laptop battery in carryon?
 

Hi everyone,
We just got our 1st lappy a week ago (a Mac). We have heard that there was some issues w/ those laptop batteries and carryon restrictions. We are flying AA (domestic) this weekend, but I can find no mention on their site (or the TSA site) on laptop batteries, and of course I cannot get ahold of a human being to ask. Should I be concerned about this, or is that yesterdays news? Thanks!

I have never had an issue carrying my laptop... in many years and hundreds of flights.
Are you taking a spare battery or something?

We just flew domestic round-trip with three laptops, no problems. Never had a problem on previous trips.

My daughter travels wtih her MacBook all the time. The only thing I've heard about is that you might be asked to power up a computer (or any other electronics) to demonstrate that it really is what it says it is, but I've never heard of anybody actually being asked to do this. In that case, you just need to make sure that your battery isn't down below ten percent.

There are currently no restrictions regarding bringing laptops in your carryon luggage. When you go through the security checkpoint you will be asked to remove the laptop from your luggage and place it in a tray from x-ray screening. The TSA agent may ask you to turn it on. Once you are through security you may place the laptop back in your luggage.

The stories you heard refers to a recall (about a year or so ago) of certain laptop batteries that could overheat and melt the laptop if they were left "on" for prolonged periods (a very few laptops actually ignited). As a result people were asked to remove the batteries when the unit was not in use. The faulty batteries were traced to a certain manufacturer's lot. They have all since been replaced and the problem no longer exists. To use your words, this is yesterday's news!

I always have my spare laptop battery open in my laptop bag and have never even been questioned about it. You'll be fine.

Hello everyone,

Thanks so much for the hand-holding. This is our first flight w/ a lappy so we obviously want to avoid "issues." I especially appreciate the additional instructions from A_Traveller - in anticipation of having to power up the lappy we will pack in a manner to make that easier.

Thanks again!
Erika

Erika - regarding the "packing" to be prepared to power it up if you need to -you have to take the laptop out of its carrying case and place it into the gray plastic holder. Then, it is run through the x-ray machine. We haven't had to prove that our laptops are truly computers, by turning them on, in many years, and that includes travels round-trip to Europe.