Good news - the airline is sending me written confirmation that I can put my fiddle in some kind of cupboard in the fiddle-friendly part of the plane. Given what I've learned here about how standard it is to carry a fiddle on, I think the station manager was a little melodramatic about what a big exception they were making for me. But Canjet is a quite new airline - he claimed that this was the "first time they had dealt with something like this", and who knows, maybe it really was.

Thanks for your answers everybody. The idea of checking the case and carrying the fiddle on in a little bag is interesting. The idea of just trying to carry it on, then doing some drama at the gate if you're challenged, troubles me a little, because you don't know if you're going to end up in your best case scenario (keeping it with you) or your worst case scenario (instrument being cast to the demons) until it's too late to turn back and take another airline or go without.

Turtle, your poor dog! That really makes me angry. Did the airline offer any explanation, or acknowledgement that something was terribly wrong? Did your dog seem traumatized by the trip?

Murray, are you the Murray from the probability threads? If so, I'm glad to see you signed in. You agreed with me, so you must be a very valuable addition to the Mudcat.

Thanks, Marion