[Tom Otley]

As no doubt forum users will have seen, there are several bans being introduced today.

Our initial story is here

US to ban passengers from carrying on laptops from Europe, Middle East and Africa

But it now seems the UK is also imposing a ban, details of which will follow.

One area of concern (for me at least) is what the effect will be of having all these lithium batteries in checked luggage

Lithium batteries: Fire power

[Cantona07]

Anybody got any views on how a laptop computer will travel in a suitcase, thrown around, bumped and bruised during baggage loading \ un-loading not to mention the freezing temperatures at 40,000ft, cant imagine the fun and games unfolding with damage claims to laptops, ipads etc etc.

[Tom Otley]

I can only imagine the effect on bookings for big source markets of these airlines (India and China) with passengers intending to travel to and from there to the US with a transit at one of these airports.

1. Passengers can’t work on the flight.
2 They can’t work on the stopover
3. The electronic item might be damaged
4. It might be stolen
5. Lots of companies won’t let a laptop travel in this way for security reasons.
6. They have to trust no one has left their laptop on sleep mode which might then get damaged and overheat – in the middle of a bag surrounded by clothes.

So I imagine travellers will immediately start looking for alternative routes and it will affect bookings – which will please the US airlines who have campaigned against the ME3.

[MartynSinclair]

Passengers need to check whether a checked in laptop is covered on their travel policy.

[FDOS_UK]

[quote quote=796797]Passengers need to check whether a checked in laptop is covered on their travel policy.

[/quote]

For some, it’s irrelevant, they cannot check in equipment because of data protection issues.

I’m one of them.

[Londonfrog]

These days governments can sell anything as long as they jam the word “security” in. I’m not buying it. Otherwise, France should be on the list (before UAE) as a country with most terrorist attacks in recent months.

[Intheair]

We should be careful what we wish for.

This could easily extend to all airports originating outside the U.S.

[TominScotland]

Interestingly and, in my case, thankfully, the UK list of countries is shorter than that of the US – only Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia are mentioned in press reports (BBC and Guardian). Thus the ME3 will not be impacted but Turkish Airlines, the other big carrier for UK transiting passengers, is included. With trips to/ through AUH, DXB, DOH and BAH over the next 6 weeks, I am mightily pleased!!

[Flightlevel]

Risk Management is the problem here. Several aircraft have been destroyed by batteries igniting in the hold, mainly freighters though, and batteries are supposedly not to be carried in luggage as check-in have asked everyone for years.
Now on certain flights they are to be put in holds? Fortunately for many, modern cellphones can do much of the same work, and even transfer data to your laptop, although the battery ignition problem still remains?

[DavidSmith2]

If I was the boss of Amazon, I would put external hard drives on the front page sharpish.

[MartynSinclair]

I have checked my travel policy (not naming it as I am not speaking on their behalf) but am not convinced I would be covered for laptop and other travel pieces of tech items that were stolen or damaged from checked baggage.

The reality is, there is no occasion I would agree to check in a lap top or similar. I presume the easy solution for passengers to avoid these bans is not to take a direct flight from the airports in question, instead fly to a country/airport that is not affected by the ban and then onwards to UK/USA. A hassle, but this appears to be a choice.

The interesting part will be the pilots/crew. Pilots and crew are subject to the same security requirements as passengers, in terms of liquids and metal objects. Does this mean pilots/crew will not be able to take stand alone lap tops and ipads onto the aircraft for operational use from the affected airports??

[wowzimmer]

I can’t see people giving up their laptops just yet but if it were to become more widespread do we need to think differently? Surely there are services that business people can take advantage of to avoid keeping all their data on one laptop?

Highly encrypted cloud storage systems, internet browser enabled word processing software, etc. It clearly wouldn’t be ideal but are too many people seeing their laptops as impregnable silos of information? With everything kept ‘off’ the laptop, it wouldn’t be too much of a problem to chuck the ’empty’ laptop in a suitcase.

Yes, yes – data protection, security policies, etc, etc. I’m kinda aware of some of the arguments but perhaps it’s worth a thought?

[FDOS_UK]

[quote quote=796822]I can’t see people giving up their laptops just yet but if it were to become more widespread do we need to think differently? Surely there are services that business people can take advantage of to avoid keeping all their data on one laptop?

Highly encrypted cloud storage systems, internet browser enabled word processing software, etc. It clearly wouldn’t be ideal but are too many people seeing their laptops as impregnable silos of information? With everything kept ‘off’ the laptop, it wouldn’t be too much of a problem to chuck the ’empty’ laptop in a suitcase.

Yes, yes – data protection, security policies, etc, etc. I’m kinda aware of some of the arguments but perhaps it’s worth a thought?

[/quote]

Everything kept off the laptop? That doesn’t sound realistic for me.

Some governments will not allow storage of any information on the cloud, then you have the EU dta protection laws to consider – just where is your cloud data being stored? Did you just inadvertently transmit sensitive data outside the EU, illegally?

Of course, YMMV.

[Swissdiver]

I am pieved, especially because I don’t buy the official reasons. After all, a laptop packed with explosives is as dangerous in the hold than in the cabin…

This is moreover a very bad news for BA, unless other countries adopt similar routes… I guess I will need to fly more QR to maintain the Gold…

[stevescoots]

I wonder how this is going to work if originating in places that ban these items from the hold. For example in China you cannot put LI batts in the hold, how will it work if flying Royal Jordanian or Turkish out of China into the UK?

this must have come from a direct threat picked up on Intel, curiously I had no questions or swabs taken when i took 2 laptops through LHR T2 last friday or transit through BKK

[Author]

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