Flight trouble with my tuba!

[MacedoniaTuba]

Hi everyone! I was trying to keep this bad experiance for myself,but i realized that it could be usefull for everyone. This is what happened:
On this summer i was i USA and i took my Tuono with me. The troubles started from the first flight, the US customs damaged my bell. And i said that's fine, i'll take care for it and i said to myself that i will buy a flight case for the trip back(and i did took one great case from MR. Wazanowski). On my way back in Europe, on the LAX airport i survived the greatest shock ever when the company that i was flying back with told me that the tuba is to heavy for luggage(it was 41kg with the flight case). So i tried to find an explanation from the supervisor how come that the same company allowed me to take my tuba with me, and now i can't bring it back. She was so sarcastic and rude and didn't cared about my tuba, she said ''NO WAY THIS THING TO GO ON MY PLANE'''(you can't even imagine how angry i was for that attitude.i was protesting with hunger the 11hours flight because of that rude lady). So, after realizing that there is no exit from that situation, i gave the tuba to my uncle who lives in LA and he had to sent it to me with cargo which costed me additional 650$.I must say that i am very lucky that i have relatives in LA, otherwise i couldn't imagine what could happened with me and my tuba. So, i catched my plane, whitout my tuba,giving instructions to my uncle to mention to the cargo that it is an instrument and they must be gentle with it. So the bad luck didn't stopped here. I was told by the cargo that the tuba will arrive in 4 days, but instead it arrived in 12 days because of some troubles with the paperwork.Because of that i missed the masterclass of Mr. Alessandro Fossi in Zagreb, Croatia. That thing stressed me additionaly cause i didn't knew what's going on with my tuba and i couldn't go on the masterclass. After calling the cargo company , they was the only bright thing in this story, they had full understanding for my situation and they refund 570$ from 650$ which i paid and appologized for the inconvenience.The tuba arrived in same condition as i packed it and i was very happy about it.

I don't know if i chose the right place to tell this story, but i tought it could be usefull for all the people that travel or have plans to travel somewhere with tuba. And i think that the companies have to reconsider about their rules,knowing that we can not play smaller instrument and that's it. Hope that nobody will have to deal with the same situation like me.
Cheers!!

[Donn]

Thanks for your story. It might be helpful to know which airline you took from LA, but it looks to me like this is a somewhat consistent policy for European flights with a limit of 32kg per bag - American Airlines, British Airways, Alitalia, Lufthansa ...

[MacedoniaTuba]

Well writing a letter will be good,even though i don't think it will work cause when the supervisor said no way,i asked to talk with her boss and she said my boss is not here now. If you want to wait, you can wait for him,but you'll miss the flight by that time(and i couldn't afford to miss intercontinental flight). I believe that the best t)ing to do is to react from official tuba association or organization and to ask for understanding and special treatment for not only the tuba players,i believe that cello,double bass and all other large instrument players have the same problems. And i don't think that flight companies would like to lose these customers.
The company i was flying was Air France and the cargo company was Lufthansa. And yes,they told me that the limit is 32kg,but i asked how come that last year i was flying with the same company and the tuba was weighting 35kg with the box i was carrying it. And then again the best answer ever: I wasn't there last year and i don't know what happened,all i know is that this is too heavy and i can't take it to my plane.

[pgym]

I believe that the best t)ing to do is to react from official tuba association or organization and to ask for understanding and special treatment for not only the tuba players,i believe that cello,double bass and all other large instrument players have the same problems. And i don't think that flight companies would like to lose these customers.

Letters from individuals get opened and read because they come from actual, fare-paying customers; letters from "official associations" or organizations get tossed into the trash unopened because associations have no power to dictate their members' choice of carrier.

The company i was flying was Air France and the cargo company was Lufthansa. And yes,they told me that the limit is 32kg,but i asked how come that last year i was flying with the same company and the tuba was weighting 35kg with the box i was carrying it. And then again the best answer ever: I wasn't there last year and i don't know what happened,all i know is that this is too heavy and i can't take it to my plane.

The fact that an Air France employee violated the policy for you last year does not obligate other employees to violate it for you whenever you fly thereafter.