Here’s a collection of tips for flying with your fragile instrument!
Hard Cases
One option for your bandura is to get a hard case and check it. This is much safer than checking a soft case, but not quite as safe as carrying on a soft case. However, no airline guarantees that you’ll be able to carry on the soft case unless you pay for an entire ticket for your bandura ($$$), which is really only worth it for very fragile historical instruments.
Hard cases are expensive and obnoxiously heavy. Because of that, I personally prefer using a soft case and trying very hard to carry it on whenever possible, but others prefer always using a hard case.
The only place I’m aware of which sells hard bandura cases is Tverdyi Product (Instagram, Facebook) – message them and they’ll work with you to get one. Alternatively, there are companies which make custom musical instrument cases – it might be worth having one custom made for your bandura if it’s fragile and you’ll be flying frequently.
Pro-tip: Pack your clothing into the hard case to serve as extra padding – you don’t want your bandura sliding around!
Soft Cases
If you’re flying with a soft case, you should try as hard as you can to carry it on.
- The safest option here is to pay for an extra ticket for your bandura (most airlines require you to call them to book this). However, this is very expensive and typically not worth it for most banduras.
- If you can afford it, try to get an earlier boarding zone (e.g. by paying for extra leg space) to make sure there is more luggage space when you board. If unsure, when you arrive at the gate, politely ask the gate agent if you can board early with your fragile musical instrument – often you will be allowed to if you ask in advance.
- When you arrive at the plane, ask a flight attendant if your bandura can be put in “the closet”. Alternatively, it might fit in the overhead luggage bins on larger planes – typically this is only possible if the dividers between bins have a hole and you put the bandura neck through this hole.
If you end up being unable to carry it on, you’ll need to gate check it.
- Cover your soft case in “FRAGILE MUSICAL INSTRUMENT – PLEASE DON’T PUT ANYTHING ON TOP OF THIS” labels.
- Try to wait with your bandura by the entrance to the plane until the person comes to pick up the gate checked luggage. Politely ask them to make sure nothing goes on top of your fragile musical instrument.
- Airlines vary as to whether gate checked luggage should be picked up at the gate upon landing or at the luggage carousel – check with your flight attendants.
Prefer padded soft cases. If yours is not padded, try to add some padding – e.g. by stuffing some clothing into the case.
Pick a Good Airline
The FIM (International Federation of Musicians) publishes a list of the best airlines to fly with musical instruments – it genuinely makes a world of a difference if the airline you’re with has better policies: https://www.fim-musicians.org/airlines-list
If you are flying with a soft case, make sure to confirm the airline will allow oversize instruments as carry-on – for example, Delta explicitly allows this as long as it will “easily fit in the overhead bin or other approved storage locations”.
Prefer Direct Flights, even if you need to drive farther
- If you’re checking your bandura
- It will be handled less on a direct flight
- It will go through fewer temperature cycles
- If you’re carrying on your bandura
- Direct flights are more likely to have a bigger cabin where your bandura can fit. If you have a layover, typically you’ll end up on a smaller plane, where your bandura is less likely to fit in the cabin.
Loosen the strings a little
Humidity and temperature changes can cause your bandura to move around a lot, so they should be loosened, but not a lot. The stress of going completely slack and then back up to tension is also dangerous – banduras aren’t designed to do this frequently. Dropping by about 1 semitone on each string is plenty to give it a little headroom without taking tension off of the body entirely.
Prefer de-tuning and re-tuning evenly around the instrument instead of going from left-to-right. An easy way to do this is to tune all the As, then all the Bs, then all the Cs, etc.
Dealing with Humidity
Airplanes are dry. Keep your bandura at an appropriate humidity by throwing a guitar humidifier in your case.
Dealing with Temperature Changes
Temperature in the luggage hold for checked luggage can be very cold. If your bandura is very cold from a long flight in the luggage hold and then you open the case in a warm room, the sudden temperature change can cause it to crack. Prefer waiting at least a few hours with the bandura in its case to come up to temperature gradually before opening the case.
Insurance
Depending on the value of your bandura, it might be worth purchasing additional insurance on it to make sure it’s covered if it’s damaged. MusicPro and Clarion are two highly rated options.