Do you fly here often, Chuck?

You need permission to travel to the United States.  Subject to certain conditions, if you only plan on staying a short time for business or pleasure purposes, you will need what is known as an ESTA visa, which is normally obtainable with minimum fuss.  'Cellists often prefer to book a separate seat for their instrument, rather than have it carried in the hold.  But a combination of these two things caused problems for a female 'cellist seeking to travel from Zurich to Baltimore to play in a concert there.  The problem arose as a result of a classic "computer says no" syndrome.  In order to book a seat for the 'cello, the booking computer required a name.  So the seat was booked in the name of Chuck Cello.  But now the American computer took over, and insisted that "Chuck Cello" (who as far as it knew was a person) would not be allowed to board the flight as it didn't have an ESTA visa.  The moral of this story is - never trust a computer!