Mishandled Music

I had the unenviable task of checking in 50 male Muslim non-English speaking Rajasthani musicians, with some very oversized musical luggage, plus some delicate hand instruments to carry on board, on a QF flight out of Australia a couple of years ago back to India after performing in a Festival here. It took an hour, and quite a bit of assertiveness on my part to get past the seemingly-racist (female) check-in staff who didn't want to allow the hand luggage, or deal with the (very sweet) 'Obama-esque' musicians, at all. Got there in the end, but not without some argy-bargy and many deep breaths! It was more an unspoken attitude thing, treating the musicians without the same respect they would, say a white, male, businessman. Their attitude seemed to change dramatically when I approached the bench (as a white Western woman), and it was pretty clear that without me there, the group wouldn't have been allowed to carry their delicates on-board (which was perfectly within their rights). It just smelt of racial prejudice.

No breakages on Air New Zealand on several Trans Tasman flights. However one time when departing NZ they made me sign a waiver excluding them from any responsibility if my guitar was damaged in transit. It was either sign or it couldn't travel. Which is lame. I was pretty nervous about it until I collected it.

When my girlfriend and I travelled back from the states with United Airlines, they allowed her to take a guitar onto the plane and stored it for us in addition to the carry on we already had. This saved a considerable amount of worry on her part as it was a brand new and very beautiful Gretsch. I can't imagine that would be possible on most of the budget airlines I have traveled with.