I know, this topic has been covered many times but as a high school students who was never flown with a cello before, I am very nervous. I'm attending a
camp in June and need extreme details about flying with my cello. I am purchasing a seat for my cello but I was wondering if it has to go
through the x-ray machine? Also, if anyone has pictures of their cello strapped in the seat, that would be very helpful. Any other help information would be
great too.
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 MrFreshnesz
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Flying With a Cello |
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Posts: 35 04/23/09 13:37:19 |
Last Edited By: MrFreshnesz 05/08/09 07:40:51.
Edited 1 time.
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shegre |
#21 | |||
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Active CelloChatter
Posts: 105 05/09/09 20:16:17 |
Wow, I've never heard of a discounted price for a non-human passenger. I hear in the 60's & before you could get a half-price ticket but now
it's always full price as far as I know. I even tried to bargain right before we boarded once when there were open seats. I was told "We'd rather
just not fill the seat then. We can't offer a discount." Seriously! Makes no sense.
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garthc1 |
Child's fare | #22 | ||
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Reticent CelloChatter
Posts: 1333 05/10/09 07:26:05 Supporting CelloChatter |
Southwest charges child's fare for a cello. The catch is that their lowest fare tier (no free cancellations/itinerary changes) has no child's fares. So
you have to do the arithmetic to figure out if paying more for your seat will allow you to save enough on the cello's seat to make up the difference.
--gc |
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MrFreshnesz |
#23 | |||
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Active CelloChatter
Posts: 35 05/19/09 17:17:30 |
Do you think a cello would fit in a seat that is not a bulkhead seat? The flight I want to book has no bulkhead seats but seats with "even more
legroom" they these seats have a 38" of seat pitch. I created a little demo of an airplane in my house to try it out and it seemed to fit. Has
anyone had any experience with non-bulk head seats?
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garthc1 |
Non-bulkhead seats | #24 | ||
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Reticent CelloChatter
Posts: 1333 05/19/09 21:04:16 Supporting CelloChatter |
First thing to check if you haven't--does the airline you're talking about even allow cellos in non-bulkhead seats? Some don't, and a lot of
reservation and gate agents don't run into enough cellists to know their company's rules. Check the airline's Contract of Carriage on their website
to be sure.
If that's a go, yeah, cellos fit fine in non-bulkhead seats. Bon voyage, --gc |
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abtleo |
#25 | |||
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Reticent CelloChatter
Posts: 715 05/20/09 06:41:11 Supporting CelloChatter |
I think I've rarely had the cello in a bulkhead seat, actually. So somebody out there does allow them in non-bulkhead seats. The problem is that it tends
to really annoy the person in front of it, who can't recline.
I've always called the airline's direct line for booking - not Expedia or whomever - and made a big fuss that it's a CELLO and I'm REALLY terribly concerned about the carriage rules for it and that I WANT to do this right, but I need their wonderful, expert HELP to do so. Every agent I've dealt with has gone off an checked the rules, talked to supervisors, and so on. Sometimes it takes a painfully long time on the phone, but I've always been booked correctly and not had problems at the gate, so I figure the time is worth it. I think once or twice maybe I've hung up on an agent that didn't seem to "get it" and called back so I got someone else. And yes, I've gotten discounted rates for second seats before, and not on Southwest. (I unfortunately never seem to fly anywhere they go!) Try asking for it when booking. Sometimes you get lucky! Brenda |
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cellopop |
#26 | |||
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Active CelloChatter
Posts: 412 05/20/09 12:48:08 |
If your cello is new do you get the childrens rate and if its 200 YO, do you get a super seniors discount?
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shegre |
#27 | |||
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Active CelloChatter
Posts: 105 05/20/09 16:51:29 |
God I just had a bit of an experience flying with mine on Delta. I swear every time I fly Delta the service gets a little worse. I was refused a bulkhead seat
by the surly gate agent in Baltimore, and luckily I had my smaller case which did fit in a regular seat, but it was in row 40, so I had to club people over the
head with it as I dragged it to the back of the plane. On the second leg of the trip they gave me a bulkhead seat... an AISLE bulkhead seat, which would have
trapped two people (who initially refused to trade seats) in, and is, I'm sure, a violation of FAA regulations. Eventually, since the flight attendant was
being of no help & I'd been hunched over standing with my cello in the 6 inch space behind the last first class seat while the entire plane boarded,
some guy convinced his kid who really wanted to look out the window to switch places with the cello. Flying home tomorrow, so we'll see if things go any
better this time.
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exheadbanger |
#28 | |||
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Active CelloChatter
Posts: 46 05/22/09 14:56:07 |
haha i bought a cello overseas about 5 years ago and brought it home on the Pacific flight, 14-hours, big 747, all that. Guess what? They allowed me to stick
it in the overhead bin for the long leg and i was only forced to check it in for the domestic flight home from California. it was fine, just needed a little
adjustment. but i hear that overhead bins are too small now, or that they won't let you put it in there, or something like that.
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MrFreshnesz |
Physical Inspection | #29 | ||
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Active CelloChatter
Posts: 35 05/27/09 20:31:17 |
Ayyone have any experience with their instrument being inspected by hand at the secutiry checkpoint? I e-mailed TSA about the airport I will be going to next
month and they told me that the scanners are not big enough to accomodate a cello.
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Baker |
#30 | |||
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Active CelloChatter
Posts: 137 05/28/09 07:27:10 |
Just for the books, I just made my first trip flying with my cello (ORD-BOS), and it was a complete and total breeze. While on it's back, the cello case
fit perfectly through the scanners (they're bigger than you think), people we super friendly at the gate and let me board first, no issues with the endpin
at all (cellos look funky when x-rayed!), and all in all the most pleasant cello-travel experience I've ever had. Good luck!
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carrickp |
L&C+Musilia+Blobby | #31 | ||
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Reticent CelloChatter
Posts: 773 05/28/09 09:49:37 Supporting CelloChatter |
I just flew back and forth from China with my L&C in a Musilia case (a great case for L&Cs, by the way) enclosed in a Stevenson Blobby. No probs at all
EXCEPT that the Blobby is almost impossible to handle without some kind of cart.
I made foam wedges to put around the bridge and under the tailpiece. Of course, the L&C is a lot more durable than wooden celli, but I think even my good Grubaugh and Seifert would have survived the trip. By the way, the Blobby came through the regular luggage carrousel at Shanghai but through oversize luggage delivery at O'Hare. American Airlines didn't charge me an extra cent for the cello Chicago->Shanghai->Chicago. United Airline charged me $340 for the cello (oversize) and a bag I had that was overweight. American charged me nothing for the bag Chicago-Shanghai and $50 Shanghai->Chicago. When I return home to Little Rock from Denver in two weeks by United I am going to FedEx the cello to myself. I figure FedEx will take better care of it and won't charge me any more than United. |
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Tom Flaherty |
#32 | |||
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Active CelloChatter
Posts: 362 05/28/09 10:22:27 |
If the cello will not seem to fit in a non-bulkhead seat, it will nearly always fit upside-down. (Except in some puddle-jumpers with 10-12 seats total.)
The people behind will have less cello in their space and the seat in front can genearlly lean back without damaging the cello. Just be sure that rosin, etc., won't fall out of the inside pockets. |
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shegre |
#33 | |||
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Active CelloChatter
Posts: 105 05/28/09 20:01:37 |
Has anyone else noticed this? When I do check my cello instead of buying it a seat I nervously & obsessively watch it being loaded out the window. 99.9% of
the time, the ramp guys put it bridge down on the conveyer belt leading up to the cargo hold and it teeters back & forth & I'm always afraid it
will fall off! I don't understand why someone would see a flat side & a pointy/round side & decide to put the pointy side down! I even put signs
saying "this side up" and "this side down" on it. No luck. Go figure.
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 Tim Janof |
#34 | |||
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Reticent CelloChatter
Posts: 1419 05/28/09 21:35:12 Administrator |
I watched somebody's Gofriller being hand-inspected once. It was a hold-your-breath moment, but all went well.
Someone mentioned using a soft case. I know of a cellist who recently, if memory serves, had a Strad (or similar) and habitually used a soft case on planes. He placed it in the compartment above the seats. On one trip another passenger shoved a suitcase into the compartment and crunched the cello. Let's just say the cellist doesn't have that cello anymore. |
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MrFreshnesz |
Leaving Tomorrow | #35 | ||
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Active CelloChatter
Posts: 35 06/27/09 18:05:05 |
For camp! Leaving My House at 330 to arrive at the aiport @ 4 AM for a 6 o'clock flight :] |
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