Delt crushes vintage guitar!!!

[Gary Hedrick]

Read on folks....sheeesh only $2k worth damage....BS

http://now.msn.com/delta-air-lines-crushes-vintage-gibson-guitar-of-musician-dave-schneider

[P.D. Kirby]

Delta said it "will be reaching out to the customer directly to discuss how we can make this right."

Are you thinking what I'm thinking?

If that had been my Vintage ES-335, Delta would be well advised to choose carefully what they used to reach out with less it become lopped off!!! :disbelief:

[Markus]

He tried to bring a guitar on a flight in a chip board case? Did not plan ahead enough to buy a seat, learn about better cases, or likelihood of getting it on?

While I feel for him, he was an idiot trying to bring on such an expensive instrument without buying a flight case. Has he not heard of Google, or think of typing 'guitar' and 'airline' in there?

A guitar is way over any allowed baggage size. Expecting to have an exception made for you, every time, is a little naive.

What a shame, though.

[Jim Garber]

He tried to bring a guitar on a flight in a chip board case?

I don't think that is a chipboard case. I believe it is the original case that came with the guitar. Still he is flying with a vintage instrument. I would think that he prob had no problems with buying a seat until this flight.

[Gary Hedrick]

being part of an apparently tourig band I suspected that he knows the in and outs of airplane travel as Jim mentions above. I would think this is more of a case of the airlines being horsesh** .....which they sometimes seem to be without any reason. Still to crush any piece of luggage like this is just plain carelessness.....but then you know they had to see that it was a guitar....shame on them....

Now I do agree with the thought that "really if you are going to be on the road and on and off planes.....get a better case" but what case would stand up to that level of abuse?.....a Mark Leaf Two Ton Tillie?? Maybe be sheeesh that's more than any $2k worth of damage...

[Gary Hedrick]

Also look where it apprears to be located.....between the jetway and the plane.....if I see it correctly no case will survive that

[barney 59]

He had probably done it scads of times. A) brought his guitar and they let him carry it on or B) he had break down and buy an extra seat if they happened to say "No"! This time he ran into a unmovable force--- the unreasonable wanna be bully prig behind a counter, I've met them!

[Jack Roberts]

BB King will be here in my neighborhood next month. I wonder if he flys Delta...

[delsbrother]

Oviously didn't watch Hail Hail Rock and Roll. (http://youtu.be/bcXnoZxvyDs?t=4m54s)

[brunello97]

BB King will be here in my neighborhood next month. I wonder if he flys Delta...

The man ALWAYS travels in style.

Mick

[Randi Gormley]

For those interested, here's what's happened since. It's a story that ran in the Connecticut Post this weekend. I believe the link is at the bottom, but here's a cut-and-paste version. The story was written by Post staffers Frank Juliano and Tom Cleary.

It was a musician's worst nightmare.

Fairfield rocker Dave Schneider watched as Delta Airlines employees yanked, pulled and ripped at his smashed 1965 Gibson ES-335 guitar, trying for more than an hour to free it from where it had been wedged between a service elevator and a loading dock in an airport baggage claim.

A guitarist and singer in the hockey-themed band The Zambonis, and the Jewish group The LeeVees, Schneider begged Delta to let him carry his fragile guitar on a December flight from Buffalo to Detroit, as he typically does.

But airline employees denied his request, and said it wasn't their policy.

Actually there is no policy, Schneider said Friday, and one would be helpful. Most airlines will try to get musicians to check their instruments, and some suggest buying an extra seat for it. But usually, through a combination of cajoling and resisting, he has managed to bring his guitars on board flights and stow them in the overhead bin.

It was already a bad day for Schneider and his LeeVees bandmates. They started in Portland, Maine, and were headed to Tampa when their flight was diverted to Rochester, N.Y., because of bad weather.

The musicians rented a car there and drove to Buffalo, planning to fly into Detroit, and from there catch a direct flight to Tampa, where they had an afternoon appearance booked.

It ended up being a 20-hour trip, punctuated by the screeching machinery when his prized guitar slipped off the luggage cart and fell between the dock and the elevator.

Schneider, who owns Jimmy's Army-Navy in downtown Bridgeport, posted his story on his Facebook page Dec. 26, including photos of his damaged "baby."

While Schneider said he got several halfhearted apologies and an offer of $1,000 to repair the classic Gibson -- about half what the work would cost --the story spread across the world via news sites and social media.

"I never cared much for the terms `trending' and `viral' before, but there is power, like a wizard's wand," he said.

On Jan. 4, when Yahoo News picked up the story, it blew up. CNN, Gawker, and several other media outlets ran the story. It even made the news in Russia, where an English language radio station called Schneider, who has never played pro hockey, but does sing about it.

Delta, which initially offered Schneider a $1,000 check, was suddenly apologetic, and offered to pay for the repairs. The airline also gave Schneider vouchers for two free flights.

But it was the generosity of another company that gives Schneider's bad dream a happy ending.

On Tuesday, Gibson reached out to Schneider, offering to repair his smashed guitar for free. They also offered him a brand new 50th anniversary re-issue of a 1963 Gibson ES-335 in the same color -- cherry red -- as Schneider's guitar.

"As soon as we saw the picture of the crushed guitar case and heard Dave's story, we felt immense sympathy for him," Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz said in a statement. "At Gibson, we're committed to music and those who love and appreciate their instruments. For musicians like Dave, instruments are practically members of their family. It was only right to replace his guitar, and we are happy to have him at our showroom."

Schneider toured Gibson's New York City showroom on Thursday and left with his new guitar. While there, the Bridgeport musician talked to the company's luthier, or guitar maker, who told him that he only heard of two musicians buying an extra seat for his guitar, one of them possibly Peter Frampton.

That's not an option for most musicians, Schneider said Friday, but most would pay a small extra charge of, say, $50.

His experience, as upsetting as it was, isn't unique, Schneider said. Canadian musician Dave Carroll had a guitar smashed after a flight in 2009, and wrote a song and book about it, both called "United Breaks Guitars.''

The two men connected through Facebook and later talked on the phone. Schneider said he is also working on a song involving baggage handlers and smashed guitars.



Read more: http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Smashed-guitar-ends-up-playing-happy-note-4186978.php#ixzz2Hy400RTb

[Linds]

Just so y'all are warned -- United just changed their policy back from the stance they took after "United Breaks Guitars" went viral. You used to be able to at least gate check guitars and other nice instruments. Now they make you check them all the way through to your final destination. A gate agent told me today that they are no longer allowing you to gate check for security reasons. Rather than making room in the overhead by checking a rolling bag full of somebody's dirty laundry, your expensive instrument is once again subject to the baggage handlers. The desk agents in Miami just forced me to check my Fletcher Brock octave through. It gets to go through baggage handling at my local airport (which doesn't concern me too badly) and at Denver (which worries the hell out of me). The gate agent at Miami was snippy and said it should have been checked in the first place, and that it wasn't fair to the other passengers to put such a big instrument in the overhead. Be warned, guys. United, at least, did NOT learn its lesson from the "United Breaks Guitars" videos. Sounds like Delta sucks too! Fingers and toes crossed that my baby makes it to Steamboat Springs in one piece!