On the Road: More Caveats Than Clarity in Batteries-in-Baggage Rule
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LAST week, I spent most of an afternoon trying to get a cogent explanation of a confusing news release issued late on the Friday before New Yearâs by a mouthful of an agency called the United States Department of Transportation Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
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Think exchanging Santaâs mistake will be quick and easy? Not if you donât know the storeâs rules on receipts, time limits, restocking fees, or opened electronic items.
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Satellite-enabled turn-by-turn navigation, whether you're in a car or on foot
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Business travelers love their gadgets, perhaps too much. So when the gadgets donÂt love us back, things can get ugly.
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Stores are stocked with an abundance of featherweight gadgets. But some of these tiny gadgets raise a new question: how small is too small?
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Travelers question search and seizure of laptops and cell phones, currently under court review.
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Irregular hors d'ouevres, scheduling mishaps, and the stockbroker's eternal dilemma.
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Travel: 'One bag only' rule lifted at some airports, but retained at others
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By Dubie, Denise  Getting rid of obsolete computer gear isn't as simple as it used to be. The threat of data loss, coupled with increasingly stringent environmental regulations, has IT pros rethinking their disposal methods.
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Points of trivia that might arise at dinner or over drinks used to lead to a brain-racking long debate. now, hand-held devices help settle disputes. (Look it up!)
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Caveats to keep in mind while holiday shopping online.
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The ground rules of the tests of Cisco and Avaya systems.
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To help reduce the risk of fires, air travelers will no longer be able to pack loose lithium batteries in checked luggage beginning Jan. 1, the Transportation Department said Friday
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By JAY BINNEWEG  Here's a news release that hit my inbox just before deadline: This weekend is one of the busiest travel times of the year. As people prepare for their holiday trips, they should be on the lookout for speed traps.
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Why this could be the worst year ever for misplaced bags--and how to safeguard your suitcases.
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New rules will go into effect on Jan. 1 that prohibit air passengers in the U.S. from carrying spare lithium batteries in their checked baggage.The new rules, announced Friday by the U.S. Department of Transport, are designed to reduce the risk of fires in aircraft. Lithium batteries have been identified as a possible cause of several aircraft fires.Passengers will still be able to carry lithium batteries in checked bags if they are installed in a device like a laptop or digital camera. But loose batteries will need to be put in a plastic bag and carried on the plane as hand luggage, the DOT said.The rules also limit each passenger to two &quot;extended-life&quot; lithium batteries. These are larger batteries with more than 8 grams of equivalent lithium content, examples of which are pictured in the DOT&#39;s statement.The rules are also described at the SafeTravel.dot.gov Web site.In February 2006 a United Parcel Service flight landed at Philadelphia International Airport after the crew detected a fire in its cargo. The National Transportation Safety Board said later that it found several burned out laptop batteries on the plane, and could not rule them out as a possible cause of the fire.Lithium batteries are a fire hazzard because of the heat they can generate when they are damaged or suffer a short circuit, the NTSB said at a hearing about the Philadelphia incident last July.&quot;Several lithium battery incidents have occurred in recent years, including a lithium-ion battery fire that occurred less than two months ago on an airplane in Chicago,&quot; the NTSB said.Several big makers of laptops and cell phones, including Dell and Nokia, have recalled batteries recently because of flaws that created a potential fire hazzard.
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How to steer clear of "free checking" pitfalls.