I'm not so sure about the guitar angle though, as most (if not all) of the musos I know always carry their instruments on rather than checking them through, even to the extent of buying a seat for the instrument if need be. They don't trust a >$10k instrument to random baggage handling, especially as they require the instrument to make a living, just as I don't trust my laptop to the hold as I need it to work. It's like slapping a stamp on the instrument case and dropping it into the nearest postbox.

There might be a fine line between poor customer service and irresponsible behaviour by a customer, but in this case the blame seems to fall squarely on the shoulders of the customer. He should have known better. That said, United could have easily had a more sympathetic reaction when they heard the news.

I'm not so sure about the guitar angle though, as most (if not all) of the musos I know always carry their instruments on rather than checking them through, even to the extent of buying a seat for the instrument if need be. They don't trust a >$10k instrument to random baggage handling, especially as they require the instrument to make a living, just as I don't trust my laptop to the hold as I need it to work. It's like slapping a stamp on the instrument case and dropping it into the nearest postbox.

There might be a fine line between poor customer service and irresponsible behaviour by a customer, but in this case the blame seems to fall squarely on the shoulders of the customer. He should have known better. That said, United could have easily had a more sympathetic reaction when they heard the news.

- was this the act of a few select individuals or company policy? From reading his story, it looks like it applied to all.
- where Northwest see their revenue coming from – is this the return of looking at customer lifetime value?
- what's the cost of doing this vs. the cost of not doing this, especially in such a cost conscious industry. What factors did Thomas use when booking his flight in the first place
- Is it consistent across all parts of their customer facing business?
- Have airlines learned their lesson from that Guitar! – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YGc4zOqozo – over 5.5m viewers later…

Bottom line – when companies raise the bar like this, there is no looking back! A great great move..