Tag Archives for music.
Department of Transportation rules are clear about airlines accommodating musical instruments on board their aircraft. But these rules aren’t often well-understood.
There are certain sounds, sights, and flavors that evoke travel. It wasn’t originally intended this way, but George Gershwin’s Rhapsody In Blue means United Airlines.
One neglected area of branding – outside of United – is music. So kudos here are noteworthy, in this case for Delta’s landing music.
Video has been seen on twitter over a million times of women on board a TUI flight blasting music, dancing in their seats and tossing back a beverage – while a passenger across the aisle has her head planted firmly in her tray table with hands over her ears trying to escape the madness.
On April 5, two elderly passengers were removed from an American Airlines flight because the gate agent wouldn’t let them fly with their cello – even though they’d purchased a seat for the cello from the airline and flown with it on the first segment of their trip.
The passengers had flown from Palm Springs to Dallas – Fort Worth. They boarded their second flight. And a gate agent came on board and declared that they’d be unable to fly with a cello.
American Airlines forced a musician to gate check his guitar, not allowing him to bring it on board his flight. They promptly lost the guitar.
Musicians do have rights, but they also have the responsibility to be prepared to exercise those rights. Buy an extra seat for the instrument, or ensure you’re boarding early enough that there’s overhead bin space left for your instrument.
Rachelle Hunt of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra tried to bring her violin onto United Airlines flight UA4349 operated by CommutAir from Knoxville to Washington Dulles. However a flight attendant on the ERJ-145 aircraft declared this wasn’t permitted.
The flight attendant declared the passenger kept “on saying federal law” but at United “we don’t go with the federal law.”
As easy as most travelers have it going through immigration and customs – most U.S. citizens, anyway, I wouldn’t want to be Indian arriving in Japan – flight crew are usually given even more flexibility. That’s one reason why flight crew make attractive smugglers.
Airline employees aren’t always given a free pass, though.
Airports across North America – 22 in the U.S. and one in Canada – will be bringing you JetStreamFest, the JetStream Music Festival, on Facebook Live beginning May 6 at 6 p.m. Eastern time. The event, hosted by my home town Austin airport which features live music throughout the year during normal times, will feature local musicians from each participating airport’s city. “Austin is the Live Music Capital of the World. Typically, we have 31 live performances across 7 stages in our terminal. Live music and supporting our local artists is who AUS is, even during the difficult times,” said Jacqueline Yaft, Chief Executive Officer of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. “Airports are known for bringing people together, and we want to continue doing so even when you can’t travel. Virtual music is a great way to…
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
