Sturdy Laptop Travel Cases? 100
biglig2 asks: "You may have seen on todays news that, after a foiled attempt to smuggle explosives on a plane here in the UK, UK airlines are now banning all cabin baggage on outgoing flights. Great timing, since I'm probably flying to the States next week, and this means putting my laptop, iPod and cellphone into the cargo hold. Since I have to assume that anything I put in the hold is going to be frozen, depressurized, and repeatedly jumped on by the baggage handlers, what hard laptop cases have Slashdot users found to be indestructible?"
Re:the only really good way to ship your laptop (Score:3, Insightful)
Don't make it look valuable! (Score:4, Insightful)
That's actually the biggest reason why I would avoid it, or any other kind of obviously high-end, high-tech luggage. You don't want the bag that has your expensive stuff in it, to look like it has expensive stuff in it.
If I had a Z-H, the first thing I'd do before I checked it in at the airline, would be to put it in a nondescript duffel bag. Maybe something tremendously ugly and/or distinctive (a giveaway bag from the "Swan Lake Camp for Retarded Youngsters" would work well). Particularly since the maximum claimable value for luggage is limited by law to something fairly low, and downright worthless on international flights, you really don't want to have a few thousand dollars worth of stuff stolen. When that nice shiny piece of brushed aluminum or stainless steel fails to come around the luggage-recovery belt, you're going to be out thousands of dollars worth of luggage and gear.
I think the airlines' liability for checked luggage is limited to something around $9.07 per pound with a maximum of $400 per passenger; disguising your bag so that it doesn't grow legs and walk off seems to me, to be a whole lot more important than looking sharp when you're carrying it around.
I'd get a Pelican case, or other kind of hard transport case, and then always check it inside of some other crappy bag. Not only will it protect the "real" case, but it'll make it a little less obvious that whatever's inside the bag is valuable enough to warrant such a container.
Re:There Can Be Only One (Score:3, Insightful)
Don't put expensive stuff in something that looks like it's designed to transport expensive stuff. You'd be better off putting it in a cardboard box padded with Styrofoam. (That being how they ship laptops to you in the first place, it follows that the machine can take a beating in that configuration.)
Common, but dumb. (Score:3, Insightful)
You know, the fact that they transport LIVE ANIMALS down there probably should have been a clue
Re:all you need to know (Score:2, Insightful)
I think you're right, but the question still has merit. There are plenty of times you'd like (or at least I would like) a hard case for a laptop besides throwing it in the cargo hold. I said in another reply that I just got a Pelican case (BTW, remembering a similar ask
Second, why would you link to a website "halliburton" site? Are you fearmongering (ala Republican: let's scare people and take their civil rights), or are you a Democrat: we're not afraid of being blown up in an airplane (because we know the statistical odds)?
What the hell does politics have to do with this? Halliburton Zero cases are often thought of in the same class as Pelican cases. It's an option for the original poster. If said poster has a moral objection to Halliburton, then that's fine, they don't have to buy from them. But it's a legitimate answer to the question.
Re:all you need to know (Score:3, Insightful)
Use FedEx (Score:2, Insightful)