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Just to get this out of the way, I really hate being deceptive. It's a pain, it's work, and it's a hassle. But, I sort of had to do it recently. I was on the hook to fly out to San Francisco for the Oracle Open World convention. While I was out on the coast, I managed to make arrangements with Kai Eckhardt to study with him for a bit. And all I needed to do to make everything happen was to manage to get a bass out to SF with me. And therein lies the deception part.
A bass gig bag is a big ol' thing. You hardly can miss one of them. Particularly a double gig bag. And, in any case, any size gig bag is too big to qualify as a carry on: about twice as tall as those little metal frames you're supposed to put your suitcase into when you check to see if it's okay. I had read up on a few things about flying with a bass, and I figured I was ready for excursion.
I got Rich to give me a ride to the airport, on the grounds that if security at DCA wouldn't let me through with my basses (I decided to take the Fodera and the Ibanez), I'd like to have a musician take it home for the week (since he would be more likely to give it the care and feeding it would need). Of course, they gave me the long, hard look-over -- an odd shaped bag is one of those things that they apparently look for. But, I made it through, and then waited around for my opportunity to board the flight.
The gig bag was my only carry-on luggage, I asked for a seat at the back of the plane (that way all the overhead compartments would be unobstructed), I slung the bag low over my shoulder so that my body was in between the gate person and my bass -- and it worked. I got it on board without any problems. Ah, but if only that had set the stage for the rest of the trip.
My way out to SF was through Phoenix. I had to do the same routine, getting onto the plane again, but this time, it didn't go so smoothly. I got everything onto the plane, but the attendents started to give me a hard time about the size of the bag. Apparently, "...the FAA passed a new regulation on September the first declaring that any musical instrument of 29 inches in length cannot be considered as carry-on baggage." This was news to me (which is ironic, considering that I do some contracting for the FAA) and I told him as much. He still gave me some grief but was kind enough to let it slide "...this time."
So now I'm out in SF with two basses and I know that it's apparently against the rules for me to fly back without checking my basses as luggage of some sort. And, having watched the exquisite care the luggage crew treated the bags (normal checked, gate checked, please-don't-break-this-it's-4-million-years-old checked, didn't seem to matter -- maybe it's time to Anvil up), there was no way in hell I was going to let that happen.
Posted by Casper at September 6, 2003 11:42 PM