Bringing guitar on Ryanair

Freddiestar

Hi,
Thinking of checking my classical guitar, in a padded case with extra padding into the hold on next Ryanair flight.
Any experience of this? Should I just get a hard case and not be so silly!!

martinedwards

hard case.

in fact, full flight case would be better.

pack any space at all with bubble wrap and detune the strings.

and at the other end, because the hold isn't pressurised or temp controlled, leave the case for as long as possible to re-aclimatise before you open it. the thermal shock could do damage.

slavetothegrind

buy a seat for it.
Chances are good the baggage handlers will destroy it.

tokaitelejohn

Buying a seat for it may well be cheaper too! I think there is a flat fee of 50 euro for an instrument in the hold. Having said that, I have brought an acoustic home from England with Ryanair in the hold. No problems at all - I just slackened off the strings a bit.

tokaitelejohn

Oh, and it was in a normal hard case - not a flight case.

Freddiestar

tokaitelejohn wrote: »

Oh, and it was in a normal hard case - not a flight case.

Whats a flight case?

Freddiestar

slavetothegrind wrote: »

buy a seat for it.
Chances are good the baggage handlers will destroy it.

How? If it's in a hard case

Freddiestar

tokaitelejohn wrote: »

Buying a seat for it may well be cheaper too! I think there is a flat fee of 50 euro for an instrument in the hold. Having said that, I have brought an acoustic home from England with Ryanair in the hold. No problems at all - I just slackened off the strings a bit.

Nope, €50 for hold...last time I checked flight was €75

tokaitelejohn

Re flight cases have a look on Thomann - https://www.thomann.de/ie/guitar_and_bass_cases.html
They're either made of plywood with an aluminium frame or tough abs plastic with the aluminium frame.
As I said I've taken plenty of acoustics on flights in the 'normal' guitar case with no problems whatsoever. That is how they are shipped from the manufacturer after all, albeit with the case in a cardboard box.

martinedwards

Freddiestar wrote: »

Whats a flight case?

hardshell case is generally cardboard or hardboard covered with vinyl.

Standard Stagg case.... about €60

Flight cases are seriously TOUGHER...... ABS moulded plastic or full on ply and alu strip.

My Hiscox case for my McIlroy retails on Thoman at €180

Even in i'ts case I would sooner buy a seat on the plane rather than put it in the hold.

Waara Rex

Freddiestar wrote: »

How? If it's in a hard case

True story here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo

martinedwards

Freddiestar wrote: »

How? If it's in a hard case

in a hard case, if it's lifted by the handle and set down gently on top of other cases, then lifted carefully again...... no problem.

if it is thrown 5m into a cage trailer than has 20 suitcases thrown on top, then the same at the other end to load it onto the aircraft...... then thrown twice more at the receiving airport......

and that dowesn't count the conveyors at baggage reclaim......

Freddiestar

Ok so I got a hardened foam case for €40 and attached a strap, de tuned the strings, wrapped it in 2 towels. It came out through the conveyor belt in one piece and that's a happy ending

Alanstrainor

Freddiestar wrote: »

Ok so I got a hardened foam case for €40 and attached a strap, de tuned the strings, wrapped it in 2 towels. It came out through the conveyor belt in one piece and that's a happy ending

Good to hear.

This isn't really a solution to your problem, but I've just gotten a Yamaha GL1 Guitalele for travelling with:

https://uk.yamaha.com/en/products/musical_instruments/guitars_basses/cl_guitars/gl/index.html

It's a ukelele sized 6 string. Tuned 5 semitones up from a standard guitar. But it's a beauty of a thing, for the price it plays amazingly and it really is quite small. Now you wont be playing gigs with this, but for practise on the go it's ideal.