I went through the process of determining a shipping method recently, as I was invited to play at the Scholarship fund concert at Cotati last week. My accordion is a Borsini 5/5, so it's pretty big. Checking it as baggage was not on the short list. I considered, not necessarily in this order: buying it a seat, storing it in an overhead, shipping to someone in California.
Storing it in an overhead seemed unlikely due to its size. Also, I have never been a fan of gig cases(soft), since I tend to be a clutz and bang into things. Buying it a seat seemed like a reasonable possibility, except when you speak with a company CSR (any company), you cannot always depend on the company standing by their answers. In addition, there are aircraft changes which sometimes include a company change, where the new company could have different rules. Just too much possibility of finger pointing. Not to mention the aggravation of lugging that around various airports. Our flight out was going to be 3 legs, since we were departing Daytona Beach, FL and final destination was Santa Rosa Airport. Last possibility was shipping it to someone in CA. After all these instruments are typically shipped from Italy. When properly prepared for shipment, it shouldn't be a problem, but shipping would have left me w/o my instrument for a least a wk prior and a week after. Still a decent possibility. As it turns out, friends in CA who own a music store offered to provide me with a new Baffetti to use, which ended the consternation.
I know Cory Pesaturo, since we come from the same place and while in Cotati, I asked him what he does with his Roland. He says "carry on" compartments and make sure you take only 757's and one other model which I forgot, sorry. He indicated that sometimes he gets an argument while boarding. He said most of the time, they acquiesce and ends up boarding, but there have been times when he's had to refuse to get on.
Storing it in an overhead seemed unlikely due to its size. Also, I have never been a fan of gig cases(soft), since I tend to be a clutz and bang into things. Buying it a seat seemed like a reasonable possibility, except when you speak with a company CSR (any company), you cannot always depend on the company standing by their answers. In addition, there are aircraft changes which sometimes include a company change, where the new company could have different rules. Just too much possibility of finger pointing. Not to mention the aggravation of lugging that around various airports. Our flight out was going to be 3 legs, since we were departing Daytona Beach, FL and final destination was Santa Rosa Airport. Last possibility was shipping it to someone in CA. After all these instruments are typically shipped from Italy. When properly prepared for shipment, it shouldn't be a problem, but shipping would have left me w/o my instrument for a least a wk prior and a week after. Still a decent possibility. As it turns out, friends in CA who own a music store offered to provide me with a new Baffetti to use, which ended the consternation.
I know Cory Pesaturo, since we come from the same place and while in Cotati, I asked him what he does with his Roland. He says "carry on" compartments and make sure you take only 757's and one other model which I forgot, sorry. He indicated that sometimes he gets an argument while boarding. He said most of the time, they acquiesce and ends up boarding, but there have been times when he's had to refuse to get on.
