I flew a lot with my guitar (Martin 00-28-G in a hard-shell case) back in the mid-1950s. No problem. They put a "special handling" tag on the case and a flight attendant carried it on board and set it carefully in the coat cupboard, then brought it to me at the end of the flight.

Then, in the late 1980s, the last time I flew with my guitar (very pricey Japanese-made classic in a hard-shell case), they insisted on putting it in with the rest of the luggage—which, by then, was managed by clumsy and aggressive gorillas. I refused. We dickered and fussed for awhile (me threatening to cancel my ticket and take the train), then they offered me an alternative. I could buy a child's fare ticket for the guitar, carry it on board, and strap it into the seat next to me. So I did.

I considered it a form of extortion, but I remembered that Segovia did that with his guitar, as did Mstislav Rostropovich with his very pricey cello, rather than leave their instruments to the tender mercies of barbarians.

It wasn't that bad, considering. $30.00 or so from Grand Rapids, Michigan to Chicago. Then, on United from Chicago back to Seattle, once again, they put the guitar in the coat closet up by the flight attendants' station.

On a trip with my wife to her family reunion in the early 1990s, the knuckle-dragging barbarians managed to bend the frame on my wheelchair. They had trouble making it fit in the baggage compartment, so they just crammed it! When I got it back, the frame was sufficiently bent that when the chair was unfolded, the seat didn't quite fit into the rest of the frame, and it had a tendency to roll at a diagonal. I filed a complaint, and a United Airlines supervisor authorized sufficient compensation to have the wheelchair repaired, plus the offer of a loaner.

With that experience to go on, and from what I have heard recently about the way baggage handlers deal with musical instruments, if I have occasion to travel with my guitar again, I will either take the train (a fairly pleasant and leisurely way to travel) or buy a child's seat for my guitar and take it with me.

I might suggest, GUEST,A. Williams, that if you don't fly that much, it might be judicious to emulate the Big Kids like Segovia and Rostropovich (and many other musicians, as I understand it) and buy the instrument a seat. Then, you're in charge of it.

Good luck!

Don Firth