Air travel adventure
« on: October 08, 2007, 09:31:57 PM »
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I posted this on another forum, but thought that you folks might also find it interesting:
Well, not really much of an adventure; actually pretty anti-climactic. For months I've been agonizing about how to travel back from New York to Beijing -- with 2 guitars, a Martin 000-16SGT and a Larrivee Parlor, via either Toronto or Vancouver on Air Canada. My ultimate plan was to carry the Larri & buy a 000 Lite Case (basically hardened foam covered by nylon) from Stew-Mac, leave the Martin hard shell flattop case at home in New York & put the Lite Case inside a Clam Case from Case Extreme. By the time I got around to ordering the Lite Case from Stew-Mac, they were out of stock. The new ones came in last week but would have been delivered too late for me. So . . . the hard shell case, guitar inside, got packed into the Clam Case last Friday and off I went to LaGuardia Airport at 6:15 in the am on Saturday for a flight to Toronto, a plane change and on to Beijing 16 and a half hours later (including delays). Air Canada is usually pretty customer friendly and they didn't even charge me for oversize baggage. They did give me a bunch of "Fragile" stickers & I plastered the case with big red warnings. Real big! In the rush & hassle of trying to get to the airport & get things packed into one suitcase plus the Clam Case, the guitar had to share space with some of my dirty laundry -- -- and a few books; some software; a big flat, square "Siberian Husky XING" sign; and 4 packs of D'Addario 3-Set string boxes; but my plan to loosen the strings a bit got forgotten, so they were left up to pitch. The headstock got packed (top & bottom) with wadded-up packing paper, the hygrometer got removed from the case and put into my suitcase, but I also inadvertently left a flat pick wedged between the strings. My Larrivee P-10MQ, BTW, got carried on to the flight in its arch-top hard case with no comments from anyone at all. I did have to talk quickly to get early boarding in Toronto (I told them I was "physically decrepit and had body parts that were failing" and the gate agent earnestly asked if I was "okay to fly". I said yes & he smiled and I was the 4th one down the tunnel). the larri fit into the overhead with about a centimeter to spare.
The result in Beijing? Well, I had a nervous moment when my suitcase popped down the conveyor belt onto the carousel within 3 minutes of my arrival at baggage retrieval and the guitar didn't quickly follow. On a hunch, I loaded the suitcase & Larrivee onto a cart and wheeled over to the oversize area and the Clam Case was already sitting there. I was too nervous to do much except check that nothing was visibly damaged (no cracks, neck still attached, headstock still where it was supposed to be). When I got home a half hour later, I got the 000 out and picked my favorite G-Run Boogie. Sounded great and, believe it or not, still in tune.
Clearly, no 747 had run over the case, so maybe real tests are someplace in the future. But I'm more than pleased. On my next trip, I'll try to get a Lite Case, which will make everything more manageable, but the Clam Case seems to be everything it's supposed to be. Hallelujah!
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