Laptops on airlines - do's & dont's, suggestions & considerations

[weekend warrior]

About to embark on a 10+ hour flight and was wondering if people would like to share their experiences with in-flight portable computing, particularly the do's and dont's, safety and security restrictions to heed, going through checkpoints, keeping a laptop safe and intact, suggestions for maxing battery life, locating places to recharge, wi-fi considerations, useful links on traveling with laptops, other miscellaneous and/or trivial problems you've encountered, even horror stories we can all learn a thing or two from ;) - those sorts of things.

[Ptero-4]

I can say this:

1) Don't put your laptop open in your seat's food tray because the passenger in front of you may try to push the back of the seat toward you and break your laptop screen, also don't have it in the baggage holders above your head because it may fall from there if the stewardess or another passenger opens the holder's door without knowing that there's a laptop in there.

2) when choosing a seat request that the cigarrete lighter is enabled in the seat you get, many airliners disable most of the cigarrete lighters (which are popular laptop battery recharge sources among those who carry their laptops in their air trips).

[jason.b.c]

I thought you couldn't use electronic devices like that on airplanes anymore..??:confused:

[aysiu]

You can use electronic devices like laptops. Cell phones are a no-no, though.

What's this about cigarette lighters? You can't smoke on planes, can you?

To max battery life, turn your monitor to its lowest setting.

[prizrak]

You can't use them on take off and landing but they are ok to use in flight. You need to remember that when going through security you need to take it out of the carrying case. Wi-fi should be turned off on the plane unless it's one of those with wi-fi on the flight. Best place to put the lappy is under the seat in front of you overhead storage is not the best choice. Also close the laptop whenever you are not using it, not uncommon for flight attendants to knock them off the trays or like someone above said someone reclining. Best way to maximize battery life is turn off anything that is not necessary at the moment. O

[weekend warrior]

Here's what it says on my Lufthansa ticket (bold mine)


For safety reasons the usage of the following is not permitted during your stay on board:

Devices emitting electronic waves, mobile phones, walky talkies, radio remote controls, cathode ray tube screens, wireless compter mice and keyboards, pc printers, cd-burners and mini disk recorders (in recording mode), radios and stereo units, pocket radios, tv sets, telemetric equipment

Other electronic devices (such as laptops) can be used after take-off and before landing according to announcements

[weekend warrior]

Has anyone tried the FlyNet broadband services on Lufthansa, talked about here:
http://travel.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,17471-1454584,00.html

and here:
http://konzern.lufthansa.com/en/html/magazin/internetcafe/index.html

or something similar from other airlines? Is the service any good? It'd be a great way to kill time...