Greetings and I had a question I wondered if more frequent travellers around Hawaii could help with.

I have an HA flight LIH to HNL coming up. I connect to an AA flight to PHX later. (I know I have will not be able to have our bags through checked and have allowed enough time.)

I have a laptop which I frequently pack in a secure padded bag which is designed (my work, who supplied it, tell me) for being checked in and I have cheerfully included it in checked baggage on (amongst others) BA, AA, QF and CX. When I was checking in for the flight to LIH from HNL I was asked if the checked baggage contained a laptop and was told to remove it as it was "a fire hazard". This seems odd - are MD-9s/B717s something special? And I can't find anything on the HA website (maybe I didn't look hard enough) about laptops in checked baggage. I wondered if anyone had any experience of this.

Thanks a lot for any experiences.

See http://money.cnn.com/2016/02/23/news...ban-airplanes/

HA did have a lithium battery fire recently on an interisland flight from a checked bag.

Thanks. That would explain it.

Lithium batteries in checked bags is more than just a Hawaiian Airlines issue, it's an industry issue. Most, if not all US carriers have banned the practice of checking bags that contain these batteries and most also will not accept them as cargo shipments. In light of several disasters on cargo carriers, it's an issue that is of great importance and everyone should be vigilant about.