Dash-8 planes: My Travel Worries

Living in our little Australian bush capital, I have to deal with a slightly annoying little worry every time that I travel by plane. As a musician, we always want to have our instruments on board as hand luggage.. due to the fragility of the instruments generally not mixing well with the rigours and stresses of the hold baggage handling, and the sometimes different temperature and humidity changes that occur in the baggage hold playing havoc with wood instruments.

Of course, there is also the worry that we are the temporary guardians and custodians of instruments that are generally centuries old... and it would be a huge pity if we were the last ones.

So, for those reasons... we will always fight tooth and nail to bring them on board with us. What is interesting, is that all the airlines are generally going down the route of maximising .... stuff... and they have more and more restrictive hand-luggage policies. Despite that, violins and violas are generally still allowed by the major carriers.... cheap budget ones are a bit dicey though, so we generally don't fly with those ones.

However... despite all of that, sometimes we can still find ourselves in a "discussion" about what will fit and what will be allowed on board. Sometimes, we are told that our instruments don't actually fit up in the cabin baggage areas... even though I have flown with them for my whole life... and I have seen some colleagues being forced to carry their instruments naked (without the case, the musician keeps their clothes...) for the whole flight just to get them on board.

What is even more strange, is the fact that all the airlines that DO allow instruments do have written and online policies about instruments and that they ARE allowed on board... but sometimes, this doesn't really get through to the individual person who is dealing with your check-in. I often being patient and polite generally works wonders... plus a little gentle reminder through a bookmarked website or print-out of the airline musical instrument policies. Not all musicians take this path of gentle persuasion though... which can be quite embarrassing to say the least!

So... what is my particular worry about flying from a relatively small (but INTERNATIONAL) airport... well, the Canberra airport definitely caters for the public servant and business crowd... and they generally will fly pretty damn light. Sometimes, they are only just in and out for a day (either coming into or out of Canberra).

That means that a good chunk of the planes that will fly out of there will be the much smaller Dash-8 prop planes. And these are really quite small ones (for commercial flights..), and the overhead compartment only JUST fits my violin/viola double case... and although the single cases are better, they are still a tight fit. And that can definitely cause problems if I get on a flight that is quite full with people and they bring on those larger cabin hold bags.

In those cases (haha..), I have to try to get on first... to claim a space. And if that fails, I have to try to plead with the air staff to try and get it in the coat hanging area at the front. Again, generally that has worked... and it has only been a single rare flight when absolutely no solution was acceptable for the air staff, and I had to have my instruments checked in as a "premium" baggage... meaning that they load it last, and give it to me immediately on the tarmac. Sigh... if it has to be done, it has to be done... but I really do hate it, and I do get quite nervous when that happens... but so far, nothing has happened... on they other hand, everything is always fine, until it isn't!