Hi.

Uh, to all those who have instrument soft cases, don't bring your soft case to japan. I've done a little research: only some airports/airlines will allow you to take your soft case on the plane. And even if they do, you will have to buy a ticket for your case.

"However, the American Federation of Musicians (AFM - the union of professional players for the United States and Canada) successfully lobbied the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) to instruct airlines that they should allow musicians to bring their instrument on board as a third carry on. This was a major victory for musicians, but it is not quite as good news as it sounds. While airlines have been informed that instruments may come on board aircraft as a carry on bag, the instrument is still subject to size requirements. All trombones (alto, tenor, bass and contrabass) are too big to be considered 'legal' carry on size. Alto trombones usually have no trouble getting in an overhead compartment but their length is more than most airlines allow. Some tenor and most bass and all contrabass trombones simply will not fit into most overhead compartments and all of the TSA regulations in the world allowing you to bring your instrument on board will not help youif your instrument just won't fit in the compartment. "

We are not allowed to bring the instrument on the plane.
What about checking the soft case in?
Aha.

"You don't need an airline baggage handler to throw your gig bag 30 feet to damage it - the slightest bump against your back can cause a slide to get out of alignment or the valve mechanism to get bent. Get yourself a good hard case and forget about the gig bag. "

An American Band website mentioned that its members were not allowed to check their gig bags in as it will totally crush the instrument.

Yup, so just take the hard case.
Don't you dare try to plan instrument murder.
Val will kill you back.

But maybemaybe our airport/ airline will allow.
Uh, don't know la.

:) Have a nice day.


-michelle

http://basstrombone.org/resources/faq/faq_text/travel.html

&loveTROMBONES; 6:19 pm