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United Breaks Guitars

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JaySwear

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i was checking my email when i say the story about a guy who was flying to nebraska and saw baggage handlers throwing his band's equipment!

here's the music video he wrote in protest. great song (and i can't stand country) very entertaining. so has anybody else had an awful experience with airlines or a shipping company?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Enbcchicago%2Ecom%2Fnews%2Flocal%2FUnited%2DBreaks%2DGuitars%2Da%2DSmash%2DHit%2Don%2DYouTube%2Ehtml%3Fyhp%3D1&feature=player_embedded

i personally have not, but a friend of mine was flying (southwest, i believe) and had his gibson SG Standard snapped in the classic at-the-headstock manner. he's been trying to get it payed for since (i think this was 4 or 5 years ago, by now)

and the guitar in the video looks suspiciously like a Gibson Hummingbird (called a Taylor several times), but maybe somebody can prove me wrong
 
PS that is a hummingbird from the look of it. Per his site he has a Taylor 710, and I've never seen one of those looking like a hummingbird..  :sad:
 
That's funny, I feel bad for the guy. But that's a good stab at the airlines..... :icon_thumright:
 
I was watching out the window of my plane that had just landed. I had a small amp with me. It was so long ago, I can't recall what the amp was. Some sort of 30 watt-ish, 10 inch speaker or so. Anyway, I saw the baggage handlers tossing it, just like in that video. It rolled down the taxiway. As close as an item with 4 corners on it can roll at least. I guess I was lucky that the power switch was the only thing broken on it.
 
That video is at 641,937 views at the time of this post, and its only been posted since July 06

For the PR nightmare this created, people will be fired, and rightly so.   They probably could have outfitted his entire band with new gear for a fraction of the legal fees alone. :laughing7:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpQNWNN_HS4
 
Blue313 said:
That video is at 641,937 views at the time of this post, and its only been posted since July 06

For the PR nightmare this created, people will be fired, and rightly so.   They probably could have outfitted his entire band with new gear for a fraction of the legal fees alone. :laughing7:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QpQNWNN_HS4
Click to expand...
Hell ya, sticking it to the man..... :laughing7:
 
Looks like Taylor's jumping into this one.  They apparently offered to fix it again for free, and offered him a huge break on a new one.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theworldnewser/2009/07/united-breaks-guitars-hot-on-youtube.html
 
I've had one bad flying experience.  It was not guitar related though.

I had boought a cool Muse poster and had it framed while I was in Queensland, and I put it on the bottom of my luggage bag and told the guy who took my bag to be careful. When I got back home, the frame was smased and the poster had a big ugly crease in it.  :sad:
 
Wow I love the TV spot, and the fact that United must fess up! Ha!

My one and only guitar-flying experience was a great one, though. I flew British Airways from Boston, MA to Glasgow in Scotland (and back). Round-trip this involved five flights. I was allowed and encouraged to carry my acoustic - in a pretty large flight-rated case - onto the plane every single time. I was so surprised. I tried to be really super grateful about it, and I filled out a bunch of thank-yous in customer service forms, hoping maybe a little positive reinforcement will encourage similar behavior. It really was as stress-free an experience as it could have been. I had more trouble traveling trains in Scotland!

By the way, this was only a year ago.
 
I flew British Airways, with my Gibson ES137 in the stock Gibson case from Miami to London.

I took the guitar on board as hand luggage, and the staff offered to put away in a storage cupboard.  Turns out I flew economy, while the guitar flew 1st class.
Cant fault them there.

Feel bad for that guy though.  :sad:  And I've got some friends in a band who are touring the states in a couple of weeks.  I'll tell them to be careful.
 
Blue313 said:
Looks like Taylor's jumping into this one.  They apparently offered to fix it again for free, and offered him a huge break on a new one.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theworldnewser/2009/07/united-breaks-guitars-hot-on-youtube.html
Click to expand...

Good for Taylor, but Taylor didn't break it.
 
yeah, but it's great publicity for taylor. somebody's guitar was destroyed and was so moved he wrote a song about how much they loved their taylor. plus he's using a T5, so he's obviously a walking taylor endorsement.
 
I've only flown once with my guitar, flew from Portland to Dallas on AA with my Les Paul. I too took mine on board as carry on luggage..I wasn't about to let it out of my site... :glasses9:
 
Never had a problem getting my guitar onto the airplane or gate checking it.  In fact, the last time I flew was in January, and it was a freaking guitar convention!  Everyone who wanted got there gits onboard.  When I got on the plane I found I was flying to HK with David Byrne and his band.  Pretty cool.  If you're gonna check your guitar, get a carlton case.

And as for damages, I've had gear pilfered and when I went to file a claim, they just filed out the form and I got the replacement cost of my gear.

Now watch ... next time I fly, not only will I crash, but the stuff that isn't damaged will be stolen.
 
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