iMac on a plane?

Pleae for the love of your mac take it with you in the cabin. It counts as one carry on item. And those xray machines dont hurt it. You can doubel check with the NSA people before you get on.

Macblack,


Yes I have travelled with my iMac on a plane. Of course you have to check it in as cargo---not cabin baggage. No airline will let you hand carry somehting that big. And you will have problems with airport security, for sure.

First I tried to hand carry mine as cabin baggage with the iLugger Bag ( see this link: http://luggerbags.com/) to see if they would let me in---they did not, citing security and that it was way above the allowable dimensions of what qualifies as hand-carry luggage, and instructed me to check it in cargo baggage. I of course thought better about this because, while the iLugger is a convenient way to carry the machine around, I wouldn'ty trust it unaccompanied in the cargo bay (I don't feel confident the pads are that thick for this particular purpose).

Suffice to say, I promply rescheduled my flight and went home to pack the machine in the original box it came with---with the stryrofoam padding and everything. I felt that if Apple uses this packaging to ship their machines, then it should hold up in an airline cargo bay for the short (4 hours) flight.

I checked that in, arrived at my destination, and the iMac held up very well---not a nick or scratch in it.

Hope this helps you out...

No they did not.

But if you want to be sure, you can go to your airline office first, bring along the iLugger (not necessarily with the machine inside it yet) and inquire as to the possibility of hand-carryinng a bag this size. It would help if you tell them the weight of the machine (7 kg for the 17") it will contain Alert them, too that it will contain a computer and inquire if this may be a security issue.

If they say no, then the original packaging is your best option when you do check it in as cargo baggage. This box is, after all, the container that Aplle ships this very computer in, so it is really designed to hold up in this kind of situation.

Macblack,

If you don't have an iLugger yet, what were you planning to put the machine in when you carried it on? You can bring that container to the airline office and see if they will accept that.

If you are planning to get the iLugger, before you travel, you can just bring the dimensions with you (it's on the website, I think) and have them see it.

As they have apparently let David travel with his (What airline, David?), then this is a good option you should inquire about.

While they do let people travel with computers all the time, as I informed the airline, that time I tried, thay explained that travelling with an actual desktop is a not exactly commomplace. Anyway, I never got to security as I was turned down already just on the basis of size.

"It should be sturdy enough."

Yes, it should, provided you have the entire packaging intact, stryrofoam and all---as it shipped originally. Certainly worked fine for me.

I recently flew with a 20" iMac using the iLugger and it worked perfectly. I wouldn't trade it for anything. I got it for $99 from the Mac Store. Why don't you try to find someone that would loan you one? I would, but I'm in Amsterdam, probably a little way for you to travel to just get a bag.

Getting it on the plane with an iLugger (which I have) is one thing, can an iMac actually be powered from an airplane seat power port? I'm told iMacs draw less than 100 watts at maximum load, and I've seen APC DC/AC power inverters that go to 150 watts. Has anybody had any experience with this? I've got some international travel coming up and would love to take my main computer with me.

iMac 17" 1.9ghz iSight Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Yeah, I agree, it's pushing it - it's as wide as a coach tray table (16.5"), but I'm curious to try it just the same (a PowerBook 17" is just an inch narrower than the iMac 17"). Size aside, would it power up on a 747-200?

iMac 1.9ghz Mac OS X (10.4.6)