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AIBU?

British Airways discrimination against cellists

181 replies

londonmummy1966 · 31/05/2016 18:16

Before I start I will admit that this is very much a first world problem but it is still really annoying.

My Dds are going on a music tour in Europe this summer and they are flying with British Airways. Dd1 needs to take her cello with her which is not an immensely valuable instrument but as is the way with cellos it is still worth more than the £1000 maximum compensation BA would pay if it went in the baggage hold and got damaged. There are so many horror stories about what happens to cellos on flights. So the only option is to book an extra seat for the cello.

I thought this would be fine as DH has loads of airmiles so we could add Mr Cello to our family account with the BA and use the airmiles to pay for the extra seat. Apparently not - you can't use airmiles to buy a seat for a cello. So then I thought that we could use the airmiles to buy the seat for Dd and pay for the cello. Apparently also not. IF Dd was travelling minus cello that would be fine but apparently BA have a rule that a cellist travelling with their cello cannot book a flight with airmiles . I asked why not and was told it was because it is a faff for the airline to allocate two seats together. However, if Dd was just really fat and needed an extra seat for that reason she could have used airmiles.

AIBU or is BA just taking the proverbial with this? Its not as if dd is a professional cellist or anything - just a school kid who was really excited about being able to play abroad. Also what jobsworth at BA has so little to do they have had time to dream up all these complex rules for the fairly small number of people wanting to travel on airmiles with a cello?

OP posts:

Report

WriteforFun1 · 31/05/2016 19:39

this is weird but having had my last holiday on airmiles, I am not surprised.

I had a choice of 2 flights out of loads going to the same place in the same week and then I booked nearly a year in advance. I can't see what the issue is either, if there's enough miles to pay for two people to travel together - they still allow that right? - then the cello can just be the person?

All this "2 seats together is a problem" is a relatively recent thing about making more money isn't it?

ToxicBits · 31/05/2016 19:40

Look just call the whole thing Orff

nuttymango · 31/05/2016 19:49

I wonder if the OP will be back blowing her own trumpet if she manages to get the problem sorted out?

BranTriLlygaid · 31/05/2016 19:51

Goodness me, you poor thing. Think you need to get together with the lady who's husband wont have kids until they can afford to put them through private school. Such awful problems some people suffer on here, really makes you think .

PandasRock · 31/05/2016 20:00

Oh come on now. The OP admitted t was hardly a life or death situation.

Yep, I have a comfortable life, and my children are lucky to be able to play whichever instrument(s) they choose. And they will undoubtedly one day go on music tours. Or sports tours. Or similar. And I will be totally hacked off if a similar computer-says-no situation occurs of I have to book an extra seat for dd2's cello. Because it is nonsense. The seat is available. If the cello was animate the seat could be booked on airmiles, but because it is an instrument it can't? Ridiculous. And bloody annoying to have to pay cash when you have enough miles for the journey, miles which could and should be able to be used.

No, nothing life threatening about it. But mightily annoying, and needlessly expensive.

WombOfOnesOwn · 31/05/2016 20:06

Why not just say your daughter is fat and needs an extra seat? She can simply show up with the cello and put it in her "fat seat."

Is it just too embarrassing to even tell the lie? It'd let you use the miles...

MrsGuyOfGisbo · 31/05/2016 20:07

Op - I am sorry about your problem, but am very grateful to you for posting. No puns of my own, but the others have made me literally laugh out loud after an unbelievably stressful weekend. MNetters are so witty!

Andrewofgg · 31/05/2016 20:33

I'm quavering with laughter for a minim-mum of several minutes. Don't forget to go to the bar at the airport.

Have you thought of sending your DD in the cargo hold instead?

ManonLescaut · 31/05/2016 20:43

OP, I don't get why people are being so vile to you over this

Lifestyle envy.

OrangesandLemonsNow · 31/05/2016 20:51

Lifestyle envy.

As you have no idea of the lifestyles of fellow posters you can't possibly know whether that is true of not.

ToxicBits · 31/05/2016 20:53

You need to consider the fact that perhaps some of these puns could only have been created by musicians before you talk about lifestyle envy.

whois · 31/05/2016 20:59

I thought your post was funny OP!

I think the situation is stupid. If you had 2 people, or 1 fat person wanting 2 seats you can book on air miles. But because it's a cello you can't. Pff that's stupid.

I have large instrument sympathy. I played massive one and t was such a PITA. Wish I'd been kept on the smaller ones rather than being moved up by my teacher because she needed people on the big ones.

nuttymango · 31/05/2016 21:02

Maybe we should all get violins and play them for the OP.

After all, we could all take them on the plane to wherever she lives. No airmiles needed.

PacificDogwod · 31/05/2016 21:04

OMG, DS1 has taken up the cello - I was really pleased about that until I read this thread

End the cello discrimination!

StrangeLookingParasite · 31/05/2016 21:10

Errr, just buy insurance, wrap it up properly and stick it in the hold? Is this for real?

Haf-decent cellos (like senior student ones) are around £20k. Not even the flight cases can protect them from the rough handling in the holds.

StrangeLookingParasite · 31/05/2016 21:12

And anyway, playing a string instrument is at least going to allow you to possibly have a career. I learned bloody flute, one of the 24354684131 girls to learn the stupid useless instrument, for which there's fuck-all demand, but parents like it because it's small and 'pretty'. Ugh. I would like to have been a musician, but got to grade 6, and realised there was basically nowhere to go.

treaclesoda · 31/05/2016 21:16

I'm enjoying the puns But I do think the OP is getting a bit of a hard time, because she foolishly used the word discrimination. I mean, clearly it's not discrimination, but I can see that it must be annoying.

Although all the talk of hiring an instrument in the country you're visiting has just alerted me to the fact that I must be a fairly crap musician because I could never get used to a hired instrument quickly enough to be able to play it in a concert.

londonmummy1966 · 31/05/2016 21:25

Thanks everyone - been off supervising music practice .... Toxic Zippy Sweary et al - thanks for the puns made me smile - at least no one has so far come up with any of the obvious viola jokes.

Also thanks to the professionals and experienced parents who havePM'd me - I'll be checking Allianz tomorrow.

OK so discrimination was a bit tongue in cheek but what annoyed me wasn't having to pay for a seat for the cello but the fact that I couldn't even use airmiles to pay for a seat for my daughter if she was accompanied by a cello (when I could if she wasn't taking the cello with her... )and actually why should choosing to travel with a cello mean that you get treated in a different way to any other traveller?
But there again when even the likes of Steven Isserlis and Julian Lloyd Webber get this special (negative) treatment - who is my 13 year old to complain? I'd still like to meet the idiot at BA though who had the bright idea to introduce a special rule that means that anyone travelling with a cello can't use airmiles to buy their OWN seat.....

OP posts:

londonmummy1966 · 31/05/2016 21:37

My dear little cellist has just finished reading through this thread - she loved the puns but Andre she didn't like your suggestion she went in the cargo hold - and there I was thinking it was a elegant solution.....

OP posts:

nuttymango · 31/05/2016 21:37

My DS learnt to play the cello, and the violin. The cello is good :)

fruitpastille · 31/05/2016 21:38

BA have no good rosin to pluck this decision from the air...

I've only read this for the puns

ManonLescaut · 31/05/2016 21:44

It rather does my head in that you had to explain 'discrimination' was tongue in cheek OP.

As for the claim that only musicians could have come up with some of the puns - funneh.

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BoffinMum · 31/05/2016 21:49

Ignore all the people on here that don't understand the issue, and ring the Incorporated Society of Musicians tomorrow. They currently have a campaign going on this issue and they also might be able to give some useful advice etc

ISM

SwearyInn · 31/05/2016 21:50

thanks for the update.

You came to mumsnet
Asked for advice

Et Viola! - a solution.

(Ps you could try another airline, but Mozart pretty similar)

BoffinMum · 31/05/2016 21:51

Actually it's not just the rough handling, it's also the environment in the hold. Even a bit of damp in there means that the special glue disintegrates and you will open the case to a load of firewood.

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