I'm not sure if this belongs in the 'Road rash' forum, but here goes anyway...
I've been playing bass since the late 70's but until a week ago, I had no need to travel by commercial airline with my bass. I recently moved from Washington to Hawaii and my prized Music Man StingRay and G&L L-2000 remained behind at the XGF's house. I went back for a visit and decided to take the chance and bring back the StingRay. I did some research online and got a few tips and here's what I did...
First, I loosened the strings to take the tension off the neck a bit. That seemed to be the most common point made during my research. At 30k feet, the cargo hold of an airliner gets a little chilly, so I liked that idea.
I wrapped the headstock in a soft cloth and laid a couple of towels over the neck and body to help immobilize and cushion the bass. It goes without saying that I used the hard shell case that came from the factory. The case came with keys to lock it but I left it unlocked on the chance that the TSA would want to take a look. It does kind of look like a gun case.
Lastly, and most important, I think... I 'gate checked' the bass. What that means is that instead of checking it with your regular baggage (and paying the extra fee) you take it to the gate as one of your carry-on pieces. Most likely, they won't let you bring it on and store it in the overhead bins because it takes up so much room, so you leave it at the door and they put it in the baggage compartment from there. And it's at the door when you get off the plane, not at the baggage claim. This allows you to keep control of your instrument longer and it for sure will make it on the right plane. I flew from Portland to Seattle and then on to Honolulu. I carried my bass out the door in Portland and put it on the cart. When I got off the plane in Seattle, it was on the cart with the other 'carry-on' bags that had been 'gate checked' and off I went to baggage claim to get my 'checked' baggage. The process was much the same going from Seattle to Honolulu. I carried the bass to the airplane door and sat it down there. I let the stewardess (flight attendant?) know it was there, just in case. It was waiting for me when I came out the door in Honolulu and I was off to baggage claim to get my other bags. Helpful hint: get to your gate a little early and go talk to the person at the desk and tell them what you are doing. They will tag it right there for you so you don't have to hassle with it with the stewardesses. By the way, it was Alaska Airlines. I've always had good experiences with them.
I hope this might be of help to those looking to take their bass with them on a commercial airline. Not that scary at all.
-Brett
(as an aside, my other piece of luggage that I checked the regular way was a small, relatively heavy bag used to hold parachute rigging tools. Lots of pointy and pokey things in there. Lots of straps and other unusual looking tools in there. When I got home and looked inside, there was a little note from the TSA informing me that they went through it. You could tell it had been gone through but nothing was missing or really left out of place and I have no problems with them doing that.)
Bookmarks