Flying with Instruments
It happened again this week: No curbside check-in so I lugged my gear inside. I approached the ticket United ticket counter at the Wichita Airport and presented my ticket. The woman behind the counter looked at my bags: a suitcase, and my two instrument cases.
"What do you have in the two cases?" she queried.
"A guitar and...what do I call a hammer dulcimer for the sake of this kind of description?...a keyboard-type instrument."
"You'll have to sign a release waiver," came her immediate response.
"And this waiver, what does it state?" I asked, though I already knew the answer.
"It states that these instruments are unsuitably packaged and that you are checking them at your own risk."
I asked her to take a look at the cases...an Anvil-type case built for me by ATS Cases of Northboro, MA and a damn-near bullet-proof guitar case made by Calton Cases, of Calgary, the overwhelming flight case of choice for string-instrument-playing air travelers.
"Do these look unsuitably packed?" I asked her.
"Well," she hesitated, "they actually look fine, but I don't make the rules."
"And if I refuse to sign the waiver?"
"Then you either can't check them or they go air freight."
"So, in other words, I can pay you extra to ship them air freight...meaning they are magically suitably packed or I have to sign this waiver and they'll go on the same plane at my risk?'
It was a pointless exercise, I knew all too well. But, since expending lots of money, many years of experimentation with literally every imaginable flight case, and millions of air miles I had gotten to the point where I hadn't been forced to sign a release waiver in I can't remember how long. I had run into a fellow union employee...a low person on the corporate totem pole...forced to defend rules designed to protect her company from liability in case someone screwed up. I know that, if my instrument were damaged, not having to pay for it would be small consolation, but relief, nonetheless. What galls me, though, is being forced to sign a statement that is, essentially untrue. I care a great deal about the tools of my trade. I also care about my audiences and intend to arrive at every gig with my instruments in hand and in good working order. Like most professional musicians, I take every precaution...at great expense...to assure that my instruments are protected from even the most unusual mishandling. But I don't put anything past the airlines...
I arrived a few years back in a small airport in West Virginia. At that point in time I was traveling with guitars in Anvil flight cases...those large, rectangular outfits with lots of angle-iron and industrial-strength locks. An ambitious handler at National Airport, my final connection, decided to pick up one of the cases with a forklift...and missed. It arrived in pieces small enough to fit in my wallet and the skewered case held together with that red tape that reads, ironically, "Checked Baggage." There was no argument as to who was at fault. There was also no waiver signed. But I was lucky. According to United Airlines Customer Service supervisory personnel, there is currently nothing that can be deemed "acceptable packaging" for any musical instrument and that, strictly speaking, the waiver you are required to sign absolves the airline (read: any airline) from any and all damage that might occur to any instrument while in their care. The only hope is that they'll lose it...they'll cover that.
Ticket agents will swear that, if any damage is obviously due to gross mishandling on the airline's part, they will accept responsibility. But that is contrary to what you're being asked to sign. It is also the responsibility of the destination airline and baggage department to handle any claims. If a bag arrives at a connecting airport already damaged, the on-going aircraft can (and often does!) refuse delivery of the bag...stranding your luggage in a kind of inter-airport limbo. This is especially common if the bag is traveling from one airline to another. The whole waiver business relegates the resolution of any problems a musician encounters to 1) the sense of fairness of a destination point baggage supervisor (want to take your chances?), 2) the airline itself (control your laughter, now...) or 3) lawyers (alright, go ahead and laugh...I deserve it.) The sole assured consolation you can count on is that the AFM's Instrument Insurance plan will cover the full replacement value of your ax, even if you checked it in a gunny sack and offered to sign the waiver yourself. But there still remains a considerable amount of work to be done on this issue...
We need to arrive at a reasonable understanding with the airlines (and any related unions) regarding modifying the perimeters of the limited release waiver and/or, ideally, establishing a standard of acceptable protection for musical instruments and other commonly-checked "fragile" items. Electronics and computers fall into the same trap. By creating a list of agreed-upon case styles and manufacturers we can make everyone's job easier and a little more stress-free. All we're asking is that, after we have done our job in investing in and using solid protection for our tools, that the airlines and their employees do their jobs...by accepting responsibility for mishandling adequately packaged checked luggage. As it stands now, everyone is asked to lie and no one is willing to accept responsibility for their actions.
When we do start arriving at agreements...and I believe we will...we should vigorously encourage that flying musicians patronize signatory airlines and let the others know what it'll take to get our business back. In the meantime, a sturdy, expensive flight case might not get you respect from the airlines, but it'll mean you're more likely to have your instrument arrive in one piece at the other end of your flight. And in a pinch a good case and a five dollar bill will usually breeze it through curbside check-in and off into the "friendly skies."