Posted by Kenneth Sloan on February 24, 2002 at 22:11:27:
In Reply to: Re: TRAVEL ALERT posted by M.M. Carrasco on February 24, 2002 at 21:55:10:
FedEx (or similar service) may indeed be the way to go. My wife recently made a trip to visit a collaborator's laboratory - to do some work that required specialized instruments. These instruments were not the sort of thing that security would be happy to find in carry-on luggage, and not the sort of things she really wanted to risk giving over to the standard airline luggage handlers. So - they went by FedEx both ways. Smooth as silk - even when shipping&receiving was a bit sloppy on the other end, FedEx provided the name of the person who signed for the package - and that was sufficient to untangle the minor problem.
In a lot of ways, tubas fit the above description: not suitable for carry-on, and not something you want to give to the luggage handlers. They are, like it or not, FREIGHT. Deal with the people who understand freight.
I predict that there will soon be user-friendly freight counters that are reasonably convenient for air travellers. The only thing that's really hard to do (and expensive!) is to guarantee that the freight arrives at the same time that the passengers do. But, with some planning, you can balance that out with door-to-door pickup and delivery.
The one thing that won't come back is the free-ride of treated tubas as personal baggage. They never were, really, and it seems to me to be hopeless to try to continue to treat them that way.