Traveling with Two Notebook PCs?
 

Has anyone traveled with more than one notebook? I'll be traveling over-seas for the upcoming biz trip and debating whether to carry mine and a new notebook for my uncle I recently purchased (notebooks are cheaper in US).

Am I asking for trouble with TSA if I travel with 2 notebooks in light current warnings about electronics?

You will not have any trouble with two of them, I've done it many times.

Customs in the country that you are traveling to might.

Just make sure that it looks neither one of them look like they are brand new.

AS long as you have a successful boot and log on, you should be OK.

You won't really be carrying 2 machines, you will be carrying one notebook and one taxable item you would need to declare. Make sure the second one does not look new and get rid of all receipts. If you claim it's not new and they find the receipt you could be in trouble.

I've occasionally carried both a business and a personal notebook without any problems and customs in the UK.

I've often travelled with two or more notebooks and not experienced any problems other than the predictable slow down at security to get everything out and on to its own pallet to be x-ray'd. As others have suggested, make sure you can 'log on', get rid of receipts, know your way around them, and a good explination at hand. In my case, it's normally a standard work machine and a demo machine (both IBM Thinkpads), and a personal machine (Apple TiBook), all easily demonstrable if the security people are interested.

I also try to leave everything in standby mode to simplify the impromptu sales pitch.


[This message has been edited by michswiss (edited 08-25-2003).]

My boyfriend travels with a Thinkpad and a Powerbook.

The biggest challenge was finding a bag to hold them. The Brenthaven Backpack designed to fit the 15" Titanium Powerbook holds two laptops securely, one in the sleeve that comes with it, and one in front of that. There are plenty of standalone sleeves you could get to insert in there if you want each to be protected. With both put away, there's still room for cables, dongles and other accessories.

Timbuk2 might be another option. They have some jumbo sized bags. Their laptop bag offerings are not as appealing as they once were, however, after moving much of the manufacturing to China and revving their product line. http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttr...orum/frown.gif Also, these aren't as professional looking.

Don't throw your back out lugging those machines around!

I usually have a Fujitsu PC and an iBook in my bag - never any problem around Europe, Asia, or Central America.

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-alan in sitges, home of Si-Do