An airline tried to get a musician to check her 17th-century violin. A ‘wrestling match’ ensued.
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United Airlines
Why am I not surprised?
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I'm almost at the point of theorizing these airlines saw what the government did to bailout the auto industry and are trying to fail so bad they get a piece of the action.
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From the end of the article:
Musicians should have it a little easier, in theory. Federal law requires airports to accommodate musicians who want to carry their instruments with them in the airplane’s cabin.
I wonder how that works for musicians playing the tuba or double bass.
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@JBert I believe standard practice is, if the instrument must be carry-on and is too large/heavy for the overhead bins, an additional seat is purchased to hold the instrument.
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@RaceProUK Does the instrument then get its own little packet of peanuts and a drink?
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@e4tmyl33t Depends if it's flying First Class or Economy
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@JBert said in An airline tried to get a musician to check her 17th-century violin. A ‘wrestling match’ ensued.:
From the end of the article:
Musicians should have it a little easier, in theory. Federal law requires airports to accommodate musicians who want to carry their instruments with them in the airplane’s cabin.
I wonder how that works for musicians playing the tuba or double bass.
I wonder if that law came about before or after the infamous "United breaks guitars" incident. :P
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@JBert said in An airline tried to get a musician to check her 17th-century violin. A ‘wrestling match’ ensued.:
From the end of the article:
Musicians should have it a little easier, in theory. Federal law requires airports to accommodate musicians who want to carry their instruments with them in the airplane’s cabin.
I wonder how that works for musicians playing the tuba or double bass.
Or this guy:
Shovel Metal – 03:17
— Rob Scallon
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@JBert said in An airline tried to get a musician to check her 17th-century violin. A ‘wrestling match’ ensued.:
From the end of the article:
Musicians should have it a little easier, in theory. Federal law requires airports to accommodate musicians who want to carry their instruments with them in the airplane’s cabin.
I wonder how that works for musicians playing the tuba or double bass.
I wanna know how it works for this guy...
Firearm Symphony: Russian sharpshooter performs Beethoven dual wielding Glock – 02:45
— RT
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Ok, but what if you play cannon?
(Salvo at the 8:00 mark, BTW)
Tchaikovsky "1812 Overture" with 105mm Cannons 20101017 (2/2) – 11:11
— Jun-ichi Amano
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@JBert is it just me or does that sound like they're playing it entirely on tin bugles and accordions? It sounds like a carnival calliope...
(I apparently haven't got to the cannons part yet.)
edit: I basically only recognize from about 7:23 onward.
edit edit: wait a second... wtf. Are there no strings? That'd probably be why it sounds so weird...
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@RaceProUK said in An airline tried to get a musician to check her 17th-century violin. A ‘wrestling match’ ensued.:
@JBert I believe standard practice is, if the instrument must be carry-on and is too large/heavy for the overhead bins, an additional seat is purchased to hold the instrument.
And that's what she probably said, according to the article:
“I can’t not take my violin on board. I’ll pay the money. I’ll take another flight. Just tell me what I can do.”
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@Rhywden said in An airline tried to get a musician to check her 17th-century violin. A ‘wrestling match’ ensued.:
Just tell me what I can do.
put it in a plastic baggy and cram it up her rear like the other passengers trying to import unchecked goods?
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@darkmatter said in An airline tried to get a musician to check her 17th-century violin. A ‘wrestling match’ ensued.:
@Rhywden said in An airline tried to get a musician to check her 17th-century violin. A ‘wrestling match’ ensued.:
Just tell me what I can do.
put it in a plastic baggy and cram it up her rear like the other passengers trying to import unchecked goods?
DUDE! That's a very valuable and precious instrument. You don't treat it like that.
You put it in a very expensive, felt-lined case-- wrap THAT in plastic and shove it up your ass.
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Seriously, though, she should just put a gun in the case with a violin and have that checked. They'll handle it much better.
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@Lorne-Kates are you sure the instrument costs much more than a pound of pure heroin.....?
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@darkmatter said in An airline tried to get a musician to check her 17th-century violin. A ‘wrestling match’ ensued.:
@Lorne-Kates are you sure the instrument costs much more than a pound of pure heroin.....?
According to Yahoo "1/10gram is $20-$30 US. A gram $160-$200. 32 grams to an OZ $5120-$6400 US." An expensive violin is ... expensive.
edit: which makes a pound $81,920-$102,400.
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Certainly not on the order of millions of dollars. The article points out roughly how expensive her guitar was.
So when a Houston-based gate agent at United Airlines told Yennifer Correia that she would have to check her 17th-century violin, which costs more than her car
So, somewhat more expensive than 1lb of heroin... depending on how crappy her car is (and assuming the reporter isn't an idiot comparing a million dollar guitar to the cost of a car instead of, say, a house, or grad school)!
Mainly I didn't want to look up heroin pricing on the PC at work to verify my guesstimate.
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@anotherusername said in An airline tried to get a musician to check her 17th-century violin. A ‘wrestling match’ ensued.:
I wanna know how it works for this guy...
Firearm Symphony: Russian sharpshooter performs Beethoven dual wielding Glock – 02:45
— RTSeems like he would have trouble keeping an audience.
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“Without provocation, the supervisor for the Chicago-based carrier then lunged for Ms. Correia’s case and, incredibly, tried to wrestle it away from the musician,” said a statement written by MacNaughton.
Okay, so not letting you on board with something is one thing... trying to physically remove it from your hands is a different thing. I hope that "supervisor" gets her ass sued off.
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@anonymous234 said in An airline tried to get a musician to check her 17th-century violin. A ‘wrestling match’ ensued.:
I hope that "supervisor" gets her ass sued off.
Or convicted of attempted robbery.
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@Greybeard Why not both?
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Dwarf Fortress has stringed instruments, the concept of robbery, and wrestling, so we can actually simulate this situation and find out what happened.
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@JBert said in An airline tried to get a musician to check her 17th-century violin. A ‘wrestling match’ ensued.:
From the end of the article:
Musicians should have it a little easier, in theory. Federal law requires airports to accommodate musicians who want to carry their instruments with them in the airplane’s cabin.
I wonder how that works for musicians playing the tuba or double bass.
Or the theatre organ. Or bagpipes.
One thing I think we can all agree on. Nobody should be forced to travel in the same cabin as someone with an accordion.
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@da-Doctah oh they can be in the same cabin. Just not allowed to play under pain of amputation. Without aesthetic. With a rusty axe.
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Surely there are other options for transporting expensive items other than the standard cargo hold and carry-on luggage. Some kind of locked safe, insurance, something.
This smells fishy. Like, it's now popular to pile on United Airlines and everyone is looking for the slightest opportunity to jump aboard. Not saying they don't suck. Just that this smells.
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@cartman82 Stop with the thinking and get your hate on.
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@Arantor said in An airline tried to get a musician to check her 17th-century violin. A ‘wrestling match’ ensued.:
@da-Doctah oh they can be in the same cabin. Just not allowed to play under pain of amputation. Without aesthetic. With a rusty axe.
If they're playing the accordion, they already are without aesthetic.
ITYM "anesthetic"...
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@cartman82 said in An airline tried to get a musician to check her 17th-century violin. A ‘wrestling match’ ensued.:
Surely there are other options for transporting expensive items other than the standard cargo hold and carry-on luggage. Some kind of locked safe, insurance, something.
This smells fishy. Like, it's now popular to pile on United Airlines and everyone is looking for the slightest opportunity to jump aboard. Not saying they don't suck. Just that this smells.
Insurance is all nice and well. It doesn't quite help you when your instrument has been smashed to bits.
Yes, you'll get some money. But the instrument is still broken.
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@Rhywden said in An airline tried to get a musician to check her 17th-century violin. A ‘wrestling match’ ensued.:
Yes, you'll get some money. But the instrument is still broken.
If your insurance doesn't give you enough money to buy another instrument, you got ripped off.
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@Rhywden said in An airline tried to get a musician to check her 17th-century violin. A ‘wrestling match’ ensued.:
Insurance is all nice and well. It doesn't quite help you when your instrument has been smashed to bits.
Yes, you'll get some money. But the instrument is still broken.Insurance is not just about payouts, it's also an incentive to be more mindful of the insured item. If United insured the instrument for a whole lot of money, they'd certainly treat it much more carefully than a normal piece of luggage.
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@antiquarian said in An airline tried to get a musician to check her 17th-century violin. A ‘wrestling match’ ensued.:
@Rhywden said in An airline tried to get a musician to check her 17th-century violin. A ‘wrestling match’ ensued.:
Yes, you'll get some money. But the instrument is still broken.
If your insurance doesn't give you enough money to buy another instrument, you got ripped off.
200 year old instruments are not exactly lying around on the street. You do realize that sometimes it's not about the monetary value?
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@cartman82 said in An airline tried to get a musician to check her 17th-century violin. A ‘wrestling match’ ensued.:
@Rhywden said in An airline tried to get a musician to check her 17th-century violin. A ‘wrestling match’ ensued.:
Insurance is all nice and well. It doesn't quite help you when your instrument has been smashed to bits.
Yes, you'll get some money. But the instrument is still broken.Insurance is not just about payouts, it's also an incentive to be more mindful of the insured item. If United insured the instrument for a whole lot of money, they'd certainly treat it much more carefully than a normal piece of luggage.
And? United have yet to show that they understand what money means, what with their regular damage they're doing to their brand. That's a lot of money we're talking about.
If they didn't pull this kind of shit you wouldn't even have the discussion in the first place.
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@Rhywden said in An airline tried to get a musician to check her 17th-century violin. A ‘wrestling match’ ensued.:
200 year old instruments are not exactly lying around on the street. You do realize that sometimes it's not about the monetary value?
Yes, but I also believe that money can be helpful because it can buy another instrument and the musician can continue to play music. We'll probably have to agree to disagree about this.
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@antiquarian said in An airline tried to get a musician to check her 17th-century violin. A ‘wrestling match’ ensued.:
If your insurance doesn't give you enough money to buy another instrument, you got ripped off.
Wooden instruments can be irreplaceable. It's likely not possible to build a replacement with current materials for an instrument built centuries ago.
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@antiquarian said in An airline tried to get a musician to check her 17th-century violin. A ‘wrestling match’ ensued.:
Yes, but I also believe that money can be helpful because it can buy another instrument
I guess that depends on how you define "another instrument". If you mean "another violin", then yes, money will buy another violin. If you take it to mean "another 17th century violin", things may look somewhat different. Cynical-Me imagines that owning a 17th century violin opens some doors regardless of how good one plays the instrument (after a certain skill level, of course).
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@JazzyJosh said in An airline tried to get a musician to check her 17th-century violin. A ‘wrestling match’ ensued.:
It's likely not possible to build a replacement with current materials for an instrument built centuries ago.
well, it is, you just need to figure out how to give the instrument centuries of wear, maintenance, and play in a reasonable time frame.
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@accalia speed bubble
No, wait, you'd have to be inside the speed bubble for it to work
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@cvi said in An airline tried to get a musician to check her 17th-century violin. A ‘wrestling match’ ensued.:
If you mean "another violin"
Yes, that's exactly what I meant. Look, no one is saying that it's OK to trash priceless musical instruments. But saying money to buy another instrument isn't helpful at all is just a .
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@antiquarian said in An airline tried to get a musician to check her 17th-century violin. A ‘wrestling match’ ensued.:
@Rhywden said in An airline tried to get a musician to check her 17th-century violin. A ‘wrestling match’ ensued.:
200 year old instruments are not exactly lying around on the street. You do realize that sometimes it's not about the monetary value?
Yes, but I also believe that money can be helpful because it can buy another instrument and the musician can continue to play music. We'll probably have to agree to disagree about this.
You're both right. The instrument has sentimental value that makes it priceless to its owner; additionally, it's old, rare, hand-made, and basically one-of-a-kind. The money from the insurance company could buy you a similar instrument, and hopefully with extra cash left over to help smooth over the fact that it's not the same instrument, but it could not actually replace the one that you lost, either sentimentally or physically.
Trying to putting a monetary value on an instrument like that is like trying to put a monetary value on a close relative... you can buy life insurance; it should pay enough that you won't suffer monetarily from the loss (e.g. replace lost income of a deceased spouse; eliminate financial stresses that you're facing so that you don't have those in addition to the overall stress of losing the loved one), but it can't truly replace them.
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@Rhywden said in An airline tried to get a musician to check her 17th-century violin. A ‘wrestling match’ ensued.:
And? United have yet to show that they understand what money means, what with their regular damage they're doing to their brand. That's a lot of money we're talking about.
Did any of that actually decrease their revenue?
Not the bullshit stock price projection, but the actual number of people who use their airline?
I doubt there's a significant dip. People will always just go with the cheapest option, that's why airline companies all suck.
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@cartman82 said in An airline tried to get a musician to check her 17th-century violin. A ‘wrestling match’ ensued.:
@Rhywden said in An airline tried to get a musician to check her 17th-century violin. A ‘wrestling match’ ensued.:
And? United have yet to show that they understand what money means, what with their regular damage they're doing to their brand. That's a lot of money we're talking about.
Did any of that actually decrease their revenue?
Not the bullshit stock price projection, but the actual number of people who use their airline?
I doubt there's a significant dip. People will always just go with the cheapest option, that's why airline companies all suck.
The thing is that if they pull shit like this more often they will come under fire from the legislation.
And that will hurt them fincancially.
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@da-Doctah said in An airline tried to get a musician to check her 17th-century violin. A ‘wrestling match’ ensued.:
@JBert said in An airline tried to get a musician to check her 17th-century violin. A ‘wrestling match’ ensued.:
From the end of the article:
Musicians should have it a little easier, in theory. Federal law requires airports to accommodate musicians who want to carry their instruments with them in the airplane’s cabin.
I wonder how that works for musicians playing the tuba or double bass.
Or the theatre organ. Or bagpipes.
One thing I think we can all agree on. Nobody should be forced to travel in the same cabin as someone with an accordion.
...or bagpipes.
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@cartman82 said in An airline tried to get a musician to check her 17th-century violin. A ‘wrestling match’ ensued.:
@Rhywden said in An airline tried to get a musician to check her 17th-century violin. A ‘wrestling match’ ensued.:
And? United have yet to show that they understand what money means, what with their regular damage they're doing to their brand. That's a lot of money we're talking about.
Did any of that actually decrease their revenue?
Not the bullshit stock price projection, but the actual number of people who use their airline?
I doubt there's a significant dip. People will always just go with the cheapest option, that's why airline companies all suck.
Which is what I have been saying all along. Most people choose airlines by going to their favorite travel site (Expedia, TripAdvisor, whatever other ones there are) and searching for flights from Point A to Point B, sorting by price and choosing the cheapest. That is how we have ended up in this race to the bottom situation. The airline companies are competing almost exclusively on price. And when you have to be the cheapest, you also get to be the shittiest. These are the choices that people are making.
If people chose their drink the same way as they did their airline, everyone would be drinking Dark Eyes or Old Crow, everyone would have a hangover all the time and no one would be enjoying themselves.
The really shit thing is that this has happened long enough now that there are no mid-grade options left. It is either Old Crow or Screaming Eagle. Those are the choices that are left at the bar.
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@anonymous234 said in An airline tried to get a musician to check her 17th-century violin. A ‘wrestling match’ ensued.:
Okay, so not letting you on board with something is one thing... trying to physically remove it from your hands is a different thing. I hope that "supervisor" gets her ass sued off.
I agree if that's what happened, but I don't think we're going to know unless someone comes forward with video evidence. I note that the article says the supervisor grabbed for the luggage tag to get Correia's name, and then it was suddenly saying the supervisor was trying to wrestle the whole case away. I wonder if the lawyer may be employing some hyperbole there (after all, it's a press release, that's his job) to intimate that the situation escalated a little more than it really did.
There's no question that it was an unnecessary hassle, but there is a question of how far it really went (their word against United's).
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@Polygeekery said in An airline tried to get a musician to check her 17th-century violin. A ‘wrestling match’ ensued.:
The airline companies are competing almost exclusively on price. And when you have to be the cheapest, you also get to be the shittiest. These are the choices that people are making.
YAY CAPITALISMS!!!!
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@Polygeekery said in An airline tried to get a musician to check her 17th-century violin. A ‘wrestling match’ ensued.:
If people chose their drink the same way as they did their airline
Seeing how crap lagers (Bud etc.) dominate the market for beers (with the exception of a couple of countries), I'd say this is already what's happening for some drinks.