<p>Hello all you cellists and parents of cellists. Up until now we have been able to drive my daughter's cello (and my daughter) to all her camps/gigs/whatever. But, she is a rising junior and we are moving to Central Florida. I know that her college search is going to be focused on the midwest and east coast, I'm pretty sure that she will be looking to return to the east coast for summer stuff; in short she will need to be able to fly with her cello. </p>
<p>The cello she has is not really worth buying a seat for, so we bought her a BAM Flight Cover. It's sitting in our living room at the moment, and it looks huge. It fits just fine in the back of my minivan, but I'm having trouble figuring out if it's going to fit in the trunk of an average taxi or rental sedan. Could you share any experiences in travelling with one of these cases? Also, have you had any trouble getting airlines to accept them as luggage?</p>
<p>As the father of a daughter who regularly travels with a string bass, let me assure you that a cello is not all that bad. While a cello in its case will not fit in the trunk of some smaller sedans, it is usually pretty easy to strap it into the front passenger seat (you may have to lean the seat back a bit in some cars), or else simply lay it across the rear seat.</p>
<p>Mom of a cellist here. Son has a BAM flight case. We call it the Sarcarphagus! It is big. We have a VW Golf and it fits in there to take him to the airport. He has also taken it in taxis and not reported any problems. Airlines take it. The only airline problem we have had is that once out of about every 10 or so flights, he gets charged an $80 oversize luggage fee. There is no rhyme or reason to this. For example, on the same airline he didn't get the charge on the way out, but did on the way back. Once he started traveling by himself to camps and such, we gave him one of our credit cards so he can pay the fee if needed. </p>
<p>He has flown with the flight case quite a few times and to date, there has been no damage to the instrument. He always asks for it to be hand loaded. Sometimes they do it, sometimes not, but it doesn't hurt to ask. </p>
<p>Personally, I wish that airlines would allow us to treat it like a pet. I would be willing to pay an extra fee to have it hand loaded and unloaded and travel secured in a heated pressurized compartment. Airlines would benefit from a bit of extra money, son would relax more on flights, seems like a win-win situation to me. Double basses would use this service as well as cellists, and any others with oversized valuable things.</p>