my advice as a person who has carried my guitar on many times...don't ask anybody anything! go to check-in, get your pass and check your luggage, don't ask about your git just take it with you to the gate. take all the junk out of your case pocket and put it in your checked luggage so there's nothing in the case but your guitar. most of the times i've been questioned at the x-ray is when they see something in the pocket they don't recognize. if it's just a guitar they'll pass you thru. once you've got it at the gate, worst case is they make you gatecheck it. that's better than sending it thru baggage. and even if the gate attendant gives you a check ticket and tells you to leave it with the strollers don't leave it there unless there's someone there to take it from you. if not, just carry it on ,put it in the rack and don't say a word. the problem with asking everybody stuff is that there isn't a real policy on this, nobody really knows what to do, and the easiest thing for them to do when questioned is to cover their ass by telling you no, we can't do that. if you don't ask they have to aggressively target you and my experience is that they would rather not do that. unless, of course, you get a psycho control freak in your way. never argue until they actually want to take it out of your hands. i've only had to surrender my guitar once in probably 100 flights.