I recently attended Vai Academy 2015 and this required you to bring a guitar. I’ve travelled with a guitar before, but that was a long time ago before all the crazy baggage rules that are in effect today. As it turns out, most airlines in North America allow you to carry on a guitar as long as it:
- Fits in the overhead bin
- The overhead bins are not full
There are a few websites that show you the overhead bin size of the flight you will be on, but it isn’t easy to find the exact dimensions. However, I’ve noticed that most planes (even smaller ones like 737 , etc.) have double-bins that span two seats. So this is usually big enough for a full-size guitar.
If you are unlucky and board late with a guitar in a soft gig bag, and there’s no room for it, it will be gate checked and put into baggage. Good luck with that.
I didn’t want to take a chance bringing it into the cabin and having it gate-checked, so I had to buy a guitar case that was flight worthy. And I found it. The SKB 3i-4214-OP. The SKB iSeries cases are incredible. Injection-molded of a special resin, they are also waterproof and can withstand a lot of punishment. They have TSA-approved locks so that the TSA can open and inspect the case without destroying your lock. And it has handles on 3 sides and wheels!
I used this case to travel from Canada to the USA and back, and the guitar made it fine without a scratch. The case of course was scuffed up a bit, but not much. This thing is built like a tank.
It’s widely available online. You can get it on Amazon.com at a very reasonable price. Well worth it, and highly recommended if you need to travel with your guitar and cannot carry it on.