BA Handling of laptop/tablet ban
 

Given the laptop/tablet ban from several airports in a few countries, and the fact that the US is considering extending the ban to flights out of the UK to the US, it might be good to collect experience on how BA handles the ban.

A few points of interest I can think of are:

• The big 3 ME airlines have procedures in place to allow passenger to keep their device until boarding and to recover them at the end of the flight.
  Does BA do that anywhere?
• If you have to check your laptop in your bag, have there been any reports of theft?
• In case of theft, what are the recourses?
• If one has a connecting flight out of LHR that does not ban laptops, is there an easy way to recover the laptop before the connecting flight?
• Are there different handling approaches for different airport of origin?

If you have personal experience, be it out of IST, CAI, AMM or any other airport, please report it here.

No special procedures - check your laptop in at check-in and checked-in all the way through. I suppose you could ask for your bag to be short-checked if feasible (visa, time, etc).

Good questions - I am facing this for an upcoming trip to IST. At the moment I'm leaning towards going TK as their handling of it seems much better all around.

I am concerned about theft/damage. What is the limit on luggage claims for BA? Isn't it about £1k? That wouldn't cover my laptop, and if I have to check that, I may as well check the rest of my stuff, so I'm guessing I'd be well over that.

I also wonder how many insurance policies cover something like that in checked baggage. I know my current policy doesn't :(

BA's liability per bag is set out in the Montreal Convention to 1131 XDR (Special Drawing Rights), which is £1208 at the current exchange rate. Subject, of course, to the normal negotiations with BA around wear & tear, age of lost belongings, proof of purchase etc.

Personally, I've carried an additional insurance for my laptop and camera equipment. I believe it costs me about 2% of the value of all my equipment per year. I've called them to make sure that if something gets stolen/damaged when I am forced to check in my laptop, it would be covered. They assured me it would be. However the loss of use of such an essential work tool until it can be replaced and all the setup restored would still be non-negligible.

The latest Trumpeting suggests to me that it's not just laptops, but indeed anything bigger than a standard cellphone. So our iPads and Kindles also will fall foul of the rules.

Both of the bans were always for anything larger than a smartphone.

So what about battery packs, cameras, electric shavers, torches, GPS units, headphones, satnavs, bike lights, portable speakers, hairdryers...?

None of the "bans" have been at all clear on what items they are actually banning.

The UK ban has bans on items over a certain size. Power banks are banned in checked luggage too.

I thought that the uk ban was only on items with a screen I.e. Laptops but not cameras whereas the u.s. was all electronics?

Datapoint: I took TK from IST a few weeks ago and their handling was decent. They carefully packed into hard cases at the gate which they rushed to the luggage belt in LHR.

It definitely paid off to be near the front of the queue, although it takes the staff a while to figure out what item is in what case. I don't think power packs will be carried or allowed to be checked in.

​​​​​​​Well my camera has a screen...

Here is more information on the UK ban.

Here is more information on the US ban.

The UK is explicit that the ban is on "phones, laptops, and tablets" larger than certain dimensions will not be allowed in the cabin. (Though it's not 100% clear to me if they are following the size definition that airlines use, i.e. sum of height, width, and length, or if an item is banned if even one of the dimensions exceeds the maximum allowed for that type.)

The US does not give much clarity as to the size ("...larger than a cell phone/smart phone..." and "...approximate size of a commonly available smartphone..."), but is explicit that any electronic device, including cameras, larger than this vague standard will not be allowed.

I'm going to be travelling from Istanbul to New York next month on BA. I have a laptop, phone and Bose headphones. I'd like to remove the hard disk from the laptop and carry it with me in hand luggage and collect my laptop during a three hour layover at Heathrow.

Will BA let me do that? Will I be able to take the headphones with me or do will I need to check those in too? To take the laptop out I'll need to carry a small screwdriver which I suppose I can put in the checked luggage since if I don't get my laptop I won't need the screwdriver.