Guitar Handling on Airlines is Getting Out of Hand
A music performer’s instrument is their livelihood. Stealing and being careless with these instruments comes as an especially egregious moral offense. Instruments also often come with incredible value, both financial and sentimental. Often in country, roots, acoustic, or orchestral music, the instruments a performer uses can even be heirlooms or historically significant. That is why care for these instruments during travel is imperative.
Battles between traveling musicians and the patchwork of rules and regulations that vary from airline to airline, airport to airport, and sometimes gate attendant to gate attendant are the stuff of traveling musician horror stories. Musicians almost always prefer to be able to check and carry on their instruments when flying, even if they come in hard shell protective cases, just to give an extra layer of assurance they’re not lost, damaged, or stolen. Even then, tragic stories from musicians abound.
In mid March, a video posted to TikTok went viral for showing a baggage handler at LAX airport in Los Angeles carelessly tossing guitars out of a baggage transport trailer onto the ground. “I hope your guitars are okay,” Nick Ruiz posted on March 13. The video went megaviral, with 4.6 million views so far. It’s the perfect illustration of the carelessness that musical instruments are often shown in the airline process.
@goyamariacookie I hope your guitars are ok #LAX #losangeles #airport #guitartok ♬ Cumbia Buena – Grupo La Cumbia
The line forms to the left with musicians who have stories of instruments showing up at baggage claim carousels shattered despite hard shell cases, or not showing up at all thanks to delay or theft. 21-year-old folk artist Stella Prince originally from Woodstock, NY, recently flew from a hometown show in to Atlanta, and was forced to check her guitar in its travel case. When she arrived in Atlanta, her Breedlove guitar didn’t.
“You see this beautiful guitar case? It should have a guitar in it. But it doesn’t. It is empty,” Stella posted on Instagram.“They refused to let me bring my guitar on. And I had to gate check it. And it is gone. It is missing. Delta does not know anything. They won’t tell me anything. They have no idea where it is. No information. This has finally happened after seven years of touring … So Delta, I have a show in one week. Better deliver.”
At the time of this post, Delta has yet to deliver. In an update, Prince posted, “I don’t know what y’all are doing to independent artists.” Incidentally, she also came down with Norovirus on the flight, and without a guitar and a 103 fever, and might miss an upcoming show at the Viper Room in LA.
Being careless is one thing. Outright stealing a guitar from its case and the airline seeming to have little to do about it takes the matter to the next level. Musicians check their instruments into the care of the airline, and out of their control. At the least, a more regulated, airline-wide policy should be adopted to make sure musicians and their instruments are dealt with properly, and if they don’t that there are consequences to ensure safe passage for these important tools.
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April 1, 2026 @ 8:30 am
Guy in the video must be a drummer.
April 1, 2026 @ 8:39 am
Hey now! 🙂
April 1, 2026 @ 8:45 am
To airlines we are all just cattle to be shipped around, they do not care about our stuff.
April 1, 2026 @ 8:47 am
Hey now, we don’t need so regulations! That is crazy talk, won’t somebody think of the poor shareholders!?!?
– Signed, an Airline CEO
P.S. – Is now a bad time to announce to maximize profits all passengers will be forced to form a human centipede chain? You get to be first in the chain if you upgrade to the Delta Sky Miles Extreme Plus Infinity tier!
April 1, 2026 @ 9:28 am
It’s pretty obvious by now that the airline/travel industry hates its customers. They don’t operate like any other free market business. With so few carriers and finite access to desirable hubs, they don’t have to compete and aren’t incentivized to treat their customers well, or even with basic respect or dignity at all.
Ticket prices and add-on fees are also out of control. I’ve literally watched ticket prices increase by hundreds of dollars in a matter of minutes while online, while simply reviewing my options. With data tracking, they know you’re captive to the system – it’s all rigged.
It’s why simply driving is almost always the better option. I’ve driven from one end of this country to the other multiple times and I’ll never forget those trips. Might take longer, but they’re way more rewarding. If I were a musician, I’d be way more comfortable driving to gigs rather than flying.
April 6, 2026 @ 6:40 pm
It is long past time for high speed passenger rail in this country.
April 1, 2026 @ 9:42 am
I’m not a traveling musician and do not make my living playing music, but as a guitar owner and player, this video makes me sick. It’s just one more reason I don’t fly. For nearly 30 years now my wife and I have traveled to Texas from Pennsylvania to see her family, often twice a year. We flew one time, very early on. Never again. Four days of driving (two down, two back) even with our kids all those years has been far and away more enjoyable than two hours on the plane to say nothing of the agony of the airport. I know it’s unavoidable for many people and I feel bad for them when flying is the only option.
April 1, 2026 @ 10:53 am
Same sentiments. If I’ve got to fight city traffic to the larger airport, I’ll just book it towards my destination.
April 1, 2026 @ 12:31 pm
In my experience, air travel is the ultimate “you get what you pay for”. Traveling via the budget airlines (Spirit, Frontier, Sun Country, etc.) is truly an awful experience. Flights randomly delayed, nickel and dime you fees, higher chance for bad passengers, etc.
Thankfully I don’t travel a ton, but when I do (if I can afford it) I just spend the money for more leg room and a ticket on a non-budget airline. It’s still a bad experience, but the difference tends to be “my blood pressure is rising to extreme levels” vs. “I am highly annoyed, but not on the verge of wishing mass extinction on humanity”.
April 1, 2026 @ 11:41 am
A telecaster is the only airline approved guitar. I’m not proud of this but I half ran over mine with my car and it only knocked it out of tune.
April 1, 2026 @ 9:58 am
She didn’t insure her guitar?
April 1, 2026 @ 10:10 am
I recently saw a video posted by another singer showing something similar. It is disgraceful. The employee should be identified and sacked.
April 1, 2026 @ 10:26 am
Bri Bagwell posted similar issue on IG last month and in fact was removed from the flight when she protested. Guitar flew with the plane and she didn’t.
April 1, 2026 @ 10:50 am
Berating the airlines is fine, but If you’re a traveling musician, using commercial transportation, you really have to assume that the instrument case will be treated roughly during the journey and you should invest in a hard-shell, foam-lined, locking case that will keep the instrument protected if the case is tossed or dropped.
April 1, 2026 @ 12:10 pm
Oh yes,
You need to assume that all luggage will be tossed around, and possibly damaged.
At LAX – some brainiac threatened to have my locked speargun case cut open.
Gave him what was surely a sharky smile, while saying – you better have cash in your pocket if you touch that case with a knife.
I had the key right there, very willing to open the case for him.
April 1, 2026 @ 12:27 pm
I agree with this advice. I travel for work a fair amount (not weekly or even monthly, but 4-5 times a year) and I purposely either bring a hard bottom duffel bag since even on a full flight I usually don’t have to check it OR bring a hard travel case that I just know/assume is gonna be beat to shit the minute it leaves my hand.
The people on the tarmac and in baggage handling do not care if your guitar case is cool looking.
April 1, 2026 @ 3:08 pm
I think the point is that sometimes Independent Artists do not have any other option. They can’t always drive the van and trailer to gig if its far away, they’re doing an acoustic show or some other circumstance where they can’t take the Private Jet. I think they’re all aware but what are the other options. Its just one more obstacle to overcome to scratch out a living.
April 2, 2026 @ 6:46 am
I have taken almost 3,000 flights the past 22 years just on United. I NEVER check a bag. Even when I sent to Australia and New Zealand last year on vacation. This video shows why I don’t even though I am not a musician or would ever take a guitar. The musicians are right to want to carry on.
April 1, 2026 @ 11:08 am
also relevant that it is the law that airlines are required to allow you to take an small (incl guitars) instrument on board if there is room when you board:
https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2015/01/05/2014-30836/carriage-of-musical-instruments
Airlines can still be assholes about this though as the law gives them discretion and it’s mostly about whether there is space in the overhead bin or not.
Get an early flight so you can deal with being bumped to a later flight if your flight/overhead bin is too fuill for the instrument
be polite
pay for early boarding
there is also the expensive option of buying a ticket for your instrument which they might require for stuff over a certain size
April 1, 2026 @ 11:35 am
Workers Unions and the loudest complainers among us in the working class: pay us a ridiculous hourly wage!
Then they want to provide labor “quality” like that shown in the video.
Some wages are definitely too low but in the fight to get people paid better, we’ve de-incentivized giving a shit, and that is NOT ok.
This person should be fired and then have to struggle to find work afterward, and when there’s evidence like this of crappy work quality, it should automatically disqualify the loser from any unemployment benefits.
April 1, 2026 @ 12:23 pm
There have always been people who “don’t give a shit” at jobs. This isn’t some new thing. It might be more pronounced now, but that also goes back to what incentive do some folks have to really give a crap when just yesterday Oracle mass fires 30,000 people via a 6 AM email.
I’m not defending the actions of the people in the video above, but you seem to have taken a video of someone being bad at their jobs as an excuse to go all “and another thing, people just have it too good and it’s just laziness that their lives suck”. Which, hey, more power to ya if that is the message ya wanna sell but anybody outside the C-Suite ain’t buying it in 2026.
April 1, 2026 @ 4:24 pm
yeah the completely random “it’s the fault of unions” line is some propaganda bullshit. I can’t believe a working class person would say that without being paid by somebody. I can’t believe how brainwashed people are these days that they’ll volunteer to spout propaganda like this.
Not excusing this horror show in the video, but the baggage handlers are probably acting so shitty because they’re under some kind of mandatory time constraints like Amazon workers are, because that’s what’s been happening in all industries since the 80’s, more and more. It has nothing to do with unions.
April 2, 2026 @ 4:57 am
Propaganda simply because I acknowledged the reality of out-of-control labor unions? That’s an easy observation to make.
Ever work in management somewhere with a unionized workforce where you could only easily fire a crappy employee in their “probationary period?” Otherwise, you had to jump through 17 hoops to get it done? Ever see people making $25-30 an hour doing absolutely nothing, walking at an INSANELY slow place through the workshop, and offer absolutely nothing to their workplace?
People don’t deserve a great wage simply for breathing while on the clock.
April 2, 2026 @ 9:40 am
Oh go to hell. You are literally repeating crap that the ultra Rich has been seeding throughout media for decades. I hope you like the taste of feet.
April 2, 2026 @ 10:35 am
Stellar, I’ve lived it. Witnessed it. Seen how it was destroying a major company from within. Was it malicious and intentional? No. The union was simply trying to make things better for who they represented, but it went too far.
There’s also the reality that an across the board wage leaves the exceptional employees with nothing to show for being exceptional. The least unions could do is allow merit raises at the individual level. You shouldn’t have to pay the person who doesn’t know what a combination wrench is the same rate as the guy who could be working as an auto or diesel mechanic and does 5x time the work as most of their peers.
April 1, 2026 @ 1:23 pm
Yup.
Personal pride is dead in this country. Those workers could be paid $100 an hour and they would behave the same way.
April 1, 2026 @ 3:51 pm
Maybe? Who knows if that is the case or not. Also possible the worker was having a shit day. Should he have done it? Of course not – nobody rational would argue otherwise. But also possible he let personal or work crap he was dealing with make him say “F It” and started tossing stuff recklessly.
It’s easy to armchair QB it and say “guy is just lazy and doesn’t care”. That may be true. Also might be true that he just got chewed out by his boss for no reason and was in an F It” mood. Doesn’t make what happened to the artist right, but as someone who has worked plenty of blue collar labor in my life I’m glad nobody was filming me in my worst moments when personal and work crap boiled over.
April 2, 2026 @ 4:58 am
Having a “shit day” is neither relevant nor appropriate. The guy does not deserve to have a job let alone the one he currently holds. People like him should be unemployed and struggling until their attitudes change.
April 2, 2026 @ 6:50 am
That is a bunch of baloney to justify someone screwing over others.
April 2, 2026 @ 9:06 am
Mike, you’re spinning and spinning. There’s been an absolute change for the worse in the work ethic of the typical American and it’s only getting worse. Spare us the excuses. “Maybe he was having a shit day”? wtf do I care , I care about my broken guitar.
April 2, 2026 @ 9:36 am
They think they are getting back at the man but all they are doing is harming people closer to their economic status.
You see it with fast food workers all the time.
April 3, 2026 @ 11:29 am
How are you so loud with your mouth so full of boot?
April 1, 2026 @ 12:08 pm
I want to punch that guy so freaking bad. Just bad person actions right there!
April 1, 2026 @ 12:22 pm
That’s crazy they could “lose” a guitar from gate check. It has to travel all of what, 20ft, in the hands of one person, in public view?! Maybe she had a connecting flight. Still seems like it would be easy to narrow down to a handful of suspects if Delta wanted to bother.
April 1, 2026 @ 1:18 pm
Sure as hell not defending those POSs that throw guitars around – they should be in prison, but if you travel to play for a living – you need to make sure your cases can handle ANYTHING because that WILL be tested.
I did it for 25 years – 150+ flights per year. No losses, no damage to my guitars, but LOTS of external damage to my cases. A suitable case will cost you over $400. Ridiculous to have to do that, but better to pay that toll than lose guitars.
April 1, 2026 @ 4:27 pm
I flew a couple years ago with a soft gig bag like the first guitar that the guy (probably) destroys in the video. The reason was to make sure it was the smallest possible bag so they could find room in the overhead bins- I didn’t want to give them any excuse with a case they would say was too big,.
They still tried to get me to gate check it and I think I took another later flight and maybe even paid extra to do so because I wasn’t prepared to have this happen.
Somebody else who was expecting to bring their guitar on board might have no idea they were going to end up checking the instrument
April 1, 2026 @ 4:11 pm
Trigger- can we get a review of the New Ashley Monroe album?
I am loving it!
April 2, 2026 @ 8:48 am
The Ashley Monroe album is being considered for review. It has been EXTREMELY, EXTREMELY newsy lately, which has made it difficult to get reviews done. I hope to catch up in the coming weeks.
April 1, 2026 @ 5:02 pm
Remember “United Breaks Guitars” from a few years back? I guess nothing’s changed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo
April 1, 2026 @ 5:31 pm
Man you cant do a whole thing on guitars on Airplanes without referencing United Breaks Guitars. That song is literally has a Harvard Business School case about it and folk isnt that far from country
April 1, 2026 @ 5:38 pm
Another reason I would rather drive for hours on end than to fly anywhere.
April 1, 2026 @ 10:44 pm
Didn’t Dale Watson write a song about a case like this a few years ago?
April 2, 2026 @ 1:34 am
Dale’s song was about baggage (namely, his merchandise) which went missing on a ‘Tiger Airways’ flight in Australia, and the resulting lack of customer service.
See: https://youtu.be/XejeCOTHf8A?si=CiP6udPgoUVkgGKq
April 2, 2026 @ 6:42 am
This is why (35 years ago) I got smaller “air travel instruments” if flying was my only option. Got a 000-acoustic, import Mandocaster, Squire Tele, etc., backpack-style gig bags and “stealth” boarding on plane to duck and conceal guitar neck until Im stuffing it into overhead (or even better…) asking nicely to hang my “garment, wink-wink…” in the closet up front. I’ve even loaned these travel instruments to friends so they don’t expose their heirloom-quality treasures to this mess. You gotta have a battle plan!
April 2, 2026 @ 8:25 am
I wonder if DanInVa’s “garment bag in the closet up front” option is still available. That worked for me, but we’re talkin’ back in the 1900’s ;-/
April 2, 2026 @ 9:42 am
I tried to do the garment bag option with a small guitar and they told me they don’t do that, the last couple of times I flew.i think that’s a relic of the 90’s and the policies changed at some point.
April 2, 2026 @ 8:15 am
Yet golf clubs never seem to be charged extra, or damaged.
This is how cruel and fucked up our world is these days.
April 2, 2026 @ 12:26 pm
Cast and aluminium isn’t the same as plywood and maple.
But yes, the world is a fucked up place, as it’s always been, ever since the magma ran free.
April 2, 2026 @ 8:35 am
My guitar case had a serious dent. Fortunately my guitar looked OK. UNITED AIRLINES
April 2, 2026 @ 3:18 pm
The baggage handler in the video should be shot. What a d bag
April 2, 2026 @ 8:57 pm
For those curious… the current rate for a flight case from a reputable company such as Calton Cases is $900 – $1,600 and even with those cases I’ve seen the airlines destroy instruments. The only solution is to allow small/medium sized instruments in the overhead.
April 3, 2026 @ 10:05 am
Agreed. The baggage handler should be identified and fired and put on a no-hire list by all airlines. Also charged for any damage. He showed his face…find him!