In 1955 and 1956 I made three trips from Seattle to Denver and back, taking my guitar (Martin 00-28-G classic) with me. Flew United. The first two trips, no problem. A flight attended carried the guitar on board and stashed it in one of the coat closets (the plane was a DC6-B, four engine prop). Same on my third trip to Denver. But on my way back, they told me that they would have to put the guitar in the luggage compartment with my suitcase. I protested, saying that they had taken it into the cabin on my previous trips. They were adamant that it would have to go with the luggage. I dug my heels in and announce that if they didn't take it into the cabin and put it into a coat closet as they had before, I wasn't going to go. I would fly another airline. And I got a bit loud about it, with other passengers standing around. They crumbled and agreed to do as I insisted.

But that was then. The last time I flew with my guitar (on a 737), when I wanted the guitar on board and in a coat closet, they refused. If I wanted to take it on board with me, I would have to by a ticket for it. It was a short hop between Grand Rapids and Chicago, so I bought it a half-fair child's ticket ($30.00), and a flight attendant carried it on board and strapped it into the seat next to me. The next leg of the trip (Chicago to Seattle, on a DC-10), no problem taking it on board with me.

But it's not just guitars.

On a trip with Barbara, to visit her mother in Kansas, Barbara and I had to change planes in Denver (United again). By now, I was using a wheelchair. They had crammed the wheelchair in with the regular luggage, and when they brought it to me at the Denver airport, the frame was badly bent. It could be unfolded, but the wheels wouldn't track.

Barbara and I raised hell and slid a brick under it! With a lot of other passengers looking on. They sent a supervisor around. She looked a the chair, wrote up a report, duly apologized, and arranged for me to use a rental chair on my trip, which they paid for. They also paid to have my wheelchair replaced.

But—I am convinced that had I not yelled my head off in front of a group of sympathetic passengers, outraged in my behalf, the rather grim-faced supervisor might very well have just blown me off. But several of the other passengers looking on also wanted to know what the airline was going to do about it.

Sometimes making your complaint with a sympathetic audience present is a big help.

@$#%&!!

Don Firth