Make Your Laptop Ready for Flight and Travel

3 Parts:

Steps

How to Keep Your Laptop Bag Light and Easy for Travel

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A Laptop is handy and portable and you can take it with you during your travels. You can use it to keep in touch with your business partners, check your email, or keep yourself occupied in your hotel. Although there are no restrictions on packing your Laptop in your baggage, the Transport Security Administration does not recommend it. So if taking your Laptop is necessary, the best option is to hand carry it. Here are some helpful tips on how to make your Laptop ready for travel.

1. 1
   Use a "checkpoint-friendly" Laptop bag to ease through customs hassle-free

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   These bags spare you from having to unpack your Laptop from your bag. They come in sleeves and butterfly styles that can be laid flat on the scanning belt.

   

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2. 2
   Check for metal buckles, zippers, or snaps on the bag's Laptop section

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   Its compartment should be free from any other objects aside from your Laptop. It should also be obstruction-free.

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3. 3
   Put the power cords, zip drives, or other accessories in a separate bag or compartment

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   The idea is to have the Laptop scanned separately from other accessories.

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4. 4
   If you do not have a "customs-friendly" bag, you must be prepared to unpack it from your luggage for inspection.

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5. 5
   Prior to packing for your flight, make sure that the battery is fully-charged or that you have a spare battery for your full enjoyment during the flight

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   Should you decide to watch a movie during the trip, it will drain half of your battery life, so having a spare is recommended.

   

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6. 6
   Avoid putting your Laptop on an overhead bin during the flight

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   This will damage your Laptop, especially during turbulence. The safest thing to do is to place it under your seat.

   

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7. 7
   Make sure that you are aware of the different airline rules about using laptops while on flight

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   This may vary from one airline to another so it is best to be knowledgeable about them. For example, some carriers require laptops to be turned off when the door closes.

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8. 8
   Your Laptop can survive a long cross-country or international flight as long as you take into consideration the tips mentioned above.

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One of the most common problems with Laptop bags is that it tends to be too heavy. A good number of laptops these days are already made to be light so that it's convenient to carry around during trips. However, in some cases, even when the Laptop itself is light, it is the Laptop bag that tends to be heavy. Here are some ways to keep your Laptop bag ready for flight and travel as well.

1. 1
   Remove all unnecessary documents

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   This is one of the common things that people do with their Laptop bags. They would just dump everything until it becomes too heavy. Before going for a trip, make sure that everything that your Laptop bag contains are the things that you only need. Get rid of old documents as well as those receipts that you tend to just tuck into it.

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2. 2
   Choose a lightweight bag

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   Not all bags are meant for traveling. There are Laptop bags which are too thick and which have way too many compartments. Certain bag materials are also heavy and not ideal for traveling. As much as possible, avoid those pure leather Laptop bags as that alone will be heavy, even without the contents yet.

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3. 3
   Utilize the compartments of your bag to segregate your stuff

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   Laptop bags usually already have compartments for power cords and mouse so utilize that accordingly. There's no need to carry additional pouches for these things as that will only add up to the weight and will eat up a lot of space.

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4. 4
   Organize your bag

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   A disorganized bag becomes heavy because the weight in the different parts of your bag is not balanced enough. For example, you may put all the cords on one corner and then the rest of the base is vacant. That will feel heavier because of the imbalance.

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5. 5
   Use the appropriate bag handle

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   Most Laptop bags have prescribed handles. This is specifically designed to hold up your bag accordingly. If you decide to use a substitute, that may affect the overall ability of that handle to hold up the bag and may end up to feel heavier than it should be.

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If you have problems with any of the steps in this article, please ask a question for more help, or post in the comments section below.

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