FIM

“Dear Musicians’ Union

I am wri­ting to let you know about a recent inci­dent con­cer­ning Air France when tra­ve­lling out of London Heathrow Terminal 4 to Paris Charles de Gaulle.

I thought perhaps you might be inter­es­ted to have further evi­den­ce of the con­ti­nuing unte­na­ble cir­cums­tan­ces faced by musi­cians who have inter­na­tio­nal careers and thus need to tra­vel on a fre­quent basis.

I play the gothic bray harp. This is a very small harp mea­su­ring 106 x 46 x 22 cm. It looks a bit like an acous­tic gui­tar. This year alo­ne I have pla­yed in 10 European coun­tries taking over 30 one way flights in order to play and teach.

I had already flown with Air France on 4 sepa­ra­te occa­sions in 2013 alo­ne without inci­dent. However, on Saturday 23rd November, I arri­ved at London Heathrow for the return por­tion of a Paris to London to Paris flight. I had flown to England with my harp as hand lug­ga­ge on the out­ward bound already (on Thursday 14th November). At check in, the check in clerk pro­cee­ded to label my bag­ga­ge and then called over a super­vi­sor when he saw my ins­tru­ment. I explai­ned that it fits no pro­blem in the overhead loc­ker and that I had flown to London with it as hand lug­ga­ge. Also, I had no other hand lug­ga­ge. The Air France repre­sen­ta­ti­ve said that I would have to buy an extra seat, that it would take up 3 peo­ple’s lug­ga­ge spa­ce in the overhead bins and that the Air France policy is clear; if it is out­with the nor­mal dimen­sions for hand lug­ga­ge (55 x 35 x 25 cm) it can­not be taken on as hand bag­ga­ge. He insis­ted on repea­ting that by buying a tic­ket I had accep­ted the­se conditions.

At least clear appli­ca­tion of rules would mean I know what to expect ins­tead of it always being at the whim of whoe­ver hap­pens to be wor­king at the air­port on any par­ti­cu­lar day

I spo­ke to the Air France duty mana­ger at the Terminal and put for­ward the point that the incon­sis­tency is what makes it so hard to tra­vel. If the­re was a clear policy of ALWAYS char­ging for an extra seat for everything outsi­de the hand bag­ga­ge gau­ge (which would inclu­de trum­pets, vio­lins, saxopho­nes etc), then the peo­ple I work for would recog­ni­se I have to have an extra seat (I reali­se that this is in fact dis­cri­mi­na­tory, but at least clear appli­ca­tion of rules would mean I know what to expect ins­tead of it always being at the whim of whoe­ver hap­pens to be wor­king at the air­port on any par­ti­cu­lar day). She apo­lo­gi­sed for the lack of con­sis­tency but of cour­se, this did­n’t make any dif­fe­ren­ce at the time.

I was for­ced to buy a Eurostar tic­ket for tra­vel later that day at much incon­ve­nien­ce and not incon­si­de­ra­ble extra cost.

Clearly, I belie­ve their musi­cal ins­tru­ment policy is dis­cri­mi­na­tory as well becau­se it means rin­ging to buy a tic­ket at extra cost in com­pa­ri­son with buying onli­ne and the added fear that an over­boo­ked flight will any­way for­ce you to either put the ins­tru­ment overhead (ridicu­lous con­si­de­ring how much you’­ve been for­ced to pay for the extra seat) or in the hold (at which point I would have to disem­bark and not tra­vel for fear of what would hap­pen to it in the ten­der hands of bag­ga­ge hand­lers). However, in the mean time, I am wri­ting to com­plain to their CEO about incon­sis­tency of appli­ca­tion of the rules.

It seems to me that con­di­tions are wor­se­ning, having tra­ve­lled on a regu­lar basis as a medie­val har­pist for the past 13 years. This I belie­ve is due to chan­ging ways in which peo­ple tra­vel (now far more only carry hand bag­ga­ge) and the gro­wing num­bers of pas­sen­gers put­ting more pres­su­re on the overhead loc­kers. What frus­tra­tes me is that a suit­ca­se would only rarely have con­tents worth £3500 (the value of my ins­tru­ment) and are unli­kely to break and beco­me unu­sea­ble if trans­por­ted in the hold whe­reas my harp would be at serious dan­ger of irre­pa­ra­ble dama­ge. I can­not hire an ins­tru­ment on arri­val and if it did break, I would be out of action until it could be repai­red or a new one could be made – months of not working.

I know that as repre­sen­ta­ti­ves of musi­cians you must have heard lots of simi­lar, if not wor­se, sto­ries but I hope that this adds to your evi­den­ce collec­tion in a use­ful way.

All the very best,

PS I would like to say that Easyjet con­ti­nue to be my favou­ri­te and most trus­ted air­li­ne; their ins­tru­ment policy is clear and their staff are always wel­co­ming and unders­tan­ding. With speedy boar­ding I never have a pro­blem fin­ding a spa­ce for my ins­tru­ment and I am never ques­tio­ned about it even when the staff are having dif­fi­culty fin­ding room for all the other pas­sen­gers’ bags. Long may this continue”.