Posted by Sausage Boy on September 03, 2002 at 23:10:59:
Air travel out of tune for musicians
By Chris Woodyard
USA TODAY
09/02/2002 - Updated 07:46 PM ET
Catching a flight to a gig comes as naturally to saxophonist Bruce
Mishkit as blowing a jazz riff.
So the musician was shocked last February when Alaska Airlines forced
him to buy a full-fare ticket for his tenor sax and then instructed him,
on the plane, to stow the instrument in the overhead bin.
After some letter writing and an assist from the musician's union,
Mishkit got a refund. But the experience sounded a sour note. "They gave
me no assurances that it wouldn't happen again," he says.
The post-Sept. 11 world has traveling musicians humming the blues as
they navigate airport security. Guitarists, violinists and woodwind
players, used to toting their expensive and delicate instruments on
planes, say the process is complicated by:
* Inconsistent policies. Airline policies vary when it comes to what
musical instruments can be stowed on planes.
Alaska Airlines has relaxed the policy that forced Mishkit to buy a
ticket for his sax. Now, any musical instrument that can reasonably fit
in the overhead bin is allowed.
United Airlines also allows instruments "within reason," spokesman Chris
Brathwaite says.
American Airlines says its policy is the same for any carry-on: No
instrument case can be longer than 45 inches on any side.
* Fewer accessories. No longer do musicians carry screwdrivers,
string cutters and other accessories in their cases. Boston-based
recording artist Johnny A. says he had to surrender a special wire
cutter that he has carried in his guitar case for years at Boston Logan
International. He had never seen another cutter like that one before the
incident, "and I've never found one since," he says.
Cellists have learned they need to detach the end pin, a sharp metal peg
that keeps their instrument from sliding on the floor, and carry it in
their checked luggage.
* Tougher scrutiny. Musicians say they fear checkpoint guards will
damage instruments or equipment.
Emerson Hart, lead singer of the rock band Tonic, says a checkpoint
worker in Philadelphia asked him to remove the strings from his $6,000
Gibson guitar.
He said he told the worker that taking off the strings could damage the
guitar, especially given the pressures that the plane would encounter at
cruising altitude. The guard eventually relented.
"I've actually cut down carrying my guitar now. It's such a hassle,"
says the Nashville-based Hart, who flies about 150,000 miles a year. "I
see all these guys walking on the plane with their laptops. It's their
work. And this is my work."
A singer who goes only by the name Steely, based in Huntington Beach,
Calif., says the $4,000 voice transmitter that she carries with her on
planes received so much scrutiny at a checkpoint in Los Angeles
International that she thought, "My god, they are going to wreck this
thing."
On the way back from Pittsburgh, she says security workers didn't give
it a second glance.
After hearing of these kinds of incidents involving its members, the
American Federation of Musicians is pushing for new airport security
regulations that take musicians into account.
"We want language in the rules that will give the same guidance to every
airline," says union President Thomas Lee.
Musicians, he says, have few options when it comes to transporting their
instruments. Putting a $100,000 violin "in the belly of a plane where it
may be subjected to extreme temperatures or pressure would damage the
instrument."
Lee says he has written to the new Transportation Security
Administration to urge regulations regarding transportation of musical
instruments in airplane cabins.
Agency spokesman David Steigman says, "TSA is constantly looking at its
policies to be as customer- and service-friendly as we can."
That's little consolation for Mishkit, who says he's now never quite
sure what to expect when he arrives at the airport. He says he'd flown
with horns 30 or 40 times over the years and had never had a problem.
Some musicians, however, don't depend on airline policies to get their
instruments on the plane. They play on their popularity.
Acoustic guitarist Dimitri Diatchenko says he takes his guitar out in
the airport lounge and starts to strum.
"I usually get a crowd of folks who dig the entertainment while they
wait. Airline employees all hear ... how good I am, and they let me go
and put my guitar in the overhead. That's that."