How to fly with your wedding dress?

Bring it as a carry on.

Carry on for sure. Don't check it! And coordinate with your venue to have it steamed after you arrive.

One of my coworkers told me yesterday she bought an extra seat for her dress, since they can't guarantee an over head compartment on the plane.

I packed my dress as a carry on. This video was very helpful: https://youtu.be/Qsuve7tfqzs

My colleague told me that she is bringing hers as a carry-on. She's flying Southwest and called them to see if they have any space in the flight attendant closet. They said that it's possible but they can't guarantee it. So she paid an extra $30 for her and her FH to get primary boarding hoping a closet works out or she will have it flat in an above compartment.

One of my girlfriends used a garment bag as her carry on, they stowed it in the overhead compartment. better than to pack it in your luggage and chance them losing it.

I had the hardest time with this. I called airlines beforehand and nobody knew what to do. I just brought it as a carry on, and we put it in the overhead compartment above all of the luggage! The flight crew was more than happy to accommodate, I just let the crew working at the desk know before we started boarding the flight that I had a wedding dress with me.

I brought mine on the plane and told them it was my wedding dress. They put it in the coat closet up front for me!

My dress was damaged by flight attendants man handling it! I do recommend carrying it on but pack it in a suitcase or heavy duty garment bag. Do not travel with the dress in the bag the bridal salon gives you. Also, closet space cannot be guaranteed.

I'm planning on having it as my carry-on and then having it steamed when I get there. Hoping to sweet talk my way into that coat closet.

It really depends on the airline. I brought a dress back home for a friend who married in her husband's hometown and left for her honeymoon right away. One airline (I think Spirit?) wouldn't let me bring it on as my only carry-on unless I was willing to fold it. They would not allow it to lay flat on top of the other bags in the overhead (which belonged to people I knew) and they had nowhere to hang it. The bride finally told me to just go ahead and fold it since she already wore it. The airline did not know whether or not I was the bride and whether or not we were heading to a wedding or from one, but they did know it was a wedding dress. They also made our friend check the glass framed ketubah because of size, even though it was within the measurements on their website and the flight was not full. It was not packaged to be checked. She had flown to the wedding with it on the same airline. We were very stressed out that day.

Carry on, although I would call the airline to see if they have any suggestions / how they can accommodate you.

I'm bringing mine as a carry-on. I talked to my friend who's a flight attendant and he told me if you mention it's a wedding dress they'll try to find some space for it to hang.

Thank you all for the advise and experience. I'm so nervous about traveling with it.

My dress is going to be my carry on. Also booked first class for the way there that way we will be boarding first.

Duplicate Post - Sorry!

I'm having mine altered at the DW location. So I'm bringing it as carry-on when we visit several months before. This way, I don't have to worry about wrinkles, etc, so much. My dress is also actually a bridesmaid dess, which makes life easy, because it will actually fit in an otherwise empty carry-on bag.

I asked JetBlue since I'll probably be using them to fly to Jamaica (they have nonstop flights from Orlando), and they told me that none of their planes have close space to hang anything. She said best bet is to bring in a garment bag and place in the overhead bin. She did say that some pilots may allow the dress to be placed up front in the cockpit with them during the flight- but that's obviously a pilot by pilot scenario.