Delta Breaks Guitars, Too

‘Musician’s worst nightmare’: Vintage Gibson guitar mangled by airline baggage handlers

While boarding in Buffalo, Schneider says he asked Delta staffers not to check in the vintage guitar—which he estimates is worth about $10,000—and allow him to carry it on the plane and place it in an available space, as he did on the flight from Portland.

"I've always carried it on," Schneider, who also tours as the lead singer of the hockey-themed rock group the Zambonis, told Yahoo News. "Never been a problem before."

Schneider says he even showed them a link to a story about Congress passing the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 that made it easier for musicians to fly with their instruments—allowing them to purchase an extra seat on the plane for their fragile instruments.

But he was denied.

I guess why you have a gig somewhere else, and you're about to board the airplane, it's hard to insist on the right to put the guitar in the carry on.

As the pair of rockers waited at the gate for their checked guitars, Schneider asked a member of the flight crew to check on his prized ax as it was being removed from the plane. "He did and said it would be fine," Schneider recalled. But as the musicians waited for the luggage to appear, they could hear a screeching noise coming from the elevator.

"It was this crazy sound," Schneider said. "Metal on metal."

The case carrying Schneider's semihollow-body guitar was lodged between the mobile service elevator and a rail on the loading dock, shaking the elevator door. The case even bent a steel beam.

The guitar itself was pinned between two beams and took workers an hour to retrieve it. It sustained damage to the bridge, neck and tail that would cost an estimated $1,980. But so far, Schneider says, Delta has given him the "runaround."

Reminiscent of the case of Dave Carole, a Canadian singer who watch baggage handlers mishandle and break his cherished Taylor guitar, got the run around from United Airlines, and went on to make the classic Youtube video "United Breaks Guitars" which got millions of views, cost United Airlines hundred of millions of dollars in stock prices, at least temporarily, and resulted in United Airlines reimbursing him fully:



Schneider is not trying to become another folk hero but is asking Delta to pay for having the guitar fixed:

"I'm not a greedy dude," he said. "I'm just looking for $1,980."