Hi, I've never been able, even before 9/11 to find an airline that would allow me to bring my guitar on board. Perhaps it's a non-assertive personality. Anyway, I bought a second hand Mark Leaf case for my Santa Cruz which I use when we're going to fly to a gig. Never had a problem with damage (if the plane crashes in water, I'll drown and the guitar will float forever) when I've checked it. We flew to Florida for the Folk Alliance recently, and even checking it, there were a couple securitry problems. No problems heading down on delta airlines. When we flew back on Airtran, the baggage check lady noticed a radioactive sticker (put on by a previous owner of the case 20 years ago as a joke), and was not going to allow me to check it until the sticker was off. I did ask how I was supposed to scrape something like that off when no pocket knives or anything were allowed. They finally found a pair of scissors they let me use, and then put tape over the offending sticker. I did show them the "lethal" guitar for inspection and it was allowed on. I also had my check in suitcase looked (five days of dirty laundry, I said,"help yourself.") And got picked as a random search person before boarding (don't know if that was just a lucky coincidence or not). I try to be as non-threatening as possible, but you never know. Whatever you do flying wise, I think a lot of your adventures will depend on the mood of whoever you're dealing with. I'm not ruling out flying with guitar again, but shipping it ahead by UPS sounds better all the time.