TubeNet

I know, I know, it's come up a thousand times before; trying to narrow the field a bit, at least.

I need to get cross country with both my horns, and (obviously) I'd like to do it without breaking the bank, and without having to ship them ahead of me, if possible. Both my cities of departure and arrival are Amtrak stops; has anyone checked a horn (or two) with them RECENTLY? I did this a number of years ago; depending on the station, I was charged a fee for my horns (both in flight cases), not charged a fee, and/or threatened that they wouldn't load them at all. Their website states that items over 50 lbs and over 36"x36"x36" are prohibited, though there's also some sort of exception for "special items" (including musical instruments). I'm currently looking into that.

On a similar note, has anyone RECENTLY checked a horn on a Southwest flight? Some anecdotes from a few years ago indicated success on checking horns despite their policy of prohibiting items over 80" total (l+w+h); anyone have a heartening story from the last few months? Thanks for any input!

Adam

Chicago to Salt Lake City...in late January.

Traveling with tubas is a joke. I've flown several different airlines and all of their luggage policies are just so ridiculous. I've flown Southwest a couple times and checked a tuba in a hard case that was (by their standards) oversize and overweight, and was charged $100 ($50 for oversize, and $50 for overweight). One time i was able to somehow swindle the person into only changing $50, but that was me causing a seen at the checking counter.

Another time I flew across the country on United Airlines with a tuba. I got an amazing deal on round trip tickets for around $175. But to my dismay, United charged me up the butt to check my tuba. It ended up costing me more money to check my tuba for a 1 way flight than to fly from Denver to Baltimore and back. How does that make sense? Just ridiculous...

Anyways, the thing I've done recently (and will continue to do) is to buy a ticket for the instrument and put it in the seat next to you when you get onboard. There's so much other BS you have to deal with when you do it this way, but in my experience it ends up being cheaper (especially if you buy your tickets way in advance) and you don't have to worry about some luggage handler throwing your $10,000 instrument around and ruining it. This only really works with a gig bag just because the seats are too small for a bulky hard case (at least for a tuba).

Hopefully this helped you a bit. Good luck!

How long ago was it when you flew Southwest?

I sent a tuba via Amtrak a few months ago. I wasn't going along in person, but it sounds like the same story - as they explained it to me, the dimensions are for a box of books or whatever, and a musical instrument is in another category and isn't bound by those rules. But I did run into differing interpretations, mainly on the support phone number but I suppose it's possible that you could have trouble at the station. When I showed up, I was greeted by an underling who hadn't dealt with this before and it was looking kind of bad, but I sort of stalled until the supervisor showed up, and it worked out. On the whole I had a favorable impression, but that's just from one station.

The caveat about buying a seat ticket for the tuba - the flight crew has the last word on that. You can go through everyone else, and not get on the plane if they decide they don't want a tuba in a seat on their plane, because for example it might go flying around the cabin and break someone's head if the ride got real rough. Or whatever, it's up to them. This is not the voice of experience, I don't know anyone it's happened to, but I'm just saying, this is not the one sure thing in traveling with tubas.

There is no sure thing, short of ground freight on a pallet. (Yeah, you could drive, but aside from the expense, it isn't 100% safe either.) Wherever you go - Amtrak, airlines, bus lines - they don't deal with that many musicians, they don't care if musicians have no way to travel, they don't care if your instrument cost you your life's savings. They're not responsible for your travel choices, they're not responsible for your instrument (and they won't give you a nickel if they mess it up - they'll pay for damage to the case, but not the instrument.) Their business is filling the seats with people who shop for the cheapest tickets, and musicians are just a tiny, troublesome minority. Amtrak looks good to me, but I can't say it's a sure thing.

If you've got the time to avoid flying and drive or ride the train, DO IT!!! Flying with tubas is absolutely awful in every way you can imagine.

Driving, of course, provides the most trip flexibility for you and the most safety for your instruments, but driving through that part of the country in January could be challenging.

Riding the train sounds very appealing. The "driving" is on them. I would look into the possibility of reserving an entire sleeping/bedroom cabin even if you're traveling alone. That way you would not only have privacy, you'd probably be able to keep both of your tubas in the cabin with you.

Just an idea.

I flew Southwest with one tuba just last month and am preparing to do the same next week. I use a Walt Johnson flight case, which adds a lot of weight and thus garners extra fees, BUT for my fifty bucks in overweight fees I got to supervise the TSA inspection, lock the case afterward, and collect my tuba unharmed almost immediately upon landing. Give yourself some extra time to make sure everything goes smoothly at the checking counter and TSA checkpoint and to increase the likelihood that your tuba will be on the same airplane as you.

Flying with a tuba is hardly easy or fun, but only marginally more terrible than any other commercial flight.

No doubt about it, take the train!! Read my blog about train travel:

http://tonyclem.blogspot.com/2010/01/train-blog.html" target="_blank


Good luck!

tclements wrote:No doubt about it, take the train!! Read my blog about train travel:

http://tonyclem.blogspot.com/2010/01/train-blog.html" target="_blank" target="_blank


Good luck!

I tried to take the train from BHM to TUSABTEC - I even booked a seat and a compartment.

And then AmTrak called to tell me that the train would not run. It seems that they are at
the mercy of the freight line that owns the rails, and they are doing track maintenance all
month.

So, I'm flying.