[net.micro.mac] Help: Travelling with a Mac

mlevy@uvicctr.UUCP (Michael Levy) (06/02/86)

I am planning a lot of travel, and I want to take
my Mac. Do most airlines let one take Macs on as
carry on luggage? Should I take it instead as luggage
(in the original case)? Has anyone on the Net gone
trans-atlantic with a mac?
...Michael Levy (604) 721 7303 ...uw-beaver!uvicctr!mlevy

chuq@sun.uucp (Chuq Von Rospach) (06/04/86)

> I am planning a lot of travel, and I want to take
> my Mac. Do most airlines let one take Macs on as
> carry on luggage? Should I take it instead as luggage
> (in the original case)?

I have travelled with my Mac.  If you are using a soft case (canvas bag
or equivalent) most of them are designed to fit under airline seats. Barely.
This is fine for occasional travel (such as mine), but I don't relish
keeping my knees up around my ears for hours at a time.  It also means that
you can't carry other carryon luggage, as mucking around with the Mac is
more than enough hassle. I doubt that a Mac+ with the larger keyboard
would fit under a seat, and I always packed my floppies and external drive
(and modem) in my suitcase.

If you are doing LOTS of travelling, I heartily suggest buying two things:

	o A shipping crate.  Don't ship in the cardboard/foam carton, as
	airlines are notoriously good at bashing the hell out of them. For
	between $150 and %200, you can buy an aluminum crate full of foam
	that locks and protects your Mac from most major natural disasters
	and other Acts of God. They also lock, a nice thing to keep your
	machine from walking away. This crate can be nicely checked as
	luggage, so you don't have to carry a forty pound pack at doubletime
	to get from one airplane to another at O'Hare (I did that. They
	should use THAT for basic training....)

	o A luggage carrier. Trust me. For forteen bucks, something you
	strap your Mac, briefcase, and luggage to, with wheels. You'll thank
	me on this one....


-- 
:From the lofty realms of Castle Plaid:          Chuq Von Rospach 
chuq%plaid@sun.COM	FidoNet: 125/84		 CompuServe: 73317,635
{decwrl,decvax,hplabs,ihnp4,pyramid,seismo,ucbvax}!sun!plaid!chuq

Dessert is probably the most important stage of the meal, since it will be
the last thing your guests remember before they pass out all over the table.
					-- The Anarchist Cookbook

harrow@exodus.dec.com (06/05/86)

I've taken my Mac on 2 within-US flights, and I probably won't do it
again unless there is a VERY pressing need.

First of all, it's HEAVY to carry around the airport, especially with a
briefcase and any luggage, and you have to be CAREFUL with it.

Second, although there have been references that it (in its Apple soft case)
will fit under airline seats; NOPE!  In many planes, there is also NOT
room in any closet for the Mac (and even if there was I'd be VERY 
concerned about its safety with other people tossing things on top of it),
and I don't think it will fit in any of the overhead bins.

I was lucky in my flights in that I could get an empty seat and belt the
Mac into it, but had the flight been full, I probably could not have taken
the plane!!

Regarding checking it as luggage (in its original Mac shipping box), I
would never take that chance with my Mac; I've seen what they can do to
a sturdy suitcase (and I don't think their insurance liability would
cover the damages).  The ONLY way I'd ship it as baggage would be in one
of those special steel, padded suitcases.

BTW, taking it to Europe would require some CAREFUL research to determine
how a US Mac would work on the European 50 Hertz power (assuming that you
converted the voltage from 220 to 110 (and I don't mean with the $10.95
converters).

Other than that :) have a good flight.

Jeff

mikes@tekecs.UUCP (06/06/86)

>> I am planning a lot of travel, and I want to take
>> my Mac. Do most airlines let one take Macs on as
>> carry on luggage? Should I take it instead as luggage
>> (in the original case)?
> 
> I have travelled with my Mac.  If you are using a soft case (canvas bag
> or equivalent) most of them are designed to fit under airline seats. Barely.
> This is fine for occasional travel (such as mine), but I don't relish
> keeping my knees up around my ears for hours at a time.  It also means that
> you can't carry other carryon luggage, as mucking around with the Mac is
> more than enough hassle. 

I have a canvas soft case that I like a lot and got because I was taking my Mac
cross-country (made by MacBag or some such in Washington state -- a good price,
too).  The case is advertised as being able to fit under the seat as required.
This is barely, if at all, true.  I had a 1/2" M. Word manual in the side 
pocket which made it so it wouldn't fit...and the airline folks are not at all
flexible:  If it doesn't fit *100%* under the seat in front of you and can't go
up above, IT GETS CHECKED OR YOU DON'T GO.  PERIOD.  Luckily I was able to 
*SQUEEZE* it into the overhead compartment.  There was no problem with weight,
but on some planes it only just barely slipped in.  727s are the worst.  737s
in most configurations aren't much better, but some of them (newer ones?) I had
no problem at all putting it up above.  I don't know about any of the widebody
jets, but I'd be surprised if you any problem at all on them.  Also, airlines
these days don't seem to care if you have two or three pieces of carry-on
as long as they can all go underneath in front of you or up above.
  Remember too not to let them X-ray your mac or any of your disks, etc.
Just tell them it has "magnetic media" inside and open it up so the nice people
can paw around inside the case until they're satisfied.

> If you are doing LOTS of travelling, I heartily suggest buying two things:
> 
> 	o A shipping crate.  Don't ship in the cardboard/foam carton, as
> 	airlines are notoriously good at bashing the hell out of them. For
> 	between $150 and %200, you can buy an aluminum crate full of foam
> 	that locks and protects your Mac from most major natural disasters
> 	and other Acts of God. They also lock, a nice thing to keep your
> 	machine from walking away. 

Absolutely.  Get the metal one.  If you can go this route, do.

> 	o A luggage carrier. Trust me. For forteen bucks, something you
> 	strap your Mac, briefcase, and luggage to, with wheels. You'll thank
> 	me on this one....

You don't already have one of these? :-)
-- 

		Mike Sellers
	UUCP: {...your spinal column here...}!tektronix!tekecs!mikes

"Are you in Paris for business... or pleasure?"
"In Corsica, we say that business IS pleasure..."

borton@sdcc3.UUCP (Chris Borton) (06/07/86)

In article <3444@decwrl.DEC.COM> harrow@exodus.dec.com writes:
>...
>BTW, taking it to Europe would require some CAREFUL research to determine
>how a US Mac would work on the European 50 Hertz power (assuming that you
>converted the voltage from 220 to 110 (and I don't mean with the $10.95
>converters).
>
I had a friend go to York University this year with his Mac (512K, 2 400K
drives, 15" ImageWriter) and he has no problems using a 250W converter with a
power strip.  He shipped it in a cardboard box via air freight without a
problem either.  [This is not to be interpolated to airlines, however]

I hope I have as easy a time as he did during my year sojourn to Goettingen 
University next year.

--Chris

cjn@calmasd.CALMA.UUCP (Cheryl Nemeth) (06/07/86)

Actually, the plus will also fit under the seat of an aircraft (only field-
tested on a PSA flight from Oakland to San Diego).  I use a MacBag for
the Plus and disks.  It's really nice; an external compartment for wonderful
goodies that you normally carry around, plus a compartment on top of the
mac that is supposed to be for a hard disk.  Also not very expensive; I bought
mine for about $60.

beth@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP (JB) (06/10/86)

[There's NO business like SLOW business, there's NO business, I KNOW.]

In article <3444@decwrl.DEC.COM> harrow@exodus.dec.com writes:
>Second, although there have been references that it (in its Apple soft case)
>will fit under airline seats; NOPE!  In many planes, there is also NOT
>room in any closet for the Mac (and even if there was I'd be VERY 
>concerned about its safety with other people tossing things on top of it),
>and I don't think it will fit in any of the overhead bins.

I've taken my Mac on 3 or 4 trips.  It's never fit under the seat in
front of me.  It does fit (snuggly, which is fine) in the overhead
compartments of a DC-10.  On a 727, tho, you'll probably have to use a
closet.  When I check in, I tell the clerk I'm carrying 2500 dollars
worth of computer equipment, and they let me board early.  So there's
always been room for it somewhere.  I try to get it in overhead, but
have had to use the closets on some planes.  I just mention to the
flight attendants that it's expensive, sensitive equipment and they
help me watch out for it.

It is a bit of a drag having it hand-checked at the security stations,
tho.  Some of the more gung-ho security people essentially unpack
absolutely everything, and you have to stand there for 15 minutes
trying to fit it all back in when they're done.  But all in all,
whenever I've taken it, I've been glad I had it with me.

-- 

--JB  ((Just) Beth Christy, U. of Chicago, ..!ihnp4!gargoyle!sphinx!beth)

  All we learn from history is that we don't learn anything from history.

sakw@cvaxa.UUCP (Sak Wathanasin) (06/10/86)

I brought a Mac with me from the USA to the UK. It was in one of the MacBags
(I forget which) and I took it on board as hand-luggage. I remember Apple's
advertisement which implied that it would fit into the overhead compartment:
well, they didn't lie - just forgot to mention that they meant the FIRST
CLASS cabin. (It's an easy mistake to make - doesn't everyone who has a Mac
travel first class? :-)

I checked in the IW which was also in one of the MacBags; both Mac & IW
survived with no problems, but I wouldn't like to do it again. It's the hassle
- much better to get one of those reinforced cases.

As for power supply, I built a box around an off-the-shelf 240 -> 120v
toroidal transformer in a couple of hours.  There's no problem with the 50/60
hz difference - the Mac is designed (so I read somewhere) to cope with such
variations. The IW is still running off the transformer (about 2 yrs now).
The Mac ran for > 6 mths on the transformer without problems (clock was
ok), but I swapped the PSU when I upgraded to 512K. Apple UK wouldn't honour
the guarantee on the US Mac (had a problem with the keyboard).         

One last thing - you may have problems with customs at both ends: at the US end
you may have to sign the export licence agreement; at the other end
you may have to pay import duty (it's reclaimable if you leave the within a
certain time - 6 mths for the UK).

Happy travelling!
-- 
Sak Wathanasin, U of Sussex, Cognitive Studies, Falmer, Sussex BN1 9QN, UK
uucp:  ...mcvax!ukc!cvaxa!sakw
arpa:  sakw%cvaxa.sussex.ac.uk@ucl.cs.ac.uk
janet: sakw@uk.ac.sussex.cvaxa

horst@rochester.ARPA (Horst Greilich) (06/13/86)

In article <211@cvaxa.UUCP> sakw@cvaxa.UUCP (Sak Wathanasin) writes:
> ...  There's no problem with the 50/60
>hz difference - the Mac is designed (so I read somewhere) to cope with such
>variations.

The panel on the back of my 128K Mac reads (next to the AC-power inlet):

   120 VAC
   50-60 Hz
   ...

---
-- 

Horst Greilich   Comp.Sci.Dept.,Univ.of Rochester,Hylan 615,Rochester,NY14627
716-275-7747;horst@ROCHESTER.ARPA;...!{allegra,decvax,seismo}!rochester!horst