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Has anyone else had trouble recently traveling with your horn? No airline will accept any baggage over 80 inches in dimension now (though my horn in the case weighs less than 51 pounds required for oversize). Has anyone been able to work around this? It's just too expensive right now to buy a seat for the horn, and even then I am worried that I will be turned away because it may be too big to fit in a seat.

Besides the obvious, "Just drive there," any advice?

AsiagoCheezBagel wrote:Besides the obvious, "Just drive there," any advice?

No, that's all I had, actually -- if I can't drive there, I don't go (with or without the tuba). YMMV ...

A long term solution is to get a smaller tuba to travel with. And by the way, yes you would be turned away even if you bought a tkt for your horn. Find out if you can rent a horn from a store in the town that you're traveling to.

JJ

You could ship it to where ever you're going.

Are you saying that the air lines won't accept oversize checked baggage AT ALL?
I just did a random search of three major airline websites and while they can or do charge a hefty fee, they do accept oversize checked baggage on domestic and international flights.
http://www.nwa.com/travel/luggage/checked.html
http://www.alaskaair.com/as/www2/help/f ... aggage.asp
http://www.delta.com/traveling_checkin/ ... /index.jsp

If you were expecting to take your horn into the cabin, that is another matter all together!
(Delta's site says some larger instruments can be brought into the cabin with an extra ticket.)

AsiagoCheezBagel wrote:Has anyone else had trouble recently traveling with your horn? No airline will accept any baggage over 80 inches in dimension now (though my horn in the case weighs less than 51 pounds required for oversize). Has anyone been able to work around this? It's just too expensive right now to buy a seat for the horn, and even then I am worried that I will be turned away because it may be too big to fit in a seat.

Besides the obvious, "Just drive there," any advice?

This does not match my experience.

Last weekend, I flew BHM->CVG->PVD and PVD->ATL->BHM. I was travelling with my wife. We had a large bag (less than 50lb on the way out, 50.5lb on the way back). I had my King 2341 in an MTS case that is 95inches (W+H+L) and 58lb.

On Delta, the limits for carry-on baggage are 40lb and 45inches, plus the requirement that the bag fit in the 22"x14"x9" box.

The limits for ordinary checked baggage are 50lb and 62inches.

BUT - there is a special exemption for musical instruments. The limits for a checked musical instrument are 100lb and 120inches.

All of this can be found on the Delta.com website.

That's theory. Here's how it worked, for me, in practice.

We checked in at the self-service kiosk and declared 1 normal checked bag and 1 "special item". We were charged $15 for the bag and directed to "see the agent" about the special item.

I made a point of politely pointing out that it was a musical instrument and that it was neither overweight nor oversized according to Delta's published policy. Eventually, both agents charged me $15 (the normal bag charge these days).
The agent in Birmingham did not weigh it OR measure it. She just tagged it and told me to bring it to TSA. I (politely, again - amazing how that helps) asked to stay with the bag until he was sure he was not going to need to open it (so I could watch the re-packing). He didn't even put it through the scanner, but did give it a swab test (for explosives...) while I waited. He didn't open it.

In Providence, the agent was new and didn't know the proper code to punch in, so she called a supervisor. I repeated my "not overweight, not oversized" mantra and he weighed it. He put a HEAVY tag on it, but did not charge extra. He did not bother measuring it. At PVD, the bag goes directly behind the counter. At some airports there is an "oversize" counter where I can watch them screen it - but at PVD it just goes down the conveyor belt.

Our shared bag was 50.5lb at PVD - but the agent simply tagged it as "HEAVY" and waved off the extra charge. Being polite, and showing up early, go a long way.

So...I dont know what your experience has been on "all airlines" - but my recent trips (2 in the last 6 months - Seattle and Providence) have gone off without incident. In all of my trips (both of them, so that's not a huge sample) I was charged the normal bag fee. And, I'm pleased to report, in all cases there was no damage to my tubas. I did have some minor case damage when I took my Yamaha 621 BBb to Seattle - and picked up normal scuffs and scratches on the case on the trip to Providence.

You mention "fitting in a seat". On Delta, a musical instrument with a full-fare ticket can weigh up to 165lb, but must fit in the seat and be secured by a seatbelt. I suppose my Yamaha case might work, but I wouldn't think of trying to get the King MTS case into the cabin. It's way too expensive, and probably won't fit. That's why they have baggage compartments.

I was able to take my PT-3 in a hard case (well packed) on United. However, given the extent of the oversize and overweight and additional baggage fees (brought a bass guitar as well), I strongly suspect that it would have been cheaper to buy another seat for the horn in its gig-bag without a hard case. And safer too (see dent pictures in my for sale ad ).

.

I have travelled quite extensively with tubas both before and after Bush/Blair made us all into terrorists-until-otherwise-proven. Apart from flying going from a pleasurable experience to an awful thing you have to endure in order to get somewhere, there have been a lot of airlines tightening their baggage policies - claiming terrorist reasons but ultimately resulting in them getting more cash out of the punters. I wonder what the reason genuinely was.

I almost exclusively book my tickets online, and most airlines now have a (often well hidden) box to tick if you have 'abnormal' items with you. You will then normally be directed to a page with questions about what you plan to carry with you. Recently I have had to find this box to tick for pram, baby car seat, and other paraphernalia too - books can be written about airlines' behaviour towards travelling with little ones (both good and bad!). This box is usually good to tick, as in many cases the fee is very low compared to what you would have to pay in excess luggage fees otherwise. I presume they assume that people are taking their piccolos on holiday with them, for if there had been the assumption of a big and heavy thing like a tuba the price would most likely have been otherwise. Even Ryanair are only charging £25 for a musical instrument at present. Consider that against a 15kg luggage allowance (paid for as an extra) and £16 for every kg above that - and they are strict about this.

There's a funny little story from about a year ago. I was travelling with two tubas on an airline which did not have this option of ticking the box for the instruments. I therefore calculated the cost of excess luggage into the cost of travelling. Travelling out everything happened as expected - a horrified look on the face of the check-in girl and a hefty fee (precisely the amount I had anticipated) for the extra weight. As it happened, another tuba player was travelling back on the same flight as I, and we got chatting and checked in together. The scales for the luggage was quite narrow, so when I put my PT6 on, it caught the sides of it and only the rear touched the scales. 15kgs, and I managed to keep a straight face... With my other tuba I was now 'only' 15kg overweight, and the lady apologetically asked me to go to the ticket office and pay for 5 of those kilos. As I was standing in line to pay this, I heard someone shouting my name from behind me. It was the check in lady, telling me not to pay. My fellow tuba player's tuba had also caught the sides of the scales and only weighed 5kg! As he then kept his face straight and answered 'yes' when she asked him if we travelled together, she pooled our luggage and it was within limits!

Great when those things happen!

Ola

I'm a bit miffed.

Going to Boston, I'm flying Northwest Airlines. They want to charge me $80 to ship my tuba.

Returning from Boston I'm flying Delta. If under 120 inches, they will not charge me.

Northwest has merged with Delta....right?

Can anyone make sense of this? This is my first time traveling with my horn. I've read all the posts at this site and I'm greatly appreciative...of the poster on this site...not Northwest.

HGillespie wrote:I'm a bit miffed.

Going to Boston, I'm flying Northwest Airlines. They want to charge me $80 to ship my tuba.

Returning from Boston I'm flying Delta. If under 120 inches, they will not charge me.

Northwest has merged with Delta....right?

Can anyone make sense of this? This is my first time traveling with my horn. I've read all the posts at this site and I'm greatly appreciative...of the poster on this site...not Northwest.

You need to find the published policy. Don't rely on what a random agent tells you.

You are correct that 120 inches is the limit for Delta (for a musical instrument) - but they will probably charge you $15, because that seems to be the current price for *any* bag.

Delta and Northwest are merging - but are perhaps not quite merged yet.

I recommend that you go to the Northwest web site and look for their published policy...oh wait <Google Northwest baggage musical instrument>...

http://www.nw.aero/travel/luggage/specialitems.html

where it says:

Musical Instruments
Northwest accepts musical instruments that exceed size and/or weight limitations as checked baggage or cabin-seat baggage. Musical instruments that exceed size and/or weight limitations are not included in the baggage allowance and an excess fee of $175 USD/CAD each-way will apply for domestic travel. For international travel, overweight/oversize baggage fees vary by country.

Cabin-seat Baggage: Northwest requires purchase of an additional seat and advance arrangements for carriage of musical instruments as cabin-seat baggage. See Carry-on Baggage for all the conditions of acceptance of cabin-seat baggage.

Checked Baggage: The passenger must present the musical instrument in a hard-sided or crush-proof container made specifically for the instrument.

Carry On: Guitars and smaller musical instruments will be accepted as the passengers *one* item of carry-on baggage provided the maximum linear dimensions do not exceed 45 inches. Carry-on baggage must be stowed under the seat in front of the ticketed passenger or in the overhead bin or closet. These instruments are in lieu of the passenger's carry-on baggage item but passengers traveling with a guitar or smaller musical instrument may also carry-on a small personal item such as a purse, briefcase or laptop.


so...looks like you are getting a bargain at $80. It's not $15 - but it's not $175, either.

On the third hand, now that you've seen this, it would be prudent to *be prepared* to pay $175 - because that seems to be what their published policy says.

A-ha! I see why I did not find the policy on musical instruments before - it is under the "International Contract of Carriage" (pdf file) on the Delta.com website. I guess I thought that document was for international shipping of luggage only. It's true, 100 lbs and 120 in. Thanks for all the info!

Oh and a couple more things... When I said "all airlines," I meant that I was finding info on websites. I haven't flown on "all airlines" with my horn (thank goodness). Sorry about the confusion.

I did, however, fly with it last year, before most new policies were made. On the way to Michigan, they charged me nothing, on the way back, they charged me $160 for two tubas. It seems that every agent is educated differently!

I think next time I fly, I will just have to print out the entire contract about baggage from the site, so I have proof. Yes, I will be treated like a terrorist, but who isn't nowadays on airlines?