i phoned virgin last night, the reply after much huming and hawing is that its the descression of the person at the check in desk as to if its checked, carry on or can be checked at the gate.
ive just emailed virgin asking about special compensation, as they make special compensation for bikes and skis etc, we will see what they say. either way a hardshell case is going to get pretty close if not bigger than the luggage size allowance.
fender guitars tend to be the same price give or take a bit. some schecter are compareable ( if you can find them over here!) . pickups and strings tend to be nearly half the price.
the guitar i am after is not normally available in the uk, its a gibson sg classic, i found one in pedal world in london last month £1100 they retail in the us for $899
sounds like a good deal.....well good luck with your purchase, transport, etc...
as i said, there was one time she had to check it at the door when the delta flight attendants lied to us.......it was the flight from NYC to Orlando (for her audition at WDW).....
when we checked in for the flight, the ticket agents said that we could take the guitar on board....
but when we got to the plane, the flight attendants lied that it was an FAA rule that the guitar wasn't allowed on board...
so we let them take it from us....the second lie was that the guitar would be brought right back to us at the plane door in orlando....
when we landed in orlando, the ground staff said, no, only prams are brought back to the door, we would have to go to the lost baggage office to pick up the guitar.....
so off we went, not very happy campers, as you can imagine...
when we got to the delta lost baggage office at baggage claim, the woman working there was incredibly nice.... and she was SHOCKED that they'd taken the guitar away from us.....
she said there is no such FAA rule and that delta itself also permits carrying the guitar onto the plane....she couldn't understand what the problem was of that flight crew....
(as i mentioned, that was the only plane where we had problems...every other flight let it come on board, including other delta flights, as well as american, northwest and the airline we fly overseas - but overseas we fly business, when they don't usually bother us about anything)....
anyway, this woman rushed off to find the guitar and within a minute came right back....turns out a different ground handler couldn't believe it when he saw the guitar case....he also has a guitar and said he would have freaked if someone had taken it away from him....he knew that whoever belonged to the guitar must be worried so he hand carried it right to the baggage office himself....
anyway....nice ending to the story.....two very sweet kind people........
), there seems to be 2 options 
) 
oh well, it is what it is!
