#8077  by pharewellphish
 
anybody had any troubles recently with all the new rules about carryons? im takin a flight tomorrow to kansas city and i dont have any other way to get my guitar down there

 #8079  by jck_strw
 
No problems. I flew to Denver about a month and a half ago. I was able to bring the guitar on the plane flying both there and back. I had connecting flights both ways as well, and no problems. On the way to Denver, as soon as I got on the plane, I asked the flight attendants if I could store it in the upfront closet (where the pilots/attendants put their stuff). They were very nice and said sure thing. On the way back, the attendants acted weird when I asked them--as if they never heard of such of thing. But they quickly said that there shouldn't be a problem storing it in the overhead compartments. I was like, ok, no problem. It fit quite comfortably in the overhead compartment and people were able to even put bags in front of it, next to it, etc. It didn't take up the whole bin (which I was concerned about). The guitar was in a hard shell case too, fwiw.

Be polite and act like you've done this before and you shouldn't have any issues. Good luck!

 #18216  by confusions_prince
 
jck_strw wrote:Be polite and act like you've done this before and you shouldn't have any issues. Good luck!
A fine rule in most any case.

 #18876  by delilah
 
Carry it on with you but only take one other small carry-on, like a backpack that you can store between your feet, so that your guitar is the only thing you put in the overhead compartment. It really comes down to how full the plane is. Softshell cases go over much better with the attendents and you can usually carry them on your back which is much easier to carry around airports. Many years ago, I checked a beautiful Takamine acoustic guitar into luggage and the flight ruined it. If you are ever forced to check one into luggage, make sure you loosen the strings first. We also missed our plane on the stop to change planes and the guitars went out to Seattle without us. We didn't get there until the next day and they were chained up by the luggage claim area.
 #18881  by lyghtningod
 
My experience has been it is rather hard to keep the guitar with you. What is possible is to take the guitar (in a hard shell case) onto the boarding ramp. They will then take it from you and hand carry it to the storage space, as they do with baby carriages. It is not ideal, but I haven't had any problems with it so far.

Smaller guitars are easier to get on board. I carry my D-18, which is pretty big.

Pre 9-11 it was just a matter of getting there early, being polite and asking. Post 9-11... good luck.

 #19078  by Prospector
 
I flew from DIA to O'hare a few months ago and was able to carry on my electric in a soft case.

 #19263  by DudeWithTheFan
 
I purchased a guitar in Spain, and had no trouble flying with it in the overhead compartment to Italy, and then back to the USA.