Laptop in Suitcase??
Author
Discussion

cobra kid

Original Poster:

5,595 posts

270 months

Tuesday 17th August 2010
quotequote all
This nay seem a very daft question....but...

I will be travelling with work on Thursday and will be taking two laptops with me. Can I put one in my suitcase and carry the other on the plane??

Condieboy

769 posts

208 months

Tuesday 17th August 2010
quotequote all
Don't see why not, but I'd wouldn't put a laptop I planned to use again in the hold luggage.

CinqAbarth

566 posts

195 months

Tuesday 17th August 2010
quotequote all
Carry both as hand luggage.

I've done it several times.

Parrot of Doom

23,075 posts

264 months

Tuesday 17th August 2010
quotequote all
Don't put them in the hold. The cold buggers up the BIOS - it happened to me a few months ago.

skilly1

2,904 posts

225 months

Tuesday 17th August 2010
quotequote all
I have put mine in the middle of my suitcase a few times - no problem. Sony Vaio.

randlemarcus

13,646 posts

261 months

Tuesday 17th August 2010
quotequote all
Condieboy said:
Don't see why not, but I'd wouldn't put a laptop I planned to use again in the hold luggage.
+1
Delicate silicon doesn't react well to lobbing around.

Careful of the budget airlines handluggage weight limits though...

Puggit

49,820 posts

278 months

Tuesday 17th August 2010
quotequote all
Parrot of Doom said:
Don't put them in the hold. The cold buggers up the BIOS - it happened to me a few months ago.
Plus baggage handlers can't nick them from your hand luggage!

Flintstone

8,644 posts

277 months

Tuesday 17th August 2010
quotequote all
If you wish to see it again do NOT put it in your suitcase.

uk_vette

3,336 posts

234 months

Wednesday 18th August 2010
quotequote all
I have also put one of my lap tops in my hold luggage.
Then it got stopped in the ex ray, and I was asked back to open the suitcase, and remove the battery from the laptop.
I needed to carry the battery as hand luggage.

'vette

Ynox

1,754 posts

209 months

Wednesday 18th August 2010
quotequote all
Would never recommend doing this. Hand luggage all the way (and yes, it's a pain).

My record is 2 laptops, 1 set top box with hard disk and 1 mac mini through airport security scanners. Great fun.

schmalex

13,616 posts

236 months

Wednesday 18th August 2010
quotequote all
I've just dragged a spare laptop in our Australia office from Sydney to Wellington to Auckland to Hong Kong & then back to the UK in checked luggage. It was absolutely fine.

Due to the nature of the kit that my company makes, we sometimes find it difficult getting a lot of our products through security, so end up checking them in, as it saves having to answer a lot of awkward questions that we aren't really allowed to answer. Not had a problem with faulty kit yet.

zcacogp

11,239 posts

274 months

Wednesday 18th August 2010
quotequote all
I've put lappies through checked-in luggage on a number of occasions, without problems.

(OK, the luggage was lost on one occasion, meaning I spent 3 days in Belfast on a business trip with nothing more than the suit I stood up in, but that's a different matter. Luggage turned up a week later, with the laptop, all safe and sound.)

It was, for a while after 9/11 and 7/7, a requirement that ALL laptops were checked-in.


Oli.

bumblepup

87 posts

236 months

Wednesday 18th August 2010
quotequote all
I've had no issue doing this from a hardware perspective however if my laptop is in my suitcase when traveling to India my case gets marked with a white chalk cross before it gets to baggage reclaim, the customs guys then stop people with the crosses. For me the premise being that I am smuggling in hardware (what am I going to do, use it to steal their traffic management secrets!!). However in India everything can be solved with a bit of folding.

What I do now is just cover up the white cross on my suitcase with my laptop bag (that contains magazines for the fight etc) and try to get through customs “Midnight Express” style. I’ve had no problems since doing it this way…

SeeFive

8,353 posts

263 months

Wednesday 18th August 2010
quotequote all
Fook that. Nope, never. I know some baggage handlers and their car booting / ebay lifestyle. Plus the amount of smashed bags you see on carousels is not conducive to protecting delicate electronics.

If I was on a flight where weight of hand baggage mattered, I'd put everything else from my hand baggage (papers, leads etc) in the suitcase before I put my laptop in there.

See Rhod Gilbert's experience...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dhkm6sgPdtk

james_tigerwoods

16,347 posts

227 months

Wednesday 18th August 2010
quotequote all
I put my laptop, in a laptop bag, in the hold of a (insert small regional carrier here) flight a few years back - when I got it back, it was soaked - as was the rest of my luggage and all the contents.

The carrier told me that, while unfortunate, it was beyond their control - I wrote a stern letter to them complaining about the service I received and the fact that my stuff was wet - their reply was, for all intents and purposes, "fk off".

Marf

22,907 posts

271 months

Wednesday 18th August 2010
quotequote all
Carry it.