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I'm about to take a long plane trip. Does it matter if I pack my concertina in my checked luggage, or carry it on?

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Posted (edited)
I'm about to take a long plane trip. Does it matter if I pack my concertina in my checked luggage, or carry it on?

 

I wouldn't want to check it, especially if you are changing airplanes enroute. Too many chances for it to get misconnected, lost or damaged, and if it does get damaged, the limit of liability of the carrier may not cover repair or replacement, unless declared and paid for additional insurance (read the back of the ticket for more information). I would put it in the overhead if there is room or under the seat in front of you (depending on the size of the airplane). More control of it and less chance of mishap. International travel misconnecting baggage is sometimes the rule rather than the exception. All in all too many unknowns to checked baggage. There are success stories, but while many it only takes the few for me to have too many doubts.

 

Thanks

Leo

Edited by Leo
Posted

This is very good advice. I've been trying to decide if I should bring mine when I visit my dad in Seattle this week (changing planes in Dallas/Ft. Worth- not the most direct route from Hartford, CT!). I have found a backpack just big enough to fit the case and a few other needments- a book, my knitting- and I think I'm going to do it. It's better than leaving it home alone for 4 days and worrying about break-ins!

Posted

The way Airlines are today, I hesitate to entrust them with my jockey shorts! I carry my concertina in my hot little fist and clutch it close to my body. Watching my checked concertina tumble out of the luggage carosel would give me appoplexy! Regards, Bob

Posted
Does it matter if I pack my concertina in my checked luggage, or carry it on?

Rami,

 

All depends on whether you want to see it again (or in one piece) or not. :unsure:

 

I have found a backpack just big enough to fit the case and a few other needments- a book, my knitting- and I think I'm going to do it

Alison,

 

You may find that they will let you take your knitting on the plane - but not the needles????? :huh:

 

Or have they lightened up on that?

Posted
I'm about to take a long plane trip. Does it matter if I pack my concertina in my checked luggage, or carry it on?

 

I travel weekly and take my concertina as carry-on every time. I keep it in a padded soft case meant for a picnic lunch. I've never had a problem, but have gotten a chance to play in the most interesting places.

 

-jeff

Posted

I'm amazed you asked. I only lose sight of my concertina when it goes into the cabin locker and I settle down underneath it. I've never had the courage to get it out in the plane, although I always sit there thinking that everyone would probably enjoy the diversion and I'm missing useful practice time.

Posted

If you check it as baggage, just imagine what it would be like to be stuck overnight at a huge airport because of bad weather and not having any idea where your concertina is located. Just as you are thinking about this, two other folks who are also stuck overnight break out the fiddle and mandolin and start playing some of the tunes you know. Does that help with you decision? <_<

Posted

For a concertina, I'd certainly carry it on.

However, I had to send my accordion as check-in baggage when I went to Prague on a morris tour a couple of years ago- there was no alternative, unless I wanted to pay for it to have it's own seat!

I packed the instrument in its hard case, and that, in turn, was put into a large cardboard box with polystyrene sheets on all sides (the box was obtained from the dealer I'd bought the instrument from) and clearly labeled it as 'FRAGILE - Musical Instrument', and I was totally satisfied with the way that the airline took care of it.

It was taken in via a special desk, and after the outward and return trips, there was absolutely no damage or bruising at all to the outer carton....and that was with a budget airline!

Posted
...my accordion as check-in baggage ... was taken in via a special desk, and after the outward and return trips, there was absolutely no damage or bruising at all to the outer carton...

But for every story like that, there seems to be one of the opposite. I would never check my concertina. A friend who was forced to check her violin arrived to find the bridge broken in two, though there were no marks at all on the hard case. I myself have experienced a boxlike tin of candy crushed to half height, though sandwiched between layers of clothing in a "hard" suitcase. I still don't know how they did that!

 

And among the horror stories told on various forums, I recall one person telling how he looked out the window of the plane just in time to see the driver of the baggage-handling forklift drive the tine of his "fork" straight through the "hard" case of his PA... and the instrument, of course. :o

 

Keep in mind also that with all the extra "security" checks-- at least in some countries, -- various total strangers may be opening and reclosing your bags before they ever get on the plane. And numerous surveys have reported that along with the increased inspections has come an increase in the complaints of lost and damaged articles.

 

...and that was with a budget airline!

Actually, today's budget airlines may be safer, because they only put your bags on and off the plane. They don't do transfers, and they don't have fancy "automatic" equipment, which can cause damage without anyone being around to notice. If you have a transfer, you pick up your bag at the transfer point and personally check it in for the next flght. That means far fewer encounters with uncertain people, equipment, and passageways.

Posted
...my accordion as check-in baggage ... was taken in via a special desk, and after the outward and return trips, there was absolutely no damage or bruising at all to the outer carton...

But for every story like that, there seems to be one of the opposite. I would never check my concertina. A friend who was forced to check her violin arrived to find the bridge broken in two, though there were no marks at all on the hard case. I myself have experienced a boxlike tin of candy crushed to half height, though sandwiched between layers of clothing in a "hard" suitcase. I still don't know how they did that!

 

And among the horror stories told on various forums, I recall one person telling how he looked out the window of the plane just in time to see the driver of the baggage-handling forklift drive the tine of his "fork" straight through the "hard" case of his PA... and the instrument, of course. :o

 

Keep in mind also that with all the extra "security" checks-- at least in some countries, -- various total strangers may be opening and reclosing your bags before they ever get on the plane. And numerous surveys have reported that along with the increased inspections has come an increase in the complaints of lost and damaged articles.

 

...and that was with a budget airline!

Actually, today's budget airlines may be safer, because they only put your bags on and off the plane. They don't do transfers, and they don't have fancy "automatic" equipment, which can cause damage without anyone being around to notice. If you have a transfer, you pick up your bag at the transfer point and personally check it in for the next flght. That means far fewer encounters with uncertain people, equipment, and passageways.

Jim, as I said in my response - the alternative for me was to buy a plane ticket for my accordion!

In the case of my concertina, of course I would take it on the plane with me, but I had little choice with my trip to Prague. That's not to say I was not concerned, because I was (and had checked that my insurance covered any loss or damage), but I simply wanted to state my own experience, and as you have said; for every good tale, there's a bad one - but you should bear in mind that it is seldom that good experiences make their way into forums like this.

Posted
You may find that they will let you take your knitting on the plane - but not the needles?????

 

Or have they lightened up on that?

 

I called American Airlines yesterday, pushed buttons until I got to speak to a human, and she told me that yes, I can bring my knitting AND my needles on to the plane! She clearly did not approve, but oh, well.

 

As for my concertina, I'm still undecided. I don't have any reason to bring it, other than not to be apart from it for 5 whole days :( . Plus, I'm guessing my father would like to hear it, for about 5 minutes!

 

I should prolly start a new topic, but does anyone know of any good folk happening in Seattle this weekend?

Posted

http://www.seafolklore.org/playhere.html

 

As for travel, I always carry my concertina on. It's fit underneath every seat (sometimes not leaving room for my feet, but such is life) and when I go through Security I say "this is a concertina" as I hand over the box, in order to prevent any unnecessary stress (on both parts) when they see all the strange little metal bits.

 

I would be nervous about putting it in the overhead storage because I have seen things fall out and hit people, but perhaps if it was all the way at the back it'd be okay. I do like to have it in sight at all times though.

Posted
Jim, as I said in my response - the alternative for me was to buy a plane ticket for my accordion! ...as you have said; for every good tale, there's a bad one - but you should bear in mind that it is seldom that good experiences make their way into forums like this.

True, but can all the "good" experiences make up for even one disaster? (In fact, your experience didn't provide you with any excesss "good", only a lack of "bad".)

 

Rami was asking for advice, and I think basically asking whether checking the concertina was risky. It is. The amount of risk depends on many things, but my advice is, "Don't risk it if you don't have to." And I've never forgotten the lyrics to a song I heard years ago: "A man should never gamble more than he can stand to lose."

 

If I were carrying a Stagi, I probably wouldn't mind checking it, though I would carry it on if I could. But if I had to choose between checking a laptop computer and the Stagi, I'd check the Stagi.

 

But a vintage Æola, Edeophone, or Jeffries? No checking. No way. If necessary, the computer stays home. If there's any question about my being able to carry the concertina on board, I travel concertinaless.

 

By car, train, or bus I can take several concertinas to the Scandinavian Squeeze-In. To Arran I took two (one anglo, one English), packed into a single carryon bag. Sometimes I take only one or, as noted above, none.

Posted

If you keep a screwdriver (maybe even a pencil :) in your concertina case take it out else they'll nick it.

 

Don't check it in. I tend to take my concertina+case as hand-luggage, and carry any extra stuff (book, food etc) in a plastic carrier bag, and they won't complain.

Posted
I have found a backpack just big enough to fit the case and a few other needments- a book, my knitting- and I think I'm going to do it

Alison,

 

You may find that they will let you take your knitting on the plane - but not the needles????? :huh:

 

Or have they lightened up on that?

 

Dominique travels with her knitting. It seems to be the luck of the draw about needles. She recently flew to Amsterdam via Heathrow. No problem on the way there, but on the journey home her needle case was confiscated as she switched planes at Heathrow. They were kind enough to allow the stewardess to take charge of the case during the flight and return it to Dominique apon arrival in Boston. I've seen what's in that case and some of the instruments look like diabolical implements of torture :ph34r: .

Posted
If you keep a screwdriver (maybe even a pencil :) in your concertina case take it out else they'll nick it.

Yah. I had my little repair kit with me going to Arran, and didn't even realize I had it in my carryon bag rather than my little checked one. Going over either nobody noticed or nobody cared, and I didn't take it out while I was there, so I still didn't realize where I was carrying it.

 

Coming back, somebody noticed the little screwdrivers and told me I couldn't take them with me... even though I had brought them the other way. They were actually very nice, albeit strictly enforcing the rules as they saw them. They let me go purchase a bubble-pack envelope and postage, and the guard actually volunteered to post it for me. (He did. It arrived a few days later.)

 

But the stupid thing is that they don't put you through the check until after you have checked any other bags. If I had had my checked bag, I could have put the forbidden stuff into that, since it was only forbidden in carryon. But by then there was no way to retrieve my checked bag to do that. And even if I had found another bag to check, that would then have been "excess" and an extra charge... far greater than the post.

 

Plenty of other stupidity to go around, of course, since once the rules are made, they become what's important, rather than the security they're supposed to ensure. E.g., my 5 cm-long screwdriver wasn't allowed, but longer and sharper ballpoint pens are. And then there was the lady with an "emergency repair" sewing kit that had a pair of scissors with 1 cm-long blades. The guards actually made her leave those behind, yet didn't appear to notice that she had a set of 10 fingernails, each of which was longer and sharper than the scissors. :ph34r:

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