Always be pleasant and positive eg. Yes, this instrument does fit in the overhead bins. I've stunned a couple of flight attendants by easily popping my hard shell case into an overhead compartment during the pre-boarding for passengers with special needs. I heard one story about a musician who brought his guitar on board by peeking over the flight attendant's shoulder at the list of allowable instruments and telling her he was carrying a clarinet. She consulted her list and pronounced her blessing on his "clarinet". Along with other dangers of baggage handling Stan Rogers had one incident that made his blood boil. (This not the incident when Air Canada putting the forklift fork through his guitar, case and all.) He was waiting, futilely for his guitar to come through the rubber fingers onto the baggage pick-up. Seeing no guitar and no more luggage emerging he broke numerous federal regulations by climbing through the opening and retracing the path his instrument should have taken. Following the sound of music he came upon a baggage handler playing Stan's guitar sitting next to the travel case with the locks broken open. The guy looked up at him and said "Hey man, is this yours? Nice guitar." Stan's reply would cause the entire Internet o be closed down for fumigation so I will leave it to your imagination.