A violinist traveling with a 243-year-old instrument encountered a baffling situation on Lufthansa that raises important questions about airline judgment and common sense.
Lufthansa Forces Violinist To Travel With 1782 Instrument Outside Its Case
German violinist Carolin Widmann was traveling from Helsinki when Lufthansa refused to allow her 1782 Giovanni Battista Guadagnini violin onboard in its protective case. Although she had flown with the same case many times before, staff insisted it exceeded carry-on size limits and could not enter the cabin. She was told she could only bring the violin itself while the empty case would be checked as baggage.
Widmann described pleading with staff as tears rolled down her cheeks. This was not a matter of convenience. It was a priceless instrument that forms the core of her livelihood. The idea that a 243-year-old violin should be carried bare through an aircraft cabin while its custom-fitted protective case is thrown into the hold defies common sense. Yet that was the directive.
Lufthansa later pointed to its standard cabin size allowance and reiterated that instruments larger than the permitted dimensions must either be placed in a purchased cabin seat (though this option was not offered in Helsinki) or removed from their cases. The policy itself is not unique among carriers, but the manner in which it was enforced reflects a larger problem. Airlines often treat instruments as simple pieces of luggage when in reality they are fragile, irreplaceable tools that cannot be casually gate checked without risk of catastrophic damage.
Per Lufthansa:
“Generally speaking, musical instruments are carried free of charge in the cabin. They must not exceed the dimensions of 55 x 40 x 20 cm. Standard violin cases typically exceed the 55 cm limit. In these cases we can offer the option to purchase a cabin baggage, that reserves a neighbouring seat to fix the instrument (e.g. a cello) on this seat.
“This is in accordance with company regulations and the communication outlined on our website. Or the instrument is taken out of the case to meet the allowed dimension on board. The safety of our flight has the highest priority.”
Luthansa should make sure that if it is adamant about enforcing its carry-on limit for instruments, it at least offer to let passengers purchase an adjacent seat.
The underlying issue here is discretion. Policies have their place, but rigidity without judgment produces outcomes like this. Asking a professional musician to expose a centuries-old instrument to potential harm while the made-to-measure case travels in the cargo hold shows a lack of respect for the value and vulnerability of such items. It also puts the musician in an impossible position. She can either protect the violin and violate the rule or obey the rule and endanger the violin.
Travelers carry more than clothing and toiletries. Some carry history, art, or the tools that define their careers. A measure of flexibility in how airlines handle valuable instruments is not an unreasonable expectation.
CONCLUSION
Lufthansa did not break its own rules, but the outcome illustrates the danger of applying policy without situational awareness. A 1782 violin is not ordinary luggage and should not be treated as such. Carriers should recognize the special category that professional instruments occupy and permit reasonable exceptions when the alternative exposes priceless items to needless risk. The decision to force Widmann to travel with an unprotected violin was unnecessary and avoidable, and it highlights the need for airlines to balance policy with practical judgment.
image: @carolinwidmannviolin / Instagram
From what I saw on her socials yesterday, I think part of the problem was Lufthansa outsourced the customer service desk…
Give it 25 years and even that will be outsourced to a robot that looks like a human. Sigh.
*deep sigh*
Honestly, a robot would probably be better than much of the front line staff at airports
Meanwhile, Air India broke a popular musician’s sitar that was in the hold with special handling paid for… this is why musicians want to travel on board with their instruments.
Of course, IndiGo broke its entire airline, so…
How large was the case in cm? Either way I don’t see most lh staff would be ok with even 1 cm extra
That’s insane. Hoe the instrument made it back without any damage.
Lufthansa is really bad with these sorts of rules. A few weeks ago in RUH I was told I couldn’t take a bottle of water I bought at the airport on the plane. Yes, this was after security at the gate. Very German and annoying.
Per PYOK, the option of another seat was checked and while there was availability on the first leg of her journey, there was no room on the second leg.
Also per PYOK, LH’s allowed dimensions are 55 x 40 x 23 cm and her case was 80 x 27 x 16 cm.
Poor Carolin Widmann. That’s rigidity extreme even for the Germans.
But this is Lufthansa we’re talking about. The airline that treats paying customers like an inconvenience rather than the reason for their existence.
Whether it’s collectively punishing 128 Jewish passengers for the alleged misbehavior by a few, rampant overbooking (more so than peers), terrible customer service or shite labor relations – you’re getting Sphor’d every time you fly with them. It does not get appreciably better in first class.
The violinist’s ordeal is appalling but entirely predictable. Lufthansa has elevated customer disservice to an art form, where policy trumps sense and passengers are processed like cargo with less care. The only time they will waver from policy is to make their passenger’s experience worse.
Yes experience in ‘processing Passengers’ might be thought as Running in Their Blood ?
she should have taken the train.
she knew the policy ahead of time correct? she had gotten away with it before and decided to try her luck again, her choice. Could she not have purchased an extra seat when booking the flight originally?
Yes you are correct! If the violin is so precious & she flies all the time. She would be aware that most airlines have the same rules. To bring in the cabin you must buy another seat & secure with a seatbelt. The airline did nothing wrong.
The reason she wasn’t offered another seat at the time is because they may not have had one at boarding time. The woman is in the wrong here. Period.
You septics and your obsession with menstrual cycles.
Nobody wants to hear about your disgusting bodily functions
It comes down to what she was Playing in Finland…if the Sibelius,I would not have let her board the Plane…maybe the Instrument but Not her !
Nurse…quick an Asprin !
How many people have money for an extra plane journey? Even the poorest of people might have a violin worth a few thousand $ which they want to take with them wherever they go so they can practice every day.
A violin in a case should ALWAYS be allowed. It should even be extra to other hand luggage without charge. Or say $20.
But this story is disgusting!
Ah, yes, the less-bad ‘ICE’
Please advise how she could have taken a train from Helsinki.
I ran into virtually the same situation. Initially the agent advised the customer it was oversize but called me over. I explained that while the agent is correct, she has a unique circumstance and would make an exception. I had a little chat with the #1 flight attendant and she was in agreement with putting in the forward coat compartment . I had the customer board with first class and she was happy. If somebody were to ask why she could bring an oversize carry on and they couldn’t I would tell them if they had a 400 year old violin in a case like hers, I would do the same thing for them.
I’ve read of precious, irreplaceable musical instruments being accommodated in their own business class seat. This is probably the way to go.
Those that remember the Brezhnev period in Soviet Russia will remember after the ‘relaxattion’ (?) El AL flights to Israel were full of no one but Violinists…with some Pilots being either music lovers or Players even El Al had to put a stop to Pianists bringing their Old Bosendorfers Grands…but I suppose Uprights were permitted in First Class.
I shared my frustration about how flying in Europe is a total lottery in terms of what experience you will have. During the pandemic I bought 4 carry on luggage for our family all EU sizes so we could fly with our luggage without having to check them in and be part of the thousands of passengers that lost their luggage’s during the pandemic. Well, we have been using them every summer and it is crazy to see that although there is a European size for carry on many EU airlines have their own standards which are very different. Also, there were flights where I felt stupid for carrying such a small luggage while passengers brought literally anything they wanted on board and nobody said anything. And to make things worse, I usually buy business class on EU flights to them get first into a bus to then arrive at the plane and the opposite side of the bus opens and I am the last to board and find that overheard bins are already full. WTF!
Those that remember the Brezhnev period in Soviet Russia will remember after the ‘relaxation’ (?) El AL flights to Israel were full of no one but Violinists…with some Pilots being either music lovers or Players even El Al had to put a stop to Pianists bringing their Old Bosendorfers Grnands…but I suppose Uprights were permitted in First Class.
Being married to a German woman for 25 years, I know that “You Must follow zee rules”.
I am winning a Nobel Prize in Medicine next year (I elucidated how to cure drug addiction, schizophrenia, Alzhimer’s, and ADHD), and America will tax half of it away while Sweden won’t allow me to take more than 10,000 Euros off the continent with me back down here to Florida. Lucky I am a flute player, because I can carry my instrument with me on the plane for free!
Idiot for bringing it to their Attention,now they will find a way to forbid Flutes on board and an outsourced idiots will accuse the flute of being a poison Dart tube and You, a Motzartian terrorist.
I suggest you send your Flute by Pidgeon post and buy a Triangle !
Next time fly Finnair. Lufti is trash.
“Ze compooter zes ‘nein.’ Next!”
I think if you had left the airline’s name out of the article and asked readers to guess, a very high percentage would have said Lufthansa. I have a couple of rules of my own. First, avoid Lufthansa if at all possible. Second, never, under any circumstances, fly to, from or through LHR.
Europe: proudly telling customers to go eff themselves since 450 AD.
It was an admirable and clever dig to use the term ‘situational awareness’ at the end of the article. This is a common term used in pilot training (I am a GA pilot). Its a lazy, somewhat pedantic term I have never seen used outside of the aviation world, and therefore I am chuckling at the way its used here.
Last year I flew to Florence and paid for a seat for my violin . I still have the boarding pass in the name of Mr Musical Instrument….. much to my displeasure, the staff paid no attention to the size of passengers hand luggage and I stored the instrument in the lockers without any comment.
British Airways have never given me any bother with putting the violin case in the cabin storage.
Hi Matthew,
Would you be interested in a story where a comment of a HON Circle member to a Purser on a Lufthansa flight that they planned to miss the final segment due to family illness lead to this purser reporting the pax to the revenue department (!) and the revenue management demanding a further payment for several hundred Euros due to recalculating the fare and not completing the trip.
After the intervention of his lawyer, the well-known Lufthansa destroyed Dr. Böse, they relented and ceased their claims for funds.
Mental…
https://www.drboese.de/blog/bundesgerichtshofs-lufthansa-agb-zur-couponreihenfolge-unwirksam-lufthansa-knickt-vor-dem-amtsgericht-duesseldorf-ein/
The passenger was aware of this problem. And if sometimes she got her way, that doesnt mean allways will be the cas. For so old and pricelless item she ought take all precautions, albeit buying an extra seat. And not blaming others.
Some years ago the various unions representing musicians around the world made an agreement with the airlines to allow instruments, other than obviously large ones, into the cabin. So what is going on? In Carolin’s situation Lufthansa’s rigidity is absurd. The volume of the instrument in its case is almost half of a maximum permitted dimension, its weight is likely to be at least one third of most passengers’ carry-on baggage and it fits more neatly into the overhead lockers than most other carry-on bags. And this is quite aside from rarity and value considerations. And are not the Germans more music-loving than most nationalities? Or used to be. It seems that we are all descending into a world of plebeians and ignoramuses (ignorami?) Good luck, Carolin!
Lufthansa seems to be being quite…”German” these days. Rules lawyering, that “other” incident a year or two back…
Honestly, under those circumstances I think she should have refused to board and asked for her bags back. And, frankly, should seek a status match out of *A immediately (if she has status to speak of).
My wife have traveled with her violin on Delta flights without any problems. In some cases, the flight attendants even offered to have the case in the special place they have for their items. I guess we are pampered by Delta. The case fits perfectly in the overhead space where we put out carry on on front. In my 2 Million+ miles, I have never fly Lufthansa and I have no reasons to do it. This is another example of the brutal treatment we costumers suffer from the “democratization” of air traveling.