Carrying a guitar on board a plane as carry on luggage

  • Thread starter Thread starter NaturalBornBoy
  • Start date Start date
gbsmusic":2nluw2g3 said:
I dont think there's a chance they'll let you. It wont fit up above.
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They will, and it does.

I'd use a nice padded gig bag, myself, but you can get away with a hard case. If there's no room in the overheads, they will find room.

A few things: Southwest has flat-out not let me bring it on, and if I remember correctly, it's in their policies on line that instruments must be checked....Bad experiences with Southwest though. If you're on a regional/commuter/puddle jumper, you may have to check it, even though they still fit in the overheads. When they gave me the gate check ticket before boarding, I just ignored it and walked on.

No one bats an eye at you when you're bringing the guitar through security or the plane. I had to take my shoes off, but they didn't care to check the large object full of wires and electronics that I was carrying around.
 
http://www.fretboardjournal.com/blog/sk ... instrument

Proposed legislation

“An air carrier providing air transportation shall permit a passenger to carry a violin, guitar, or other musical instrument in the aircraft cabin, without charging the passenger a fee in addition to any standard fee that carrier may require for comparable carry-on baggage ….”

But, there must be space in the overhead bins.
 
I flew to Luxembourg for a gig a few weeks ago. Pedals went in the hold but I carried the guitar on no problems. Went in the overhead with plenty of room.
 
I fly Southwest cross-country every month and I have never had any issues carrying guitars onboard, they fit in the overhead fine even with a OEM hard case. Just make sure you pay the few extra bucks to get a A boarding pass and you are cool. That said SW has a culture of being cool, some other airlines might not.
 
I flew a lot of times with guitars since I live in Argentina and buy everything in the States.
Best advice I can give you is to put the guitar in a gigbag and not even bring a hard case.

If you happen to have a hardcase and can't avoid leaving it behind and don't want to dump it, check it... But you will probably have to pay around 70 dollars, depending on airline, since you are probably checking a luggage item + hardcase. So its better if you don't actually bring the hardcase...
Its happened to me, that I've tried to bring a hardcase onboard but they wouldn't let me, but I had a slim gigbag ready just in case....
Ask them to put it in the clothing compartment if they have space....

This strategy worked 100% of the time in a lot of airlines.
 
I just flew on 6 planes to get to Anchorage, Alaska and back, and every plane had no problem with my guitar in a padded gig bag going up in the overhead.

A larger hardshell case would not have fit in some of the overhead compartments, not recommended.
 
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