Cabin Baggage - Anyone take their guitar on board?

starWave

So tomorrow I will attempt to bring my guitar home on an Aer Lingus flight. It's only an acoustic with 1/2 size body and full size neck (Baby Martin), so I hope to bring it as cabin baggage. The guitar came with its own bag, and I don't want to fork out for a flight case. Has anyone ever done this or had any issues?

I was on the same flight last week, and they randomly ask people to check the size of their cabin luggage. They only do it to make some people put their luggage in the hold (for free) as its usually a busy flight, and they always run out of luggage space. The guy in front of me was asked to check his luggage, and his small 'square' luggage wouldn't fit in the luggage size test stand. He had a big argument with the lady at the desk, but she insisted it had to go in the hold. Then he made a big fuss with the cabin crew on the plane, and they gave him loads of attention (like free drinks and free paper and sympathy), but he still didn't get his bag.

Another time, I saw a guy with a rucksack, a suitcase, a big camera bag, and two other bags (one could have been a guitar), and he just walked on the plane no problem. One of the ground crew even made a joke about counting his bags, but he still had no problem bringing them on, even though he could barely carry them all.

humanji

Moved to the travel forum.

I can't be certain, but I think there's a seperate place for them for put more delicate things like instruments and sports equipment, in the hold. You can give it to the person at the check-in counter and they'll take care of it. They're not goingt o throw it around like they do with normal luggage. You'll get a ticket and you claim it back from a seperate counter when you land (I'm sure it'll be marked somewhere).

kaki

Aer Lingus let me bring my acoustic on the plane when I was moving to Italy a couple of years ago.

Probably it was due to the fact that the flight wasn't full, and them taking pity on my forlorn 19-year old self, but they were very good about it and let me keep the guitar in an empty seat beside me.

Just personal experience, like many things depends on circumstances on the day itself!

coylemj

kaki wrote: »

Probably it was due to the fact that the flight wasn't full, and them taking pity on my forlorn 19-year old self, but they were very good about it and let me keep the guitar in an empty seat beside me.

Just personal experience, like many things depends on circumstances on the day itself!

As you say, it all depends on the situation on the day but one thing is certain, you would need to be occupying a window and centre seat because nobody will sit inside an inanimate object like a musical instrument in case there is an emergency and they need to get out quick.

If the item is too big for the overhead bin and you don't trust the baggage handlers, you officially need to pay for a seat for it.

starWave

Guitar brought on board with no issues. Its small enough to fit in the luggage compartment, so no need to put it on a seat.

The cabin staff were actually commenting on the amount of free luggage space, as there was a load of teenagers on school tour or something with no hand luggage.

coylemj

starWave wrote: »

Guitar brought on board with no issues. Its small enough to fit in the luggage compartment, so need to put it on a seat.

That doesn't make sense - unless you meant to say 'Its small enough to fit in the luggage compartment, so no need to put it on a seat.'

munchkin_utd

starWave wrote: »

Guitar brought on board with no issues. Its small enough to fit in the luggage compartment, so need to put it on a seat.
<snip>.

Thats grand if you are on a touristy flight(with folks travelling with light handluggage & most stuff in the hold) or a half empty plane.

On a full flight with business travellers though it would be large enough to take up the space of numerous rolly bags in the overhead lockers that are rammed to the gills with rolly bags.
They would have to be checked into the hold or otherwise find a place to be put and to be honest 3 or 4 bags from 3 or 4 passengers should take priority over 1 guitar from one passenger ESPECIALLY when you read what you should have done in the first place with your oversized hand luggage .

heres the aer lingus advice on guitars :

If the instrument is larger than the permitted hand baggage size, e.g. Guitar, and the passenger wishes to carry the item in the cabin, they have to purchase an additional seat for the instrument (this can be done online and normal charges and taxes apply). There will be no baggage allowance for the purchase of an additional seat for the instrument. The instrument should be booked in the name of the instrument e.g. Guitar/One Ms or Saxophone/One Ms. The actual weight of the instrument including its carry case, must not exceed 75kgs / 165lbs.

http://www.aerlingus.com/help/help/baggageinformation/#d.en.1220

starWave

munchkin_utd wrote: »

Thats grand if you are on a touristy flight(with folks travelling with light handluggage & most stuff in the hold) or a half empty plane.

On a full flight with business travellers though it would be large enough to take up the space of numerous rolly bags in the overhead lockers that are rammed to the gills with rolly bags.
They would have to be checked into the hold or otherwise find a place to be put and to be honest 3 or 4 bags from 3 or 4 passengers should take priority over 1 guitar from one passenger ESPECIALLY when you read what you should have done in the first place with your oversized hand luggage .

heres the aer lingus advice on guitars :

http://www.aerlingus.com/help/help/baggageinformation/#d.en.1220

3 or 4 rolly bags? The guitar takes up less volume than my rolly bag which I normally take on board, which is within the limits. The guitar is not a full sized body, and only barely exceeds one of the cabin baggage dimensions.

I'm also a gold circle member, which allows you an extra hand luggage, so I was really only using my fair share of luggage space.

I find the tourists are worse than the business travellers for loading up on hand luggage.

munchkin_utd

starWave wrote: »

3 or 4 rolly bags? The guitar takes up less volume than my rolly bag which I normally take on board, which is within the limits. The guitar is not a full sized body, and only barely exceeds one of the cabin baggage dimensions.

I find the tourists are worse than the business travellers for loading up on hand luggage.

you mustnt fly very much?

A full sized rolly bag will fit lying on its back and when in the overhead locker you can barely get a jacket on top of it.
Theres an example below of how a rolly bag fits very snugly in the overhead locker.

If you lie your gituar lengthways along the way in the overhead locker, then I cant put my bag in any more, nor the 2 or 3 bags from other passengers that would otherwise fit beside it.

BTW, you are right that tourists bring a heap of bumpf, BUT aer lingus will often tell them to put that at their feet to make place for proper luggage.

starWave

munchkin_utd wrote: »

you mustnt fly very much?

A full sized rolly bag will fit lying on its back and when in the overhead locker you can barely get a jacket on top of it.
Theres an example below of how a rolly bag fits very snugly in the overhead locker.

If you lie your gituar lengthways along the way in the overhead locker, then I cant put my bag in any more, nor the 2 or 3 bags from other passengers that would otherwise fit beside it.

BTW, you are right that tourists bring a heap of bumpf, BUT aer lingus will often tell them to put that at their feet to make place for proper luggage.

I've had about 12 flights in the last two months. If I was bringing my electric guitar in a flight case, I would check it in as its big.

What I brought on board was a small acoustic guitar (Little Martin). It took up the space where my rolly bag would go, and possibly some tiny part of the space where a neighbouring rolly bag would be. But assuming the whole space was full of rolly bags, I'd say you could fit this neighbouring one in sideways with the guitar behind it, and nobody would be put out. There'd actually be extra space for other bags and jackets, as the guitar takes up less volume than a rolly bag.