Hoops...and not the basketball type...
When airlines fiddle, the cellist is burned...
Maybe it's like the case of the 'Cavemen' from the insurance commercial (or whatever advert it was)...it lost it's appetite.
From USA Today, Travel Section by Linda Burbank
Posted 4/25/2006 8:00 PM Updated 4/26/2006 10:44 AM
Question: I play cello with a string quartet, and I fly frequently for business, traveling mostly domestic but occasionally overseas and typically in economy class. I always purchase a second full-fare ticket and my instrument is accommodated in the adjacent seat to mine. I usually fly on United because of its normally consistent and reliable policy regarding the requisite extra seat for my cello.
In late 2004, I reserved a complex international itinerary with Lufthansa for our string quartet, including a ticket for my cello. The trip originated in San Francisco on a United flight to New York.
When I checked in, the United agent refused to accommodate the cello, claiming that with only one ticket, he could give me only one seat. I pointed out that the seating maps on his computer clearly indicated that there were two seats reserved and held for me and my cello.
However, he claimed that he could not interpret Lufthansa's paper ticket. He said my only choice was either to check the valuable instrument into the baggage hold, or purchase a one-way first-class seat. Given this inflexible proposition, I purchased the $1840 ticket on the spot in order to stay on my concert schedule together with my string quartet colleagues.
In the year following, I have engaged in written and telephone conversations with both United and Lufthansa trying to reach some resolution. My communications have always been cordial but they remain profoundly unsatisfactory. I have provided tickets and boarding passes to both carriers, but they seem not to be able to agree whether either of them should make any restitution.
My situation simply is that I was forced to pay two different airlines twice for only one seat on one trip. It is my opinion that that was once too many, and one of them owes me a refund. Please help me to resolve this situation.
- Alexander Walsh-Wilson, San Francisco
Answer: Traveling with such a large instrument is rarely simple, but shouldn't become a game of musical chairs. The cello can't fit in an overhead bin, but checking it as baggage isn't an option. And so for 22 years, Walsh-Wilson has paid double for every flight, with one seat for him and one for his cello, ever since the instrument suffered severe damage in a cargo hold due to uncontrolled climatic changes.
Some flights go off without a hitch, and the cello once even flew in the cockpit, under the captain's safekeeping. But the itinerant cellist has also encountered one pilot who simply refused to transport the cello, uninformed cabin crews, security delays, and maddeningly inconsistent policies.
On that San Francisco-New York flight in 2004, the United check-in agent couldn't make sense of Lufthansa's ticket, because it was a single ticket for both the musician and his cello. Although the seat assignments as well as the ticket's base fare indicated that it was for two, the ticket bore only Walsh-Wilson's name. Normally, a cello traveling onboard would be ticketed separately as Instrument/Cello, or simply "CBBG," meaning cabin baggage, or perhaps Cbbg Walsh-Wilson, depending on the airline.
That was just the first in a series of check-in difficulties throughout the string quartet's tour. Lufthansa agents on the next two flights were equally perplexed by the ticket. But only United made Walsh-Wilson buy a new seat or risk transporting the cello in the baggage hold-a risk the instrument's insurer won't allow. And airlines won't be held liable for loss or damage to any musical instruments checked as baggage.
The only space available for the cello was in first class, hence the high cost of the last-minute $1840 ticket. For safety reasons, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rules require that cabin baggage such as a cello be secured in seats by a bulkhead or divider, and it can't block exits or take aisle seats. It also can't obscure anyone's view of no-smoking or seat belt signs.
In accordance with the FAA guidelines, airlines set their own policy specifics on cabin-baggage seating, and these policies often vary from one carrier to the next. The rules can also change depending on aircraft, even on the same airline. United generally requires cabin baggage to be strapped down in bulkhead rows, which means cello-friendly seats are limited and on some planes, only in first class.
Lufthansa sent Walsh-Wilson's refund request to United, saying United would have to process a refund for the replacement ticket. But United wanted the cello's unused original ticket, which Walsh-Wilson never had as a separate entity, and so his request languished for more than a year.
United agreed that Walsh-Wilson was due a refund of the $1840. As a goodwill gesture, the airline also gave 5,000 frequent-flier bonus miles-to his cello. The cello is a seasoned traveler, with its own frequent-flier accounts, and Premier Executive status with United. (Incidentally, this also explains why Walsh-Wilson receives routinely credit-card solicitations and other junk mail addressed to "Dear Cbbg.")
No word, though, on whether it prefers the chicken or pasta.
Maybe it's like the case of the 'Cavemen' from the insurance commercial (or whatever advert it was)...it lost it's appetite.
From USA Today, Travel Section by Linda Burbank
Posted 4/25/2006 8:00 PM Updated 4/26/2006 10:44 AM
Question: I play cello with a string quartet, and I fly frequently for business, traveling mostly domestic but occasionally overseas and typically in economy class. I always purchase a second full-fare ticket and my instrument is accommodated in the adjacent seat to mine. I usually fly on United because of its normally consistent and reliable policy regarding the requisite extra seat for my cello.
In late 2004, I reserved a complex international itinerary with Lufthansa for our string quartet, including a ticket for my cello. The trip originated in San Francisco on a United flight to New York.
When I checked in, the United agent refused to accommodate the cello, claiming that with only one ticket, he could give me only one seat. I pointed out that the seating maps on his computer clearly indicated that there were two seats reserved and held for me and my cello.
However, he claimed that he could not interpret Lufthansa's paper ticket. He said my only choice was either to check the valuable instrument into the baggage hold, or purchase a one-way first-class seat. Given this inflexible proposition, I purchased the $1840 ticket on the spot in order to stay on my concert schedule together with my string quartet colleagues.
In the year following, I have engaged in written and telephone conversations with both United and Lufthansa trying to reach some resolution. My communications have always been cordial but they remain profoundly unsatisfactory. I have provided tickets and boarding passes to both carriers, but they seem not to be able to agree whether either of them should make any restitution.
My situation simply is that I was forced to pay two different airlines twice for only one seat on one trip. It is my opinion that that was once too many, and one of them owes me a refund. Please help me to resolve this situation.
- Alexander Walsh-Wilson, San Francisco
Answer: Traveling with such a large instrument is rarely simple, but shouldn't become a game of musical chairs. The cello can't fit in an overhead bin, but checking it as baggage isn't an option. And so for 22 years, Walsh-Wilson has paid double for every flight, with one seat for him and one for his cello, ever since the instrument suffered severe damage in a cargo hold due to uncontrolled climatic changes.
Some flights go off without a hitch, and the cello once even flew in the cockpit, under the captain's safekeeping. But the itinerant cellist has also encountered one pilot who simply refused to transport the cello, uninformed cabin crews, security delays, and maddeningly inconsistent policies.
On that San Francisco-New York flight in 2004, the United check-in agent couldn't make sense of Lufthansa's ticket, because it was a single ticket for both the musician and his cello. Although the seat assignments as well as the ticket's base fare indicated that it was for two, the ticket bore only Walsh-Wilson's name. Normally, a cello traveling onboard would be ticketed separately as Instrument/Cello, or simply "CBBG," meaning cabin baggage, or perhaps Cbbg Walsh-Wilson, depending on the airline.
That was just the first in a series of check-in difficulties throughout the string quartet's tour. Lufthansa agents on the next two flights were equally perplexed by the ticket. But only United made Walsh-Wilson buy a new seat or risk transporting the cello in the baggage hold-a risk the instrument's insurer won't allow. And airlines won't be held liable for loss or damage to any musical instruments checked as baggage.
The only space available for the cello was in first class, hence the high cost of the last-minute $1840 ticket. For safety reasons, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rules require that cabin baggage such as a cello be secured in seats by a bulkhead or divider, and it can't block exits or take aisle seats. It also can't obscure anyone's view of no-smoking or seat belt signs.
In accordance with the FAA guidelines, airlines set their own policy specifics on cabin-baggage seating, and these policies often vary from one carrier to the next. The rules can also change depending on aircraft, even on the same airline. United generally requires cabin baggage to be strapped down in bulkhead rows, which means cello-friendly seats are limited and on some planes, only in first class.
Lufthansa sent Walsh-Wilson's refund request to United, saying United would have to process a refund for the replacement ticket. But United wanted the cello's unused original ticket, which Walsh-Wilson never had as a separate entity, and so his request languished for more than a year.
United agreed that Walsh-Wilson was due a refund of the $1840. As a goodwill gesture, the airline also gave 5,000 frequent-flier bonus miles-to his cello. The cello is a seasoned traveler, with its own frequent-flier accounts, and Premier Executive status with United. (Incidentally, this also explains why Walsh-Wilson receives routinely credit-card solicitations and other junk mail addressed to "Dear Cbbg.")
No word, though, on whether it prefers the chicken or pasta.