Even if you buy an airplane seat for your carry-on or bottle of water it won’t make it on the plane if security says “no.” Space isn’t the issue. So pity the orchestra musicians who are accustomed to lugging their precious, often antique, and always fragile instruments onto the plane with them for safekeeping. Baggage handling is a crapshoot no matter how many warning labels you put on your case. I once watched tears stream down the face of a friend as her cello was rudely thrown onto a baggage conveyor belt. At our destination it was hand carried off and watched over by a kind baggage handler until she claimed it, but the damage was already done — her bridge had collapsed.

Summer is a heavy travel season for most symphony orchestras and quite a few are headed to London for the BBC Proms, the annual classical music festival. The NY Times looks at how orchestras are coping with the newly tight carry-on restrictions. The Bolshoi, currently in London, is looking into ferry and truck arrangements for the return trip. Orchestras accustomed to travel have their own crates for packing up large instruments and this time around those who would prefer to carry-on may need to join in the crating up. Faced with no crates, no carry-ons, and a canceled flight, New York’s Orchestra of St. Luke’s canceled a British tour that took two years of careful planning.