flying harps

my small harp doesn't meet the size requirements to go in the overhead bin/carry-on for a plane. when i got it ages ago, we thought it would fit. but things were less strict back then. now i'm contemplating acquiring another harp that would travel well. but it technically is 'too big' although it has flown successfully for other harpists. i see guitarists in airports and i wonder, how do they do it?

now my 'baby harp' has a case i could put it in. it's a heavy duty small harp shipping trunk i picked up on ebay last year that was for a Clark Irish Harp (no longer made, however a few months after I got the trunk I found a harp to fit it on ebay-bad shape, though). the baby harp, in its protective gig bag, fits nice and snug in the trunk.

and of course the trunk weighs a ton. i dont want to think how much they'd charge me to put it on a plane. i had to pay $15 for my suitcase a few weeks ago on USAir. This time I'm flying Southwest.

it's quite simple really. i want to play harp for my great aunt, who i rarely see, and who turns 75 next month. but seeing as how all my harps are on the east coast and she is on the west coast....
if there was a major harp store in downtown LA i could just run down there in a taxi with her and play the harps in the store. but harp stores aren't in the places you'd expect them to be. even in manhattan, the place where i bought my pedal harp, International Music, closed down and moved to Florida. I think there's harps for sale in Brooklyn maybe, but by appt. only...i'm sure the antique or music shop here or there might have a small harp, but there's a lack of serious harp shops out there.