ukes on a plane - i did it!!

heyup uu!!

so i recently posted a thread about taking ukes on uk flights as i wanted to take it with me to greece on our sailing holiday.

well, this is what happened...

i got to the airport, i took proof of a uk ruling which allows musicians to take instruments on as handluggage + the single allowed handluggage.

AND they charged me... 15 whole pounds for a return ticket for the uke, ..... .... of my sisters money.

ehhh. anyway i flew with thomson and the very kind lady at the check in desk specified that thompson do charge to take a second peice of handluggage, instrument or not, and she did say it may only be thompson that do this. i didn't want to argue with her, she was very nice.

so after a ukeful holiday i'm glad i did it .... my sister however is still 15 pounds out of pocket and not glad i did it.

It is pretty much a gamble these days when you travel with carry-on luggage. It depends on the size of the plane, and how full it is, and which airline you use. I was pretty lucky on my Hawaii trip. My new uke, purchased in Oahu, traveled at my feet to Kauai in a small plane. But my normal carry-on bag was too big for that little plane, and we were charged $20 to check those bags. On the big plane, leaving Kauai to Los Angeles, the plane was not full, and there was plenty of room for my uke in the overhead compartment. That 757 doesn't have room for a concert uke at your feet though. Some planes have seat legs that make stowing the under-seat luggage challenging.
When we traveled from Maui to Oahu, a man was sitting next to us with a tenor in his lap/ in front of his legs. The Hawaiian Airlines folks let him do that (for a short 30 min. flight). He showed us a nice Pono he bought for his son.

Sopranos are really the best travel size.

–Lori

I suppose that if you had put the uke in a travel bag or sack, no one would notice the difference between it and any other carry on piece that anyone else was taking in board. Just that they saw it was an instrument gave them the clue to soak you for more dough.

I often take about $20K of camera gear on board. I have a plain black stealth carry on bag that looks like everyone else's. I'm never noticed, and it always works. STEALTH is the key.

I travel light and my Ovation Applause Acoustic/Electric Soprano UAE20 is my only carry on. It's small enough to fit in the airline's test box for carry on, in the soft case. That way I can play it in the restaurant lounge areas at stopovers. People around the world always enjoy live entertainment. I also printed my own business cards on my computer and printer, as further proof I'm a professional musician . Ric

I had my Flea in its soft case stickin out of the top of my Backpack (she calls it my purse) and the Security guy asked me why I had a pistol in my bag!!!!!

I showed him it was a Ukulele and he just laughed and said Enjoy Vegas for me!!!!

geoffsuke said:

heyup uu!!

so i recently posted a thread about taking ukes on uk flights as i wanted to take it with me to greece on our sailing holiday.

well, this is what happened...

i got to the airport, i took proof of a uk ruling which allows musicians to take instruments on as handluggage + the single allowed handluggage.

AND they charged me... 15 whole pounds for a return ticket for the uke, ..... .... of my sisters money.

ehhh. anyway i flew with thomson and the very kind lady at the check in desk specified that thompson do charge to take a second peice of handluggage, instrument or not, and she did say it may only be thompson that do this. i didn't want to argue with her, she was very nice.

so after a ukeful holiday i'm glad i did it .... my sister however is still 15 pounds out of pocket and not glad i did it.

Click to expand...

Shocking! I've never heard of this before and it's never happened to me! I haven't flown with Thompson though so it may be them. I know AirFrance/KLM and BA don't charge.

Yikes

In the US they allow us two pieces of carryon - One in the overhead and one under the seat. I put the uke in the overhead when I boarded then slid it under the seat along with my purse. No problems - just some curious gazes .

The two Ukes I bought in Oahu last week, I just put them in the overhead on the flight home . No Problems at all

Exploding ukes?

I took my tenor uke from germany to irland a few months ago. I had a rucksack and my uke with me and didn't have to pay anything. The security checks were a little bit strange though, in Frankfurt I had to go with the police and let them take a probe of my uke to show it wasn't coated with explosive stuff

Hectic, I've always assumed you could just carry a ukulele as carry on, granted i've only ever carried a soprano.

So far i've had two flights to indonesia (via singapore and once via korea and kuala lumpur) and once to japan, never had problems, maybe because I acted like it wasn't a big deal no one really noticed?

It sure was handy to have on long haul stopovers!

That suxs you got charged to take your uke on the plane.
I've never been charged to take my soprano on a plane, i've been cruzing around for a couple of years.

I have a soft case, and always strap it somehow to my carry on bag with the clips and stuff and it's always been fine. I think the best way is to not make a deal out of it, don't ever mention the uke, and all's good.

glad you had a good holday though, a holiday without ya uke is not a holiday, and it doesn't matter, cause ya sister paid anyway