Problem Flying My Gown down

[cs2sgrl]

Hey everyone. I was not expecting this problem. I didnt realize that not every plane has some sort of closet on it. I just called my airline. AIRTRAN to see how I would go about flying the dress down. The lady on the phone was not very nice, first off and she spoke to me like I was an idiot. I was told that I could store it in the overhead compartment. I told her my gown will not fit in the overhead. Then she said that I would have to check it. HELLO I wouldnt want to check my gown and see it come out all destroyed on the carousel thingy. Does anyone have any words of wisdom for me. I was told that I could buy a seat for the dress. Has anyone done this. I was also going to upgrade to business class but I am not going to buy a one way business class ticket for my gown. Has anyone gone through this??

Toni

 

[hmgolden]

We flew JetBlue, which like airtran, doesn't have closets on the plane.

I bought my dress a plane ticket for the way down. In my dress bag I had my dress, my crinoline, and my MOH's dress. The bad was HUGE! Having the seat on the way down worked out perfect, DH and I loved having the extra room on the plane, and the ability to check extra bags.

On the way home, my dress was supposed to hitch a ride with my aunt, but somethings happened and we weren't able to meet up with her to do a hand off, so we ended up taking it home with us. Since we hadn't bought an extra ticket on the way home, my dress ended up in the overhead compartments. And it made the trip just fine (thankfully, my mom had taken my crinoline, and my MOH had taken her dress, so the bag was much easier to manage).

DH still makes fun of me for insisting on buying a seat of the dress on the way down, but it was well worth the money for my piece of mind.

 

[cs2sgrl]

that is what I was thinking of doing since the ticket will only cost 70.00. my DF is just nervouse that they wont let me keep it on the seat. And that we would have bought the ticket for no reason.
I think I will call the airline again.
Toni

 

[hmgolden]

They'll make you buckle the dress into the seat, but you can definetly keep the dress in the seat. When I asked them about booking the ticket for the dress (as the dress doesn't have a name or any id ) they just told me to book it as Extra Seat Your Last Name. I know several brides who have done this (on varying airlines), you shouldn't have a problem. Good luck!

 

[professorandmom]

Have you seen the cable show "Airline" - if you saw the one with the destroyed checked gown (run over by the luggage tram), you would buy a ticket!
Good luck
Barb

 

[fugayzee]

I packed mine in a caryon suit case. My dress was realy big too but being that I was having it steamed when we got there it didn't matter if it was wrinkled. Oh we also had my mothers dress, shoes. my crown & a whole bunch of other stuff in the carry on!

 

[ahutton]

My dress was pretty poofy, had a crinoline and a very long detachable train. I was still able to use the garment bag I got from the dress shop. I put the crinoline in a plastic blanket bag that I had gotten a cotten blanket in. I had to stuff and push all the air out but it went in there and that was in the bottom of the dress bag. I laid the train section down on the bed and then put my dress in the middle and wrapped it up like a taco. I put my headpiece over the hanger and then set it onto the bag. I had to do a lot of "pushing the air out" but it did get everything in that bag and got it safely zipped. I then carried that on the plane, and the Flight Attendant helped me fold it in half and put it in an overhead bin. They closed the bin and told others boarding it was full so nobody else put anything in that bin. I didn't feel too bad though, there were 8 of us on the flight, and not everyone had carry-on luggage, so I "borrowed" their extra space. I had arranged for a steaming the evening of our rehersal, so I wasn't worried about it being crushed or wrinkled. They steamed my dress, veil, and crinoline and it was all perfect.