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~"Friendly Skies" by Scott Sund

Hello, fellow bassists! My husband and I are going to California from New York for a much needed month-long vacation in July, and I wanted to bring my bass so I could practice and not fall out of shape, so we purposely decided to avoid the plane hassle and take Amtrak. We bought two tickets, because when I moved out to New York (in August, 2000) I also took the train, and they allowed me to put my bass, cello, electric bass, violin and guitar in the space behind the last row of seats in the car (I chained them all together with a padlock, HA HA!). Mid-way through the trip, my mom freaked out, and up-graded me to s sleeper car. I did not complain. The nice train people put my bass on top of all of the other luggage and took great care of it, and I put the rest of my instruments on the top bunk of the sleeper car. AWESOME! Fast-forward 8 years...I've called twice to check on the baggage policy, and both times they recommended buying a seat for my bass. If I have a hard case, shouldn't that count as "special handling," which they have for skis, golf clubs, bicycles, and other over-size items and is only a $5 special handling charge? Does anyone have any train stories to share? We are on a limited budget, and I was really hoping to avoid buying another seat, and also renting a bass in California. Driving cross country is out of the question financially. Any advice would be most welcome, email Rebekah Griffin Greene at hakeber_us@yahoo.com.

BASS ADVENTURES WITH KRISTIN KORB                             

Traveling in the United States has been more than an adventure for everyone in the last six months. Delays, cancelled flights, and missed planes create stress for travelers, even those without basses. After dealing with all that, our next concern is the security checkpoint. Where does my bass go? Are they going to open my case? Are they going to pack it properly? The fears start building, and they are not completely unfounded. I’ve watched guys lean on my bridge more than once and I couldn’t hold back my screams of terror. (You should see how fast they move away from the bass! It’s kind of cool, but they get a little grumpy after that.)

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) wants you to have a smooth transition from check in to flight departure. Go to www.tsa.gov for information about traveling with your instrument:

“If you have an instrument in your checked baggage, include short written instructions, where a security officer will notice them, for handling and repacking your instrument. Make sure these instructions are very clear and understandable to someone with no musical background.” I’ve watched them move my lovely personalized note without even reading it. I’m working on an official bass brochure with pictures on how to properly pack a bass.  I’ll be taking pictures of loading Gage and Stevenson trunks. If you have another kind of packing procedure, please take step by step pictures and email them to me at kkorb@kristinkorb.com. I’ll include them in the brochure. We need to do all we can to help them, but this is not my favorite mode of communication.

“You may bring musical instruments as checked baggage as long as they fit within the size and weight limitations of the airline you are taking.”  This means that the airline can’t blame TSA for a size restriction. We’ll leave that issue for another column.

  “We encourage you to stay with your instrument while security officers screen it to make sure it is repacked properly.”  What? You mean I can be with my bass while it’s getting hand checked? YES. In fact, they encourage it: “Owners should be present when an instrument is removed from its case for screening. For this reason, musicians are advised to add at least 30 minutes to the airline's recommended arrival window when checking their instrument.”  I love this statement. You have now been advised by the TSA to be present at the screening. You have to stand away from your bass, but you are there to give calm and encouraging verbal instructions. The calmer you are, the gentler they will be with your bass.  Heck, you might even luck out and they won’t open the case at all.  This doesn’t work so well for international transitions, but you should be okay the rest of the time.

Do you have a TSA story to share?  Take a picture of your favorite TSA folks and send them to me at kkorb@kristinkorb.com.

General Information

ISB member Evan Premo reports that American Eagle, a branch of American Airlines now has a specific policy that says "no bass fiddles" will be permitted on American Eagle flights, either checked or on board. He was on his way to the Cactus Pear Festival in San Antonio, Texas, and had to borrow an instrument to perform there. If American Eagle has this kind of no-bass policy, perhaps all double bassists should consider a "no-fly" policy on American Eagle, whether or not they are flying with an instrument!

In an American Symphony Orchestra League advocacy alert forwarded by ICSOM, the ISB has learned that orchestras and individual musicians touring internationally may continue to travel with their bows after winning an exemption during negotiations at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). The international community met to determine whether to include the Brazilian pernambuco tree on the endangered species list. Negotiators settled on adding the tree to the endangered species list, but applying the listing only to "logs, sawn wood and veneer sheets," specifying that finished bows that are transported internationally would not be subject to CITES permit and certification requirements.

The League, in partnership with the American Federation of Musicians, met with officials from the office of the U.S. Trade Representative and U.S. Fish & Wildlife prior to the start of international negotiations, calling for responsible conservation efforts that would also protect the ability of musicians to travel and perform internationally with their instruments. In response to a League alert, and in partnership with NAMM and U.S. bow makers, orchestras filed comments directly with U.S. officials. The U.S. delegation to the convention spoke up for the interests of musicians and helped to negotiate the final agreement.

While musicians will continue to be able to travel with their bows, it is important to note that the issue of conserving the pernambuco tree remains. CITES will be closely monitoring the status of the pernambuco forests in the two years leading up to the next convention of international parties. To preserve the ability of musicians to travel with their bows - and to sustain the long-term viability of this important natural resource - orchestras can participate in the conservation effort. Visit the International Pernambuco Conservation Initiative web site at www.ipci-usa.org to learn more.

In December, 2006, ISB founder and double bass superstar Gary Karr shared good humored remembrances of airline travel over the years with National Public Radio's "All Things Considered."

Enjoy Gary's music and stories

Click on the link to the story using a RealAudio or WindowsMedia player. For players or technical support, please visit NPR's Audio Help page.


*Order a text transcript of this story*

Life gets a little tougher for our London colleagues...

From Chi-chi Nwanoku:

This is slightly tongue-in-cheek, but I hope you enjoy it!
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/music/2007/01/post_22.html

Baggage Info Tip for Flying on Southwest

Recently, one of our Utah Symphony musicians traveled to Albuquerque on Southwest Airlines. The station agent there informed him that on the return trip his string bass could not travel in baggage because it was over the weight limit. No one on Southwest staff in Albuquerque or in Dallas (Southwest's hub) could find any information regarding musical instruments.

The problem was resolved because a Southwest agent in Salt Lake City found the documentation. For string bassists who travel Southwest, here is where you should direct agents:

The information is located in Southwest's documentation"/Electronic and Music Section" in a special section for Band instruments and Band equipment. That is where the upright bass is addressed (ie: it may be shipped in baggage for a fee of $50.)

Erich Graf

President, Local 104, Salt Lake City

2007 promises to be an interesting year for bass travel.  Here are the latest updates:

1 .  The IATA ( International Air Transport Association) has been making life challenging for bassists.  They added new weight restrictions of 70 lb. back in 2004.  From anecdotal reports, the policy has been tightly enforced since September 2005.  

I am currently in the process of finding out more about this and trying to see if the bass community might have a possible audience with them to let them know about our concerns.  Please email me if you have recent stories about international travel incidents.  If you don’t report the problem to me, I have no way of bringing the problems to the IATA.

2.  I had a meeting with Eric Beers (of the AFM in New York) on January 12, 2005.  He is fighting as hard as he can for our travel interests.  It felt oddly comforting that we’re not the only ones ignored by the airlines.  Because of the airlines lack of responsiveness to the AFM, the AFM now has the ear of Congress. Eric will be going in to Washington DC to meet with congressmen to discuss our dilemma in February.  He wants to bring a stack of incidents to the meeting.  We need your help.  Email me (kkorb@kristinkorb.com) with your CURRENT bass travel stories.  If you don’t email me your problems, I can’t help you. If we all do a little writing, Congress can lean on the ATA (American Transportation Assoc.) to make traveling easier for musicians.  This is our chance to be the joyful squeaky wheel.

3 .  As a result of my meeting with Eric, he’s going to check on a couple things:
    - Would AFM have any connection with the IATA and could it start a dialogue with them?  He didn’t even know they existed until I brought it to his attention.  (Thank you Gottfried Engels for sharing your story with me.)
    -  Could we get the support of the baggage handlers’ union for allowing instruments under the plane?   The AFM hasn’t pursued this connection in quite awhile.  We’re hoping to get some kind of letter from them saying that they love putting basses on planes (or at least don’t mind it).  

4 .  Delta and America West have been deemed “musician unfriendly” by the AFM.  I’m sure this doesn’t come as any surprise to most of you bass travelers.  Avoid them and give bass-friendly airlines your business.  I personally recommend:
Jet Blue
Northwest
Southwest

In addition to your travel horror stories, please let me know if we can give an “honorary bass” award to an airline that has been helpful. There are lots of airline folks who are supportive of our work in the world and we need to give them a big dose of bass love.

Your bass cruise director,
Kristin Korb

Information on Specific Airlines

Traveling with your bass on Northwest Airlines or Southwest Airlines? We have a printout of their official luggage policy and rates to print out and carry with you. Email the ISB, info@ISBworldoffice.com.

Traveling with your bass on American Airlines? We have a series of computer steps for AA employees to follow that will lead them to more bass-friendly guidelines for checked luggage. Email the ISB, info@ISBworldoffice.com.

Traveling with your bass on JetBlue Airlines? We have a printout of their official luggage policy and rates to print out and carry with you. Email the ISB, info@ISBworldoffice.com.

Traveling with your bass soon? For an Excel file of luggage dimensions allowed by most U.S. airlines, email the ISB, info@ISBworldoffice.com.

For a summary of U.S. domestic airline carry-on policies, saved
as an Excel file, email info@ISBworldoffice.com

Have Bass, Trying to Travel

If you have new airline information or travel stories to share (300 words or fewer, if possible), send to info@ISBworldoffice.com.

I'm responding to your website's call to email ISB about airline luggage policies. I recently flew roundtrip to Amsterdam from Baltimore and was charged nearly $1,500 for the privilege of having my 200 year-old bass tossed around by luggage handlers, and stored in minus 100 degree Farenheit temperatures for hours. Finally, when I returned home, my bass was lost and untraceable for 24 hours! I used to fly Northwest specifically because of their lenient overweight/oversized policies....what happened??

Disgruntled Bass Traveler

Rent a Bass

Welcome to www.Rentabass.com
A Free Service That Connects Basses To Bassists!

It's getting harder and harder to travel with an acoustic bass these days, as I'm sure most of you know. Since the spring of 2002, I have been renting basses for every date I do on the road, which works out to be over 120 different basses a year. Most of the time the quality is good, but there's been a few gigs where I would have had a better time "scatting" my bass lines.

Google searching for music stores might work for a few major cities, but even then you run the risk of getting a bass that came straight from a factory and wasn't set up by a professional. In my concert rider, I began requesting that the bass be rented from a professional bass player or string repair shop, not a general music store. This one little sentence completely changed the quality of instruments that I now receive. The only trick is finding the professional bass players in each town that we go to.

On one occasion, I had a 10 day tour lined up, but none of the venues were able to locate an instrument. All of our contact people were clueless on who to call or where to look. That's when it hit me. I decided that with the way things were going, we bassists needed a website where we could locate instruments on the road.

I've been fortunate to have played many great basses that came from very nice bass players. They were willing to rent their personal bass (or quality back up) out for a night. My thought is, if these bassists were willing to rent a bass out for my show, they probably wouldn't mind renting their bass out again to the next group that comes through the venue.

If we bassists stick together, we can save ourselves from the hassles of the unforgiving airline industry, not to mention the backpain from carrying flight cases! This is my gift to the bass world. Happy traveling!

Phil Palombi