Fairportfan wrote:Dave wrote:The article doesn't say whether he actually tried to buy it a seat, which would have guaranteed it space. He seems to have wanted to transport it as standard carry-on luggage in "available space", and it may have been that there wasn't enough overhead compartment space available (it would probably have used up a whole bin due to its long shape).
The article also points out that he had usually carried it in-cabin before, in fact (i believe) on an earlier leg of this trip.
I have flown internationally on flights on which a guitarist was allowed to hand-carry his guitar without buying it a seat. (That was many years ago, but it did happen.)
It looks to some extent as if it's up to the discretion of the airline.
Remember, "hand carry" does not mean that you can carry the thing in your hands through the the whole flight. The regulation change in 2012 does not exempt the guitar (or other instrument) from normal flight-safety handling rules. You must still have the guitar stowed under your seat, or in an overhead compartment, during takeoff and landing, unless you've bought an additional seat for it (and presumably in this case you must be able to seat-belt it into place so it can't become a projectile during an accident).
The only stowage space that you're pretty much guaranteed to have available to you, personally, is under the seat in front of you... that's yours. There's no way that a guitar would fit there. If it's to be treated as hand luggage, it has to go in an overhead compartment or other cabin baggage compartment, and those are all shared storage space (usually "first come, first served"). They also vary in size and number from one type of airplane to another.
I don't doubt that he was being truthful about being able to hand-carry and stow his guitar on other flights, including one that same day. That doesn't guarantee that he could necessarily have legally and safely stowed the guitar in the same way on
this flight.
The overhead compartments might have all been too small to fit the guitar. Some general-service and commuter planes have much smaller overhead bins than, say, 767s do (some just don't have the space, and some predate the "rollerboard suitcase"). It's possible that he was boarding a plane which simply had no in-cabin baggage compartment large enough to hold his guitar, and the staff may have known that.
It's also possible that the compartments were all full (as I suggested earlier might be the case).
The 2012 legislation that the article refers to, pointedly does not guarantee or insist that an instrument can be carried in the cabin. It says that the airline
"... 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, if—
‘‘(A) the instrument can be stowed safely in a suitable baggage compartment in the aircraft cabin or under a passenger seat, in accordance with the requirements for carriage of carry-on baggage or cargo established by the Administrator; and
‘‘(B) there is space for such stowage at the time the passenger boards the aircraft."
I read this as granting the instrument a conditional exception to the usual "length, width, and height" limits for carry-on bags (the airline can't refuse it because "it's longer than our policy permits"), but it does require that it be possible to stow the instrument safely in the aircraft and that space to do so actually be available at the time of boarding. It does not give the instrument owner the right to insist that it be taken as carry-on and that somebody else's carry-on bags be yanked out of a compartment to make space for it. First come, first served.
So, if the airline staff could legitimately say "Sorry, sir, there's no overhead compartment on your plane in which it will fit" or "Sorry, sir, this is a very full flight, and the cabin crew has told us that the overheads are full and that we're being forced to door-check peoples' bags", then this guy was out of luck.
If it was a very full flight, then he might not even have had the "buy it a seat" option available. There may have been no way at all for him to transport the guitar on that flight, other than as checked baggage.
I don't know whether he'll be able to make the case that Delta violated the law, or not. If they didn't (and they may not have!), then the statutory "checked baggage" compensation limit is likely to apply, and unless Delta decides to be generous in the interest of customer relations (read "publicity") or unless he has purchased his own insurance, he'll be doubly out of luck.
A sucky situation, no doubt about it.
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