“Violinist Rachel Barton Pine found herself sleeping in an airport terminal during the early hours of Monday after being told that her violin would not fit in the overhead bin of her US Airways flight,” reads an unsigned article in Wednesday’s (9/30) Strad. “The musician was flying with her family from Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport to her home in Chicago with her 1742 Guarneri ‘del Gesú’ ‘Soldat’ violin. She was told by staff that there was no room in the cabin for her instrument, and was given the option of checking the violin into the hold or waiting for the next flight…. Pine elected to catch the following flight … The airline’s cabin baggage policy states: ‘In order to travel with your musical instrument as a carry-on, there must be carry-on space available for your musical instrument…. We will do what we can to accommodate your musical instrument but will not move other passengers’ belongings to accommodate a musical instrument.’ … Earlier this week Air Canada announced several improvements to its carry-on baggage policy for musical instruments—including priority boarding for musicians.” Read tips from the League of American Orchestras about air travel with musical instruments here.
Posted October 1, 2015
