How to deal with airport staff and security
“Don't you wish you played the flute?” is a lame joke every musician
playing a large instrument has heard all to often on their travels.
Life doesn't exactly treat all musicians equally when it comes to
travelling by air. Most instruments probably fit into the overhead
compartments, others are so big that they will always go into the cargo
but those in-between sized instruments are possibly the trickiest ones
to travel with. When checked-in, they are light enough to be thrown
around by inconsiderate ground personnel but too big to be taken aboard
the plane unless you buy an extra seat. MusMap has collected top tips
from a few well traveled cellists and viola da gamba players on how to
make the travels a bit less of a pain, and even a bit cheaper as well!
(The following tips are from people who travel a lot with cellos and viola da gambas around European airports but hopefully these tips are useful for other instruments and airports as well. Although these methods have been used several times with good results there are no guarantees that they will work every time.)
Getting the instrument to the plane without having an extra seat
“Could Mr Cello Holmes please come to the information desk”. Airport staff and airlines are not well prepared when it comes to anything other than standard travellers with standard luggage, as this airport announcement, heard at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam, reveals. Although Mr. Holmes was lucky enough to have a seat for his “personified” cello which had puzzeled the airport check-in staff, unfortunatly not every gig has the budget to pay for an extra seat. In those cases you need to have a plan to protect your instrument and avoid paying for the extra kilos you're almost certain to have.
The masterplan:
Before the instrument is actually aboard the airplane there are two major risks for the instrument: The conveyor belts (risks of falling off, as the belts are not designed for these types of cases) and the personnel handling the instrument (they usually aren't exactly wearing silk gloves when throwing the luggage around). There is every reason to try and avoid both of these risk factors by any means possible, even if you have a good and sturdy flight-case.
1. Check-inNowadays you can almost always check-in at a machine rather than going to a regular check-in desk. Where that is possible, always use the check-in machine! That way you yourself self put the tags on the instrument case instead of the check-in staff. Afterwards you have to drop off the bags at a baggage drop-off desk. If you can, ask your friend to watch the instrument and drop off any other luggage you may have. The person at the desk may notice (in about 50% of times) that you have more bags checked in than you drop off and then you say you have already dropped off your instrument case at the “odd-size-baggage” desk (usually at a totally different location).
And just one more thing to keep in mind regarding the check-in. If you want to try to take the instrument with you aboard the plane you should always select a window seat and not by an emergency exit. We'll get back to that later.
(if you are travelling alone or there are no check-in machines for your flight, please read on. Otherwise go to number 2.)
If you have to have the instrument with you to the desk always keep it close to the ground (as opposed to upright or on your back). If you have got the time, take a minute picking the right desk. Don't pick someone who is obviously in a bad mood.
When it is your turn put the instrument all the way towards the desk so the check-in person can't see it from his/her seat. When the check in person starts putting the tags on the bags, always put your other bags first on the scale and then tell the person that you need one tag for the instrument which you are going to drop off in odd-size-baggage. This is very important if you suspect your luggage is over the allowed limit (usually 20kg) and you don't want your instrument to get weighed! Don't ask if you should drop it off in odd-size. Tell him/her that this is what you are going to do, but be polite. If you put the tag on, the chances are that he/she will never see the instrument and forget to weigh it (you'd be surprised how often it works!).
After you get the tag for the instrument you could even divert the attention from weighing it with some chit-chat or a question. Polite confidence is the key here! You could for instance ask: “Do you know if the flight is full this morning?”. That information may actully come in handy, as we explain later.
2. Security check
So now you have your boarding pass and the correct tag for your instrument without getting it weighed and according to the rules you should now drop it off at odd-size. But you are not going to do that.
Take the instrument with you to the security check. It is surprisingly rare that you get trouble with instruments at security checks unless there is some major terror alert going on. Just make sure that you don't have any suspect objects in your case, such as sharp objects, knifes or the most feared of all these days – water!
You may get some remarks or questions from the security staff (the aforementioned flute joke is not uncommon here!). They may ask if you have a ticket for the instrument. That is actually none of their business, but please don't tell them that directly. Pissing them off is not going to help you in any way. You just tell them that the airline has allowed you to bring the instrument to the gate where it will be taken to cargo along with baby buggies etc. The may also try to tell you that the case doesn't fit into the security scanner. Unless they have got some abnormaly small scanners, most cello and gamba cases actually do fit. Tell them you have done this many times before and it has always gone through. Of course if it doesn't fit you have to take it to odd-size, but it doesn't hurt trying.
The bulkiest case owned by those people MusMap spoke to measured in at 35cm x 52cm (13.5 x 20.5 inches, height x width, when laying on the back). It has fit into all security scanners so far, although sometimes it looks very tight, the owner admits.
Read on here
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