.
6. All or some combnation of the above.

Of course it could be just plain bad luck, in that case begging might help.