jontlancaster

Check in agent at BHD (Swissport) made me remove my laptop from my hold baggage, insisting that aer lingus doesn’t allow any laptops in the hold due to the fire risk. Clarified that it wasn’t just regional flights but mainline flights too.

never heard this before and can’t see any mention on the website. Is this a new thing or just a misinformed check in agent?

IrishNY

Lithium batteries shouldn’t be placed into the hold because indeed in the event of a fire there will be no access to it…just in the last week JetBlue have had a full evacuation at JFK due to a smoking laptop and and Lufthansa had a LAX-FRA flight divert to ORD due to a similar situation. Now…putting the safety aspect of it aside…let me offer some advice…

Never ever put laptops, important documents, keys, medication or anything else valuable into your checked baggage…there is always a chance that it won’t make the flight! Aer Lingus especially have developed a reputation for delayed and lost baggage this year…

irishguy28

Most airlines have policies that don't allow devices with lithium batteries to be carried in checked luggage.

Here's Delta, for example:

I'm not sure why you'd want to risk your laptop in checked luggage anyway; bags are often dropped or thrown about and it is not a good idea to put delicate items in checked luggage! There certainly is no guarantee that, at every stage of the baggage handling process, your bag would be handled in a manner appropriate for such a fragile device.

alserire

Would have thought that was common knowledge.

Never mind why you’d put a laptop in the hold in the first place. Chance of damage/theft etc.

DELLAS

Quite a few people get caught out with these things turning up at check in with rechargeable household gadgets even saw a Bosch Athlet being refused . E scooters another ticking time bomb . If one of those goes up the whole aircraft could go down !

jontlancaster

why would I want to? Because they charge extra if you don't check your cabin bag... I know you can still take a personal item, but it just seemed easier not to have a large laptop sticking out of a small bag (which is what I ended up doing).

EI's dangerous goods guide (Jan 2023) seems happy enough with "portable electronic devices (PED) containing lithium metal or lithium ion cells or batteries including... consumer electronics such as cameras, mobile phones, laptops, tablets" going in both cabin and hold luggage: https://www.aerlingus.com/media/pdfs...goods-2023.pdf

NWIFlyer

The regulations are all in line with those proscribed by IATA. The transport of Lithium-based batteries is fairly complicated and changes often under those IATA regulations, and I know of more than one export compliance officer who has kittens every time a query comes up. If the check-in agent couldn't determine the capacity of the battery, it's fairly understandable that they erred on the side of caution given the potential consequences if a fire developed in the hold.

The second outer for the agent is this: "Devices in checked baggage must be completely switched off and must be protected from damage". Protected from damage is likely to mean a very high bar - you'd be talking about guaranteeing that the battery couldn't be damaged or in any way pierced. That likely means a ruggedised laptop, contained within a dedicated hard case with sufficient padding around it to protect against impact. Most people wouldn't be able to comply with that.

There are a number of examples of fires within cabins where mobile phones have been damaged in seat mechanisms. It's why airlines now ask you to inform a flight attendant if yours gets stuck. A laptop battery is far, far larger and the fire would be far more serious if the battery got damaged and caught fire in an inaccessible hold. This isn't a battle you're ever going to win.

AirborneLocksmith

If you bothered reading the complete paragraph, you would see this: "For lithium metal batteries the lithium metal content must not exceed 2 g and for lithium ion batteries the Watt-hour rating must not exceed 100 Wh"

zkzkz

Not coincidentally you will not find any commercially available laptops with batteries larger than 100Wh. The Macbook Pro comes in at 99.9Wh which is, as I said, not a coincidence....

The text above seems to be copied from the TSA guidelines which follow the above sentence with "These limits allow for nearly all types of lithium batteries used by the average person in their electronic devices"

AirborneLocksmith

The same goes for external battery packs.
There’s a whole bunch of 100 Wh battery packs for sale, but very few that are larger.