Posted by tubadad on September 17, 2003 at 07:37:23:
In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Charges for flying with a tuba?? posted by Kenneth Sloan on September 16, 2003 at 23:24:40:
Well, as you surely know, there are "rules" for lots of situations in life that are not regularly enforced, and sometimes are never enforced. If/when an airline refuses to carry a tuba case for exceeding the LWH, I just hope that someone will post about it here.
Someone pointed out that ATA has a policy of not charging anything for musical instruments (hurray for them), while I pointed out that America West charges $50 for anything over 50 pounds, and someone else said they were charged $80 for being over 70 pounds - the point being that the free market is alive and well, and I hope that it stays that way. But I also hope that regulars to this forum will continue to report these things to the rest of us so that we can plan accordingly.
Airlines seem to be solely focusing on the "overweight" issue right now, and I hope it stays that way, but I am not holding my breath. I would agree with you completely if I had a tuba (or whatever) that exceeded the maximum weight allowance - now that would be foolhardy to show up with such an item expecting to stow it in the belly of the plane. But it seems that airlines are turning a blind eye to the LWH, at least for now.
If it comes to pass that airlines start refusing to carry tuba cases, of course we (and lots of other folks, too) will have to find an alternate; I just hope that it doesn't come to that.