New Airlines' Rules Affect Those Traveling with Instruments
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Thanks for the warning, Jan. I guess we're going to have to be careful to assure the ability to board early.
I travel Southwest a lot for work and have priority boarding for at least another year. Southwest has open seating but gives people a boarding number. I am usually between 25 and 30. I would encourage everyone to try to stick to a single airline and join their mileage plan. They just seem to treat you better when they think of you as a repeat customer instead of someone they'll never see again.
And it might not help specifically with getting an instrument in the overhead bin, but if you fly more than a couple of times a year it might be worth it to get a known traveler number from the TSA. It costs $85 for five years, but you get to go through the TSA pre-check lines and don't have to take off your shoes or your jacket or take out your laptop or your shampoo or any of that stuff. You fly (hee hee) through an alternate security line and get right to the gate. I also think the airline personnel treat you better when they see that TSA pre-check indication on your boarding pass.