preparing your uke for an airplane

Kraft

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I am taking a trip in november, and would love to bring my uke to play for my family. I'm not sure how to prepare it for the pressure changes. My airline allows instruments that are small such as the ukulele to be carry on baggage. If anyone has any suggestions it would be greatly appreciated.
 
I'll be interested to hear what frequent flyers say, but I'll put in my 2 cents. Whenever I've flown with my uke (which hasn't been much!), I unwind the tuners just a bit to loosen the string tension and make sure to put a humidifier in the case. Those airplanes can definitely feel dehydrated with the A/C cranking. I'd also make sure to put a luggage tag on the case, *just in case* overhead storage is limited and they want to store it below. (That's never happened to me and they'd have to pry it from my dead lifeless fingers if it did.)
 
I'm not 100% sure how security works, but I can see security freaking out at the water in the humidifier. I don't want my baby to crack or dry out, so it would be worth a shot.
 
You can use a clay humidifier that doesn't have water loose in it, but rather soaks up the water but is still solid.
 
If you think humidity will be that much of a problem, take a dry humidifier and add water when you get past security.....

What ukulele will you be taking? I doubt humidity be that much of a problem for a few hours in the pressurized inside of a plane. I have taken a couple different ukuleles on trips and had no problems at all. I loosened strings for the heck of it, but only on the way there, on the way back I forgot and there was not a problem.
 
I'll be interested to hear what frequent flyers say, but I'll put in my 2 cents. Whenever I've flown with my uke (which hasn't been much!), I unwind the tuners just a bit to loosen the string tension and make sure to put a humidifier in the case. Those airplanes can definitely feel dehydrated with the A/C cranking. I'd also make sure to put a luggage tag on the case, *just in case* overhead storage is limited and they want to store it below. (That's never happened to me and they'd have to pry it from my dead lifeless fingers if it did.)

I've traveled several times with my KoAloha and have never had any humidity issues. Just a sturdy hard case was good. Of course if your flight is 12 hr or something crazy like that then maybe the humidifier would make sense.
 
Aloha,
Traveled back and fourth to Maui and Honolulu numerous times in the past year and a half. Brought back 11 ukes and never had any problems with security or the flight itself. Did loosen strings as a precaution but sometimes forgot with no problems seen. As far as humidifier, I use Water Pillows in the soundholes held in place to the string with a hairpin......works for me. One trip back, I had 3 concerts in my suitcase, 2 Tenors and 1 soprano bundled up together for a single carry on, all in their cases of course. Got it all home safely.........................BO...................
 
I recently flew round trip from Seattle to Las Vegas with an inexpensive Kala concert. Soft gig bag, no humidifier, no loosening of strings. No preparations and no problems whatsoever. Security didn't care, put in the overhead compartment on the plane. No strange tuning issues. Easy as traveling with the uke in my car.
 
My very fancy and technical method has 4 steps.

Put uke in case. Board plane. (Personal preference) stow uke under seat. Relax.
 
i just went from San Francisco to Honolulu with my Kanilea..had it in a hard case and just threw it in the overhead..no problems!!no problems carrying it on either..Fyi I flew Hawaiian Airlines..
 
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Flew San Francisco to Stockholm, Sweden last week. All I did was put my uke in its case and carry it on. Still sounds great and there was no problems on the flight.
 
i am confused?? did you carry on your uke..did you put in the overhead bin?

Sorry for the confusion, that's not my uke! It was a uke belonging to Honey (of Bosko and Honey). The uke was checked in and, despite being in a good fiberglass case, was busted by the time the owner got it at the end of the flight.

Although I've never had to check my own uke, I have heard of instances where airlines insisted people check their ukes (in particular, larger ones such as tenors and baritones). Always best to pack well and prepare for the worst case scenario that they don't let you carry it on!
 
Sorry for the confusion, that's not my uke! It was a uke belonging to Honey (of Bosko and Honey). The uke was checked in and, despite being in a good fiberglass case, was busted by the time the owner got it at the end of the flight.

Although I've never had to check my own uke, I have heard of instances where airlines insisted people check their ukes (in particular, larger ones such as tenors and baritones). Always best to pack well and prepare for the worst case scenario that they don't let you carry it on!



i would never check a uke in as baggage unless you are a big time rock star Lol(but i think they have special way to ship their stuff) ..send UPS,USPS,Federal Express,DHL.. checked in baggage via airlines got to be the worst!
 
I've flown maybe 10 times with various ukes (although there are some real road warriors on this board who should post) and never had a problem taking a soprano in a hard case as carry-on luggage. A soprano in a small case is small enough to actually fit (mostly <g>) inside one of my carry-ons and still meet the size requirements of the "majors". Never loosened strings and but I have kept a small homemade humidifier (plastic film can with florists water crystals) in the case (probably unnecessary unless you're really going from extremes humidity-wise. One flight was 15 hrs (LA - Melbourne). Never say never, but I haven't had a problem yet. I don't think that I'd let them check a uke ever though. If I got snagged I'd insist on the closet. I'm surprised no one posted this video though <g> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSUb6ejl9Ms Have a good trip. g2
 
I fly frequently (often 20+ flights annually) with a tenor uke, always as a carryon. Generally, my flights are to Hawaii on Hawaiian, where ukes are no problem. On Delta flights, they are stricter though.

I used to religiously detune my strings, until one day I asked the folks at Kamaka and they said there was no need to do so. I haven't ever since, even on a long flight from New Zealand, just because it always seemed like they were just stabilizing back in tune and I would have to detune again for the return flight.

As for checking it, no way. I would buy another seat on the plane if I had to before that. I always wear the backpack straps on my case so it doesn't stick out to the gate agent, and always try to board the plane early on to ensure an overhead space.

I usually pack an Oasis humidifier in my checked bag to use on the trip, but don't take it as carryon because I didn't know how TSA would react to the gel crystals. But I may start putting one in the case as well as the checked bag, so if they make me toss it I have a spare.

Honestly, the only scrutiny I ever had was over the pickup wiring, which led them to run it through the xray a couple of times.
 
As for checking it, no way. I would buy another seat on the plane if I had to before that. I always wear the backpack straps on my case so it doesn't stick out to the gate agent, and always try to board the plane early on to ensure an overhead space.
Boarding early is key to ensuring overhead space. Most major airports use jetways and board from the back of the plane to the front, so select a seat toward the rear. Smaller airports like Burbank that don't use jetways (last I knew... I haven't flown since before 9-11) board from the center out with stairs at the front and rear.

And while the TSA now says you're allowed a suitably sized instrument as carryon, this is always going be on a "space available" basis. Once the overhead bins are full, they're full and you can be forced to surrender any item that does not fit under the seat in front of you.
 
Boarding early is key to ensuring overhead space. Most major airports use jetways and board from the back of the plane to the front, so select a seat toward the rear. Smaller airports like Burbank that don't use jetways (last I knew... I haven't flown since before 9-11) board from the center out with stairs at the front and rear.

And while the TSA now says you're allowed a suitably sized instrument as carryon, this is always going be on a "space available" basis. Once the overhead bins are full, they're full and you can be forced to surrender any item that does not fit under the seat in front of you.

itsme is right...the earlier you can board to get that overhead the better. There is no way my tenor will fit under the seat, so I take steps to ensure early boarding.

One option is that certain airlines' credit cards let their cardholders board prior to general boarding. On Southwest, be sure to check in 24 hours ahead to try to get an A or B boarding group. Also, frequent flier status helps as well. On Hawaiian, I have Pualani, which allows you to board early. Finally, some airlines let you purchase a priority boarding on your flights. Any and all of these are better to me than checking my uke.
 
WW, you mentioned "early boarding" and that brought to mind an incident from some years ago. I was in Orlando returning to LAX with a kitten in a carryon. I had to buy a separate ticket for him and the name on it was "Excess Baggage". So when beverage service came around, I said "Mr. Baggage would like some cream" but they only had half-and-half on that flight.

When I checked in I inquired about the possibility of early boarding along with the "families with small kids" category so I could get him situated before the onslaught. The agent laughed and said if they let people with small kids board first there (since Orlando is the vacation destination for Disney World) that would be 90% of the plane. She did, however, tell me I could board immediately after first class. :)
 
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