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Looper's Delight
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horrible, horrible times. traveling for a musician was already a nightmare, and now it is worse. i worry more about flying with the cello than i do about the performance on the other end. as for the repeaters...i never put them in the hold. i always put them in my carry-on with my laptop. i think it is more likely that i can find a replacement cello than replacement repeaters!! (how weird is that! the cello is about 20 times more valuable) maybe one outcome of the ban on cabin baggage will be that hold baggage is treated better. in any other business such mistreatment of property would not be considered acceptable. but now if people have no choice but to check fragile and expensive items? the airlines themselves recommend that you carry on anything valuable. i used to buy an extra seat for the cello, but after Sept 11, sometimes i would be denied boarding by ignorant staff. i started putting it in the hold inside a flight case and insisted on gate- checking it. without fail, i would be yelled at by TSA during screening. "you can't bring that through here". at one airport they unpacked the cello and left it naked on a metal table (not letting me anywhere near it) while crowds of people jostled past in the security line. they wanted to run it this way through the xray machine. my tearful entreaties had an effect and they ended up with one person holding it upside down while 2 others searched inside with flashlights. the endpin and bows were removed and i was told to check them into my baggage. i replied they are too long to fit in my suitcase, and a TSA person said "well you should of thought of that before". that the cello was going in the hold and not the cabin made not the slightest difference. if it wasn't so stressful it would be comical. gate checking in that instance caused me to miss my flight, so now i check it at the ticket desk. the flight case is very good, but being so enormous, it must be hand inspected by the TSA (leaving their little calling card inside). i always ask nicely if i can be present, mostly to verifying that they repack if properly. if not repacked exactly right, the cello might not survive the baggage handling. on a recent flight the TSA closed the case, but never strapped in the cello inside. amazingly, other than the soundpost falling out and the bridge knocked out of place, it was fine. and if i have a connection to make when coming from overseas (say london to philly to seattle). because of the hand inspection, the cello never makes it to the connecting flight. when possible, i always try to get to my destination a day earlier, so that i have time to wait for the poor cello to arrive, or get any repairs done. sometimes the stress is too much, and i think "i can't handle this any more!!", but what is the alternative??? i try to remind myself, "oh but thanks to all this inconvenience, i'm safer now". but, on that journey where the inspection caused me to miss my flight...i realized, while waiting for the next plane, that i still had my LEATHERMAN in my purse. aargh. On Aug 12, 2006, at 5:59 AM, Costas Andreou wrote: > Hello everyone. Here is a BBC article about musicians' problems > because of > the new cabin baggage ban on planes. > http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4784225.stm?ls > > Costas Andreou > > http://www.costasandreou.com > contact@costasandreou.com >