You Will Never Check your Violin in a Baggage Hold after Seeing This

2018-03-27 String Instrument News

Flying with musical instruments is now one of the musicians’ nightmares. Sara Avery a violinist based in Colorado sorrowfully posted a severely broken violin on Facebook. It was one of the many violins who did not survive the poor handling in the baggage hold. It came out from a British Airways flight in which according to Avery, her friend was forced by the staff to put her violin in the baggage hold.

Broken into Pieces

When they arrived in Denver, the violin suffered a dreadful fate; it was broken in pieces. What’s worst according to Avery is the initial reaction of the airline staffs. They refuse to help and take responsibility at first, but eventually, they begin to process the claims.

As Avery hashed tags her post “#BritishAirways breaks violins!” she was hoping that it will come out doing the right thing for the company. She said that her friend was forced to stow her violin in the baggage hold by one of the agents of British Airways. That was already unpleasant. What was more devastating is when they arrived in Denver from Beirut the violin was like shredded in pieces. You can see the musician’s life was shattered right there inside the violin case. What makes things worse is that they don’t even care. They also blamed her friend for what happened. They told her to get an appraisal rate for the instrument’s value, but they refuse to compensate her. She saw many people carrying massive baggage inside the plane which she also told the airline staff. It was very inexcusable according to Avery. She said they had destroyed the very means of a musician to make a living.

Airline’s Response

After her post, she posted an update regarding the incident and said that the airline company contacted her friend. She said that the night after their arrival, the official in Denver airport called her friend and initiated the process for her claims. However, after a couple of days, they seem to not care about it when her friend contacted them and talked to their representative. They wouldn’t do anything for her. But the case is finally moving in the right direction according to Avery; she promised to continue updating the developments of her post. According to her, even if the British Airlines will have a change of policy for musician’s welfare, other airline companies must also consider changing their system so that musicians’ travel with their instrument will not be a nightmare.