Doesn't make any difference how much insurence you have on a Strad, if it's gone, it's gone. You can't run down to the corner store and pick up a new one. At least violins are made to be taken apart, repaired and put back together again. Geofa, your violin does not have the original neck (though it will have the original scroll), fingerboard, pegs, tailpiece,ctc. A good instument repaired well (and there's the rub) will hold it's value better than one with poor repairs. Then there is the story of the full sized Strad cello that after a while was cut down to a 3/4 size. Sometime later it was restored to full sized. What a mess. It's still a Strad, but not as valuable.Bob

I had one early on that was finally determined to be a top of something very good-the rest was factory. A scam where one could make two out of one good one and double your profits. My more modest personal fiddle-though pronounced to be one of the finest examples of the maker is devalued because someone ran over it with a horse carriage in the 1800's. But yes-they can be put back together piece by piece, often so one can't even tell.

any baggage handler throwing such a priceless violin as a strad deserves to be shotand as for the cases, for the case price i was quoted i could have bought two seats to lay my instrument on beside me kinda rediculous ( and with westjets cheap ways that would mean instead of a half a can of applejuice and a salted cracker they call a cookie for lunch that means i could get a can and a half and three "cookies"

The best option these days is to just buy another ticket for the instrument. It is never rough-handled by a third party, and you never lose sight of it, nearly eliminating the possibility for theft and damage.In fact the instruments can also be entitled to denied boarding compensation too, as in this case.

Stupid question, but after reading the article that was linked, would the instrument also get a boarding pass? I wouldn't think so, right?

Stupid question, but after reading the article that was linked, would the instrument also get a boarding pass? I wouldn't think so, right?

It is a problem now from what I understand. A friend of mine, a cellist used to always do this-but I don't think it is allowed now.

Umm, ever heard of a flight case?There are not many insurance companies that will insure musical instruments out of the home let alone on an aircraft so you really should invest in a good solid professional flight case (there are a lot of guitar cases that are not flight cases). If you can't jump up and down on the case without it breaking then don't put it on a plane. Sure, they cost more but in the end they are your only real insurance. Most baggage handlers would be used to dealing with flight cases and if you use something cheaper... well the baggage handlers aren't going to know whether you've used a cheap hard case or a proper flight case are they?On the other hand. if you want to transport a million dollar instrument then you should probably be contacting the airline to make special arrangements (it helps if your orchestra is sponsored by an airline company :) ).

with flight cases costing as much as two extra seat tickets, If you only fly lets say once a year with this instrument its a ludicrous amount of money

Umm, ever heard of a flight case?There are not many insurance companies that will insure musical instruments out of the home let alone on an aircraft so you really should invest in a good solid professional flight case (there are a lot of guitar cases that are not flight cases). If you can't jump up and down on the case without it breaking then don't put it on a plane. Sure, they cost more but in the end they are your only real insurance. Most baggage handlers would be used to dealing with flight cases and if you use something cheaper... well the baggage handlers aren't going to know whether you've used a cheap hard case or a proper flight case are they?On the other hand. if you want to transport a million dollar instrument then you should probably be contacting the airline to make special arrangements (it helps if your orchestra is sponsored by an airline company :) ).

Been there and done that-and contacted. It comes down to the gate agent who may be on a power trip at that moment. "Flight case"-sorry when you are dealing with non replaced history of 400 years doesn't give much comfort-and when damage occurs a can of worms let alone 400 years of history gone--sorry haven't seen any case that can stand up to that. Insurance does cover out of home-have that now-problem is when travelling when airlines won't take responsiblity, and you are placing in a hazard situation, and you have to be somewhere...as I mentioned-you do contact the airline-then get something different from the power driven agent at the gate.

The very first thing I heard this morning when I turned on the news was... "United Breaks Guitars..."The story has now been aired at least 40 times, since CLTV broadcasts their news on a semi-continuous loop. In any case, United reacted and has apparently opened up communications for a settlement, or in United's words "...put things right." :(Apparently the volume of folks trying to reach Dave's home page has exceeded his ISP's capacity: http://davecarrolmusic.com returns a "403" error...I've also heard it on Fox news as well as CNN now...

hopefully this will make arliners think again before treating there musicians like garbage :D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D::D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D:D

Hopefully this will set the RIGHT precedent for musicians that are ill prepared in the future...

About that thing of buying an extra seat for an instrument .. it is done a lot I hear, but not all airlines allow it for safety reasons. I mean like, a two million dollar cello from the 17th century is still going to hurt when it lands on your head after unexpected clear air turbulence.A musician and worried about your instruments? Get yer own plane :( http://laughingsquid.com/ed-force-one-the-...den-boeing-757/

United even wants to use the video for training purposes. I wonder if this way of bringing attention to a company would work for a games publishing company that stops supporting it's broken games after 6 or so months?

Seems like United has decided to offer some compensation in this particular case:http://www.sonicstate.com/news/2009/07/10/...guitars-update/

And here are some tips about flying with guitars from Taylor guitars:http://www.taylorguitars.com/news/NewsDetail.aspx?id=99Many of these have been mentioned here (eg buy a ticket for your guitar).