Traveling with 30+ laptops
 

For work purposes I need to move 30 or so laptops around the US. I am comfortable putting them in a hard case and figure I can check them to fly with me.

Curious if anyone has done something similar before. Any advice?

30 laptops * 3 pounds each (rounding down) = 90 pounds

Think you need more than one case, even before looking at the dimensions

Can you ship them?

Have you considered the weight of hard cases that will hold 30 laptops, plus the weight of 30 laptops. You may ending up lugging around 3 hard-side cases at 70-80lbs each, checking and paying oversize/overweight charges.

Isn't shipping them viable?

nope. Need to travel with them. Good point. Will budget for charges.

Check with the airline.

FAA regulations allow you to check items like laptops, as long as they are for "personal use". It would be very easy to argue that 30 laptops are not for "personal use".

One of the concerns many people had during the period last year when laptops were not allowed on-board several airlines/flights from the middle east was around the risks of packing multiple lithium-ion batteries in close proximity, as most carriers were doing at that time.

If you were to ship them, then be aware there are requirements around labeling the boxes to show that they contain such batteries as well. Again, talk to the carrier involved to find the full restrictions.

FYI the largest Pelican case that fits airline dimensions weight 30 pounds empty.
I would also research the airline's baggage policies regarding battery packs as well.

I'm not sure if this is even possible. The 90 lbs don't take into account the cases or padding. I suspect that you'll need several cases (maybe 5, each containing 6 laptops) and really good insurance.

I've done this with about 5 or 6 for a training course using a padded Pelican (good case for the job). It was really heavy, I cannot recall how much but with the devices and PSUs I paid excess fees.

You will definitely need multiple cases, and should check with the airlines before check in if there's likely to be a problem.

Contact the airline about potentially shipping them as cargo rather than regular checked baggage. That may require additional time on the front and back ends to drop/retrieve. FYI, I've no experience with this and not sure how viable it is, but an avenue to explore.

I was thinking it would be at least 4 lbs per laptop, making it easily 120 lbs for just the laptops. Add in the packaging and you're probably looking at a minimum of 150-200 lbs, plus needing some great insurance.

Careful however with the implications of shipping it as cargo rather than regular checked baggage. Lost air cargo gets compensate differently (read: significantly worse) than regular passenger baggage. Either way, 30+ laptops will require an additional insurance policy anyway. Even with $200 laptops, you'll be looking at a value upwards of $6,000 (i.e. beyond what is normally covered).

I love FT forum when I see this kind of questions (travelling with 30 laptops, travelling with more than 6 bottles of wine...).

The question may seems strange but it is correctly addressed in the answers, with real example and so on..

Congrats to all of you who take time to answer these, without making any joke or stupid comment !

I was just thinking about this OP look at Pelicans but with that many computers it will be so heavy I bet it will be considered freight.

Get 29 friends :D

I suggest you consider using FEDEX or one of the other overnight express firms as an alternative way to move the equipment. There are a lot of regulations about packaging and shipping equipment with lithium ion batteries and they'll be able to give you the information you need in order to comply with said regulations. They'll pick up and deliver your stuff so you won't need a van/truck to transport all the boxes/hardcases to/from the airport.

Thanks all for the feedback. Super helpful to hear your questions and idea.
I'm assuming that we'll need to hold these in 2-3 cases.
I guess I'm thinking of this similar to AV or sound equipment that I see checked on flights frequently where they're using hard cases all the time to transport unwieldy equipment.