It is a misadventure that Janusz Wawrowski will remember for a long time. As he was about to catch a plane to return home earlier this month, after a concert in Vilnius (Lithuania), the Polish violinist was refused the right to bring his musical instrument on board the device as cabin baggage, reports the Huffington Post.
It is in a post on social networks that the famous musician tells his story. When he wanted to register, Janusz Wawrowski had the bad surprise to learn that his violin had to travel in the hold of the plane. “We’ll see if it gets damaged in the hold,” an airline employee told him. A news that did not please the musician at all given that his instrument respected the format authorized for cabin baggage.
Eight hour drive
Moreover, it was not just any violin but a Stradivarius, a brand of violin making extremely famous for its high quality instruments, which costs 5 million euros. A sufficient reason to explain the artist’s refusal to leave it in the hold for fear that it will be damaged. But the airline did not back down.
Faced with this refusal, Janusz Wawrowski therefore decided to return by bus to Warsaw to ensure the safety of the violin. If the airline had initially refused to reimburse his plane ticket, it finally changed its mind in the face of the media coverage of the case and described its employee as “inexperienced”. The company also agreed to reimburse him for his eight-hour coach journey.