Ouch! Delta Airlines and Music Instruments... that ain´t no good combo...
Once in the olden days when the sun was much sunnier and rollo still had money to spend I went to Florida with delta airlines, my aunt, the girl I loved and my true love which in fact was (and is still) a tenor banjo.
As I did not own a hardcase, I asked if I could take the banjo with me as hand luggage. Yes, Sir, no problem. the banjo was placed in the storage over my head. Then check in for atlanta. Everything all right.
But when I enter the plane (it was a Lockheed Something, the same type of machine we had just left), the stewardess master dragon barks: "Sir, you cannot take THAT with you as hand luggage, it is dangerous to have it in the passenger bay(did she fear I would play a song for her? Not for this ole cerberus!), give it to me, we will transport it down in the extra luggage compartment."
She grabs my precious, I whine "she will steal it, yes, yes, gollum!", she hands out a bill with a number and a lot of very small letters, then pushes me into the passenger bay.
Half an hour later we have seated, fastened our seat belts, watched the funny film with the nice girl making fuss with a live vest (very brilliant avantgarde humour, but too intelligent for a broad audience, noone joined my laughters), and I start reading the note with the number...
"...we inform you that this piece of luggage is NOT included in any travel insurance you might have paid for..." Yes indeed I had paid for!
Then came the chime, the red light, the call to fasten seatbelts again, and the air holes. My voice trembled, when I asked my two women about the fate of my banjo. Sure it was broken!
Atlanta at last. We rushed to fetch our bags. Every bag is there, but - alas, no banjo! the last two or three luggages appear at the "sushi bar", but still no banjo! With nerves shaking I ask a uniformed bystander where I can receive info about my banjo. The u.b. looks at my bill: "Luggage of this category will be deposed in an extra room, you cannot miss it, first right, second left, then turn three times, speak out the Unspeakable backwards and puff!" Puff? Puff.
At last we find this mysterious room... and first thing I see is NOT a banjo of any kind, but... a broken pram... This was the moment I broke out in tears. And THAT was the moment when the second cart came with the rest of the extra luggage, including my unbroken banjo.
The trip back to europe we made with exactly the same bord crew. No, sir, no problem to take your banjo as hand luggage. Really no problem, sir. Not from miami to atlanta, not from atlanta to new york, not from new york to hamburg.
Take my advice, folks. If Delta takes over the slots, travel by ferry if you don't want to die with heart attack.