Yeah, it's not just United either. Checking something that is both valuable and fragile is inadvisable. At least it was "only" a $3500 instrument in that case

Yeah, it's not just United either. Checking something that is both valuable and fragile is inadvisable. At least it was "only" a $3500 instrument in that case; my sister plays a Contrabassoon that is about 10x that price.