(Hi Jed M. and Texas friends - it will be great to see you)

My band (Round the House) is coming out again to NTIF in March and the week before we are in Colorado. Both trips, we are flying on Southwest and since we have 2 multi-instrumentalists, we are faced with choosing between instruments. Yikes. If we had our way, we would board with 7 instruments for 4 people.

I was wondering if anyone has recent info on traveling with multiple instruments. I know hard cases will protect them better, but would they trigger security concerns? Also, if a person carries two (mandolin and bouzouki) in soft cases, would the airline be more forgiving about putting them in the overhead than if they were in hard cases? On the other hand - if one or both were relegated to being gate checked,the question becomes - how safe is gate checking, really.

That's not a fiddle that is my purse - honestly sir.

Best,
Claire from Tucson