If there were a way to find out, an hour or so before takeoff, whether you could take a guitar on board, I'd probably risk taking one on board in a gig bag. But I usually find that, while you can go through the main security hours before your flight, there is no one at the airline's counter at the GATE until about 30 min. before the flight.   Should the flight happen to be very full or you happen to get one of those airline gate attendants with a stick up his/her arse -- like the guy last month who was going to make me leave behind my very small, lightweight blanket because I had taken it out of my carryon case during the stopover/plane change -- you'd probably have to let them check your gig bag (which probably wouldn't stand up to their luggage handling) or miss your flight. They'd probably charge you and extra $50 to $100 to change to a later flight, if space was available.

And breezy, I don't blame you for not signing those disclaimers.

The other problem with checking a guitar is that there's usually no security in the baggage claim area. Anyone can pick up any bag and walk off with it.
The only thing your claim ticket is good for is getting them to reimburse you for stolen or damaged luggage -- but they refuse to take responsibility for damage to or theft of just about anything that's fragile, valuable or both.

Genie