American Airlines Cracks Down on Smart Luggage With Built-In Batteries
Photo Credit: Away, a luggage company, makes bags with built-in chargers. American Airlines want to make sure passengers can remove the batteries. Away
Skift Take
This is a good move by American Airlines. Yes, passengers should know they can’t check luggage with built-in chargers. But there’s always a big scrum on the plane or at the gate when bags must be checked at the last minute. Surely, some passengers forget to remove the batteries.
Carry-on bags with built-in lithium battery power chargers are useful for any traveler with battery anxiety — that feeling you get when you're running out power for your mobile phone, and you're not sure what to do.
But U.S. airlines are warning passengers the fancy bags may cause problems onboard.
American Airlines on Thursday announced a new policy that will require passengers to prove the batteries can be removed from luggage, if necessary. Even though the smart bags are sold as carry-ons, American knows passengers, at the last minute, may need to check luggage that does not fit in bins. And while battery chargers are permitted in the cabin, they're potentially dangerous in the plane's belly, where they're not allowed.
If a customer cannot pr
