Subject: RE: Delta Airlines Doesn't Like Musicians
From:
Don Firth
Date: 18 Nov 12 - 04:28 PM
I flew a fair amount in the 1950s and early 60s with my guitar. When I checked my luggage, along with the guitar the first time, I told them at the counter that the guitar was fairly fragile and I worried about it being put into the luggage compartment. The clerk put a "Special Handling" tag on the case, and rather than stowing it with the rest of the luggage, a flight attendant (they called them "stewardesses" back in those prehistoric times) carried it on board the plane and set it securely in the coat closet near the stewardess's station. Then, it was brought to me by another person when I picked up my luggage. No sweat! That seemed to be Standard Operating Procedure back then.
A few decades later, my wife and I were visiting her parents who were living in Holland, Michigan at the time. No problem going. But on the way back, on a half-hour flight from Grand Rapids to Chicago to change planes back to Seattle, the shuttle flight company (Uncle Reuben's Storm Door and Airline Company) insisted that my guitar go into the luggage compartment with the rest of the luggage. I baulked. The plane was a Boeing 737 twin-jet, and I knew that there was plenty of room in the coat closet. After some heated argument, I wound up having to buy a seat for my guitar. When boarding the plane in Chicago, once again, a flight attendant carried my guitar aboard and put it into the coat closet.
Then—about fifteen years ago, Barbara and I had occasion to visit some of her relatives in Nebraska. I didn't take my guitar this time, but a few years before, I'd had to take to a wheelchair.
The airline's procedure was to transfer me to a small, narrow chair (my wheelchair, including wheels and all, being too wide [26 inches] to negotiate the aisles inside the plane) and push me down the aisle to where I could transfer to my assigned seat, then go the reverse trip when I arrived at my destination. And they would meet me at the terminal end of the "breezeway" with my wheelchair just retrieved from the plane's luggage compartment.
But—some idiot(s) had apparently crammed the wheelchair into the luggage compartment and bent the frame. It was usable, but I had to point it several degrees off from where I wanted to go, and each of the wheels wanted to go in a slightly different direction. And they were just going to leave it at that.
I raised Hell and slid a brick under it ! A moment or two later, some kind of supervisor appeared. She took a damage report. I pointed out that, although the chair was temporarily usable, it was certainly going to have to be repaired or replaced.
But I had to be bloody damned firm with her. She seemed to be trying to imply that the damage to the wheelchair was somehow my fault!
It wasn't until I mentioned "lawyer" that she suddenly became more friendly. Then, she filled out a report, and I received a "chit" for the wheelchair.
When I got back to Seattle, I went to a medical supply store that sold wheelchairs and such, and that had a repair shop. They examined the chair and said that it would cost more to repair than a new one would cost. So I bought a new one and, using the authorization, had the store bill the airline for it.
Very nice, comfortable wheelchair. Still using it.
But—airline baggage handlers are ape-like barbarians, and airline policy about luggage handling has become stupid and barbaric within recent years.
Don Firth
P. S. In the case of Lynn Harrell's cello, or any other situation in which someone pays full fare for a seat, why should it make a difference to the airline whether that seat is occupied by a living person, a cello, or someone's pet hamster!?? They got paid for the seat, and the rights and privileges that go with that purchase should apply!
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