Flew up to Baltimore with the banjo. Southwest Air let me carry it on but only if a agreed not to play it. I guess it could be used as a terrorist weapon. I did loosen the strings a bit for changes in pressure.

I fly all over the place with my fiddle. I never thought of loosening strings...and don't want to know about it.
Because I am allowed 2 bags....I travel light. I stuff my pocketbook and computer into my suitcase and then my fiddle counts as my second item.
Every time I travel with my fiddle I spark conversations....little do peope know that their ears would bleed if they heard me play!

I took my Gibson guitar in hard case to music camp last October on Delta. They were very accomodating. On three of the legs of the trip I walked right on board with it. Once it was AFTER the gate agent told me I would have to gate check it and gave me a tag for it. I ignored this and walked on. The flight attendants in each case took it with a smile and put it in a closet. On one leg the plane had huge overhead compartments and they told me to put it up there, which I did. No problems. Can't speak for other airlines. Now I have a travel guitar that folds up and might be easier to fly with.

Cool to get your instrument o fly "first class" in the upfront closet!

I've flown SWA and put my banjo right in the overhead compartment (Boeing 737). Didn't think to loosen the strings but I didn't have any problems. MomPodell you play fiddle just fine. See ya at the beach

I have flown with my mandolin, no problems. It fit in the overhead bin. However, it was a couple of years ago and things might have changed. I know one time when we tried to take a banjo, they wanted to charge us more than the price of another ticket because it was "oversize cargo". As if we would let the gorilla baggage handlers touch one of our instruments. Now we only take instruments if we are driving.