Having an unfriendly flight! FAA banning MacBook Pro's
OK, so you arrive to the airport with a 2015 MacBook and the baggage checker asked you what year your system is and asks do you have proof the battery was replaced. You fumble not having any way to prove your battery is healthy.
The checker says you can’t board with it and you can’t check it either.
So now what to do?? Throw away your system, or rush back home to leave it, hopefully your friend who dropped you off is still around and you can just hand it to him to take care of it.
Sounds like fun ;-{
- The FAA has banned recalled MacBook Pros from all flights — like any other bad battery
- Recalled 2015 15-Inch MacBook Pro Models With Faulty Batteries Banned From Flights in U.S.
- Air Transport Restrictions for Recalled Lithium Batteries and Lithium Battery Powered Devices
- PackSafe for Passengers
- Apple recalls older 15-inch MacBook Pros because the batteries could catch fire
Update (08/21/2019)
Louis is on a tear!! OEM batteries explode, so 3rd party batteries are bad. Nice job, CNBC
Update (08/27/2019)
Well, it’s what I feared! All MacBook Pro’s are now banned as there is no means to identify the bad ones!
Virgin Australia bans all MacBooks from checked baggage This is a small airline, it will be interesting if others follow.
Update (08/28/2019)
Now Qantas is joining Virgin Australia Qantas Airways bans MacBooks from passengers’ checked luggage
Is this a worthwhile discussion?
Air travel is already stressful enough without having to check your laptop battery.
by Kristen Gismondi
@kristen - You can't check it either ;-{ Just like shipping batteries by air a big no-no ;-{
Trashcan or friend is it! Or just don't take it.
Check this Q out How to check if my battery is an original one?
by Dan
@danj You really can't tell outside of the model (A1398) and trackpad to be fair. I wouldn't fear my 2011 at this point but they look completely different.
It's not going to be an easy one to enforce. Just my take on it.
I'm also not traveling anytime soon so I've got time for them to figure out if they target all rMBPs and leave old style machines be or they more or less pick on people who say it's a 2015 on their own. I still have a W7 ThinkPad from when I trusted Lenovo so if I was traveling soon I'd probably bring for now.
by Nick
@nick - They will enforce it! If you can't tell which egg is bad in the dozen you throw the whole dozen out! Which is what Virgin Australia is doing! Will the others follow?
by Dan
@danj I don't mind the Virgin approach - that's fine. Where I draw the line is a ban on having it if it is fixed or immune.
I get it somewhat but blocking me from having one because of someone who is a bad apple is the worst way to get support for a ban. The only thing it creates is even more hot water against the TSA.
by Nick