Transporting a cello: buy a seat? check it? Definitive answers on how to fly with a cello

You have two options for checking an instrument.  For occasional travelers, the best option is to gate check your instrument with a hard case.  NEVER check an instrument in a soft case.  If you are going to gate check, do this on a direct flight, many airlines arbitrarily will not allow you to retrieve your gate-checked instrument at the transfer airport, and it will travel on the conveyor and risk damage just like other luggage.

If you travel more regularly with your cello, invest in a custom-built flight case and check the instrument through regular luggage.  These cases are approximately the cost of 5-6 flights.  Why custom-built?  Every cello has slightly different dimensions, and a case that does not fit your instrument well could put stresses on the instrument making it more fragile.  Don't forget: the cello bridge typically has 60 pounds/sq. inch of pressure or more under each string, and this results in high strain on key failure points such as where the neck meets the body of the cello, the wires connecting the tailpiece to the instrument, the endpin block, etc.

Here are some general tips on making the cello safe:

1. place a pliable but firm wedge between the fingerboard and the body of the cello.  Hard styrofoam works well for this.
2. tune down the strings between a half step to a whole step to relieve some of the pressure on the bridge
3. place balled up socks on either side of the bridge, and lightly secure them with some masking tape, this can help keep the bridge and soundpost from falling over
4. be sure that you can fit your travel case into any transportation medium (i.e. taxis) at your destination that you will need to fit it into.

Expect that even in a supposedly travel-proof case like the Stevenson, you could go for hundreds of flights with no mishaps, or be unlucky like a friend of mine whose cello was completely destroyed in a Stevenson case, and then spent over 3 years trying to find a comparable replacement.  There is no way to reliably and economically predict in advance which case/cello/airline combination will result in a destroyed instrument.  Here are some casual statistics I've compiled over the years:

1. Traditionally, Northwest airlines has destroyed the most checked cellos, with Delta coming in a close second.  The merger has already affected how cello-friendly the airline is, so expect this stat to change.
2. About 5-10% of my cello-playing friends have lost an instrument to an airline checked disaster.  That's a very high probability considering that none of the rest of my friends have lost an instrument to any other problem, including auto accidents.

Considerations if you decide to buy a seat

So you've decided to buy a seat, let the fun begin!  First, you need to know that there are two completely separate procedures for travelling domestically and for travelling internationally.  Let's start with domestic travel in the U.S.:

Buying a seat for domestic travel

There are a couple of considerations when booking a cello for domestic travel.  First, you need to know the pertinent FAA regulations.  The regulation for cabin baggage (that's your cello) states that it should be in a seat adjacent to a hard bulkhead, and can never be in an emergency exit row.  Let me translate this into airline-speak:

1. Most of the time this means your cello must be in a window seat.
2. Occasionally, it means your cello must be in the last row
3. About 1/3 of the time, it means that your cello must be in the first row (bulkhead row)
4. Occasionally, it also means that no one can sit next to the cello.
5. For some aircraft, it means that the cello cannot legally go into any seat at all
   

How does one know which of the rules will apply to your cello on this flight?  The truth is that the rules are applied in a completely arbitrary fashion.  Sometimes the gate agent will force you to go into a particular seat, and other times the flight attendant will move you once you're on the aircraft.  Very occasionally, the pilot will come out and tell you the bad news.  It all depends on who is working your particular flight.  Crazy, eh?  Welcome to the airline industry.

The fifth case is the easiest by far to avoid.  You can check to see what kinds of aircraft are used on a particular route, and look at the seating patterns.  For instance, if you're flying on Continental airlines, and are flying to a small regional airport from a major airport, you might see that you are flying on a Q400.  By googling "Continental seating Q400" you'll come across this webpage: http://www.continental.com/web/en-US/content/travel/inflight/aircraft/bombardierQ400.aspx.  The first thing you should see is that the only hard bulkhead is in the front of the aircraft, and the only window seats are 1A and 2D.  In addition, the bulkhead row is right behind an exit, which means that if you get an overzealous gate agent or flight attendant (more likely a flight attendant), you will be kicked off of the plane unless you agree to gate check the cello.  However, it is also important to know the airline.  For instance, if you're traveling on Continental, it is helpful to know that they are the most lenient airline in the business.  I have flown on both the ERJ-145 and the CRJ-200 several times with standard window seats not in the bulkhead, and have only been asked a few times to move to the front, and never forced to leave.  Continental seems to have decided that because the hard bulkhead is in between the seat and the exit, that the exit row regulation doesn't apply.

Northwest (now Delta) is traditionally the least lenient in the business.  From about 1996 until last year, if you flew on a DC-9, they had converted hard bulkheads in economy to soft bulkheads, and would kick the cello off of every flight.  When the Chiara Quartet flew from Laguardia to Detroit and then to South Bend, we almost missed the concert because the only aircraft flying into South Bend from Detroit considered the bulkhead seats to be an exit row.  Eventually, we flew to Kalamazoo and took a taxi (!) at airline expense to South Bend, arriving 20 minutes before the concert.  Our luggage, however, did not arrive until 4 minutes before the concert, so we played the first half in street clothes.

Fortunately, as of last year, Northwest now has explicit exceptions for cellos, so the problems on Northwest have diminished, but not entirely disappeared, I was bumped off of a flight from Chicago to Omaha for the same old reason just this past May.

United has always been good for cellos, and my limited experience on Southwest and JetBlue were positive.  Midwest Airlines even has an aircraft that has an overhead bin large enough for extremely thin cello cases on some flights, but not on all, so I wouldn't recommend risking this unless you are certain which aircraft you will be flying on.  American Airlines has also been relatively cello friendly, although I have not flown as many times on American as other airlines.

The secret language for getting your cello on board

After years of flying, I have learned that there is a nearly foolproof sequence of steps that I can use to get my cello past the three major obstacles most of the time.  Here they are:

1. book the cello into a window seat that is at least 1 row away from an exit row.  Use the name "cello yourlastname" as in "cello beaver".  Always book your seat next to the cello.  On planes with 1 - 2 configurations like the ERJ-145, book the cello into the C seat, not the A seat.
   
2. TSA security personnel confirmed earlier last year that they have relaxed the requirement that we remove our endpins and check them, it is now safe to leave it in the cello (I have confirmed this personally with several flights)
   
3. never, ever ask a gate agent for help on getting your cello into the "right seat"
4. if they insist on moving the cello, and helpfully inform you on where it goes, say "oh, oh.  Thank you."  Never offer up any opinion!
5. always attempt to pre-board with people "traveling with small children or needing extra assistance."
   
6. when you reach the aircraft door, begin to smile slightly.  Believe it or not, this simple step improved my success rate of getting the cello on board from about 50% to about 95%
7. smile and say this sentence to the attendant, "Hi, I have a ticketed seat for the cello, could I have an extender to strap it in?"
8. If they tell you the cello needs to go in a particular seat, say "oh, ok, thank you."  Again, no opinions.  If they tell you it can't go on the aircraft, restate that you bought a ticket for the cello, and show them both ticket stubs, sometimes they don't hear you.

Remember the magic phrase:

Hi, I have a ticketed seat for the cello, could I have an extender to strap it in?

At this point, you should have finally arrived at your seat.  On many aircraft, you'll be able to simply strap in the cello, but some have too little space between the seat cushion and the back of the seat in front.  Fear not!  The following photos illustrate an ingenious solution I was shown by a Lufthansa technician in 2005:

demonstrating how to fit a cello into a small seat - remove the seat cushion!

 As you can see, the seat cushion on these smaller aircraft is a flotation device, and is attached to its metal base with velcro.  Just reach down to the front of the cushion and rip it off, then set it behind the cello.  This will create enough space to fit even larger cases, and still give the person in front enough space to fully recline their seat.  After I took this picture, I found that you can get more arm room by turning the cushion 90 degrees.  Occasionally, flight attendants will look at you oddly, but I've never had one complain or prevent me from doing this step, and it guarantees your cello will fit into any seat.

Once the cello is seated in its seat, use the seatbelt extender you requested when you boarded to strap around the cello.  Put the seatbelt through the handle, as some flight attendants will check this.

At this point, you are on the aircraft.  In the worst case, an attendant will check with a pilot who will find out that your instrument can't go on that aircraft.  For instance, last May, I was bumped off of a Northwest flight from Chicago to Omaha.  We were booked on a CRJ (I think) and the pilot, who was extremely nice, showed me a section of the manual that explicitly prohibited the transport of a cello (this is the only time I've seen the word "cello" in any kind of flight regulation) on a CRJ.

At the gate, we were rebooked on a later flight, and they gave us $15 of meal vouchers - $7 per person for having to wait 6 hours for another flight.  If this happens to you, do not give up.  We simply went to the ticket counter and talked to agents until we finally were talking to the customer service supervisor.  This took us about 45 minutes of effort, and we had to go through security again, but that effort resulted in 75,000 frequent flyer miles credited to our accounts for the trouble - 3 free domestic flights.  Be persistent and polite, and you will be compensated for the trouble the airline puts you through.

Another tip: open a frequent flyer account for your cello, I have accounts on Continental, Delta, and United and these miles have come in handy several times.

Buying a seat for an international travel itinerary

This is simple: use a travel agent.  I recommend Musician's Travel, at (212) 532-1047.  We use Rose Hirschel, but there are several great agents there.  Don't use some random local travel agent, no matter how good they are.  If they don't book musicians, they won't know the obscure and arbitrary rules that airlines impose upon cello travel.  As an example, it took another agent almost 2 months to FAIL at booking a ticket to Sweden on our tour there last year, and it took Rose almost a month and a half to work out the arcane problems.  The biggest issue is that post-9/11, all international travellers must either have a passport, or be booked very explicitly under a particular name and converted to an extra seat at the gate.  Because of this, always arrive at least an hour and a half before you think you need to arrive, especially at a transfer airport if you have to change airlines, which is often required in order to book the cello.  Yes, it's a headache.  Also, be absolutely sure that they don't cancel your return reservation for the cello, I've had this happen twice, and it is a lot harder to rebook when you're in a foreign country.

Some of the difficulties your travel agent will have to deal with include figuring out the exact name that an airline requires for the instrument.  All airlines have different rules, and they tend to change often.  If you have a domestic flight (for instance, from Omaha to Chicago) that precedes your international flight (for instance, Chicago to Frankfurt), the complexity increases exponentially.

Wrapping up

If you're still reading, do let me know some of your experiences traveling with your cello, and if you have any tips or corrections, post a comment and I will update thisto reflect these changes.  Happy travels!