Flying to London, need some advice about hand carrying my guitar

[Kamrick]

Hi guys I will be going to London soon (in a couple of months) and I wanna check, is it still possible to hand carry ur guitar in a soft case ? I read some threads all across the internet, some people say that they were able to bring it on. Some were forced to check it in :X

If it helps I will be using a suer gig bag, will this be an issue and also what airlines are recommended for musicians ? I was thinking SIA.

If anyone has any experience with this please do share

Thank you

 

[Godsmen]

I tried twice. Once from Heathrow bk to sg and another from perth to sg. Emirates seems quite ok for bringing instruments upboard. I hand carry it up in a soft case for my gretsch. But Scoots sucks big time from Perth, insisted i cant do that, ended up check in my ormsby guitar in SOFT CASE!!!!

 

[Kamrick]

I tried twice. Once from Heathrow bk to sg and another from perth to sg. Emirates seems quite ok for bringing instruments upboard. I hand carry it up in a soft case for my gretsch. But Scoots sucks big time from Perth, insisted i cant do that, ended up check in my ormsby guitar in SOFT CASE!!!!

OMG!!!! Please tell me it survived :/

 

[Victor Gwee]

No experience to the destination that you're going, but I tried three times on different airlines with my travel size (3/4) acoustic. Two times we were rejected and had to send our guitar back... Once they actually allowed it on the plane.

I wouldn't bet on a full size acoustic going up.

 

[johnyjackhammers]

If you really want to fly with a softcase maybe get a Mono or Reunion blues bag? For extra safety. I personally haven’t flown with my guitars yet but I know a couple of people who’s guitars survived being checked in. One of the tricks is to loosen the strings so if, god forbid, it falls on the headstock and cracks, the string tension will not help the break along which I hear is usually the case. I think you’re more at risk with guitars with angled headstocks.

 

[themusicshop]

While traveling, if its not travel size (those kind that can fit in the overhead compartments Eg. Taylor GS mini, Little Martin...), I would advise you to bring a hard case and check it in. Because in the event they dont allow it onboard, you wont end up in the situation where you need to check it in with a soft case. Although I checked in a guitar in softcase once with SilkAir, the guitar arrived well taken care off with no damage to it.