Airline power problem?

Sorry to hear about your problem. I flew from San Diego to St. Louis using the Magsafe adaptor, and received power to operate the MBA but no battery charging. I was surprised at no charging but didn't pursue. I had no problem with the trackpad. I flew on American.

It is not suppose to charge laptop just power it. As far as track pad concerns I would check system pref when it is hooked up to power outlet to see if there are any changes.

I'll also chime in -- it says right on the package that it will not charge, only provide power.

As a heads up -- I have never gotten the magsafe air adapter to work on an American Airlines flight, but it has worked on most other airlines (there was some small SE airline I had once out of Atlanta where it did not work as well, but I can't for the life of me remember what the name of the no-name airline was, so I assume most people here probably won't be flying it anyway)....

But just to reiterate, of the dozen American Airline flights I have had, their power supply has never worked with either my macbook air, or my older macbook pro with apple's airline adapter.

As to the touchpad not working -- a review of multiple forums lists all kinds of problems with the magsafe adapter on different people's macbooks -- from touchpads, to macbook resets, to draining of power rather than supplying power -- and it seems to be completely dependent on the airline you fly.

My person suggestion -- DONT PLUG IN on those airlines where you experience problems.

For an entertaining read, go to the Magsafe Airline power adapter page at the Apple Store and read through dozens of complaints, most of them airline related.

I've seen this happening a LOT more on my AA flights now. My MB (current model) battery continues to drain when I plug into the AA power ports. The green light is on, and my icon in the bar at the top shows that it detects power. But the percentage trickles down to zero at a rate of about 25%/hour. This has happened on a number of flights on all different aircraft in their fleet.

I watch movies that are already ripped to my HD, as I've done in the past (never directly from the DVD drive)

Ideas??? I have the original magsafe airline adaptor, which I bought at the time for my 2007 model MacBook (2.16Ghz). A few months ago I got the 2.4Ghz MacBook and still use the same adaptor.

I have the exact same issue on American Airlines and find it infuriating. Can someone from Apple please chime in here? Is there any difference with the initial adapters manufactured when they were first released vs. those being manufactured today? Is it worth trying a new adapter?

It makes no difference. No airline adapters work properly on American Airlines. I've never gotten any airline adapter to work with a mac on AA - not the original "big one" not the last couple adapters, and not the magsafe adapters for either the MBA or my older MBP.

Fly first class. Ask for a seat with a full 110 a/c outlet. 😉

ok, yeah, I have only flown first class once, but the seat did have a 110 outlet which I have never seen in coach. Of course, for the price difference between coach and first class, you could buy a spare MBA and get on the plane with two fully charged laptops ...

Excellent suggestion!! 🙂

Actually, I've personally never flow anywhere that I've needed to charge my MBA - the charge seems to last long enough to work almost from NYC to LA -- and frankly, I never really use it for more than an hour or two on the plane...

I watched a movie on the way to Paris and still had more than half a battery charge left when I arrived...

But I certainly know AA has a power problem in coach.

On United, the airline cable works well for the air.

On occasion you get a flakey Empower port - but otherwise no probs. Would be nice if it would charge the battery when the Air awas off, but not a big deal.

s

I experienced the same thing on my long haul flight with Qantas from London to Sydney. When I hooked it up to the power in the plane the mouse did nutty things, but not what I was trying to do.
The second I removed the power the mouse was working as it should. On 220V at home I have no issues at all.