Originally Posted by
sblock
Yes and no. Things have changed a lot over the past five years, and so older experience is more-or-less irrelevant to the present discussion. Unfortunately, different airlines tend to have widely divergent policies with respect to traveling with musical instruments, so any experience with airlines other than United is more-or-less irrelevant to the OP's current inquiry, as well. Finally, TSA imposes has no special restrictions about bringing musical instruments through airport security (again: read their website, people!). The ability to travel with a mandolin is regulated by the airlines themselves, and NOT BY TSA. Unless you're carrying contraband inside your case (explosives, knives, flammables, etc.), the TSA will happily let you through with your mandolin. Extra strings, electronic tuners, humidifiers, pegwinders, etc., are all perfectly fine inside the case, by the way. TSA is not the problem.
The best possible advice is to know your specific airline's policy and carry a printout of it (from their website) with you, say, folded up inside your hardshell mandolin case. In the rare event that a gate agent questions your ability to bring a mandolin aboard -- and this is becoming increasingly rare, thank goodness! -- you can simply show them the policy. That usually works. If they still object, you can ask for a ruling by a supervisor. That always works, but then again, it costs time. Ten years ago this may have been more of an issue for mandolin travelers, but, thanks to greater uniformity and newly-formulated airline policies (a result of musician union lobbying efforts, by the way!), it is highly unusual to be stopped these days. At least, not by United Airlines. They have a clear, published policy to accept small instruments, and "discretion" does not play much of a role in that!
The problem today comes only when the overhead space begins to fill up! Under the current United rules, you are allowed a mandolin as a carry-on, but you do NOT have any special priority to store your mandolin in preference to any other kind of carry-on bag. So, you must be able to find sufficient overhead space. The only way to guarantee that is to be among the first passengers to board, before the space gets filled on a first-come, first-served basis. There are many ways to be among the first to board, including having high frequent flier status, spending extra money for priority boarding, buying a first or business class airfare, having a United Mileage Plus credit card, and -- my favorite (it's free) -- lining up as early as possible, to be the first person in your particular boarding group. Groups 1, 2 and 3 usually have adequate overhead space. Group 4 is iffy -- it depends on the flight. Groups 5 & 6 often have serious problems.
Anyway, in my experience, most of the horror stories of a decade past, while entertaining and still fresh in the minds of traumatized MC members, are not especially relevant to air travel in 2018. We are entering a new era. Not perfect, by any means, but a bit more standardized.
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