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Qantas Airline Has New Rules For Dells

gizmodo.com — If you've got a Dell laptop and you're going to be flying Qantas sometime soon, be aware of their new rules regarding your precious lappy. One is to remove your battery and move up to first or business class and power your computer via power supply.

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  • ajskhan, on 10/12/2007, -21/+6Beat me by 3 mins!
    • szelij, on 10/12/2007, -12/+3Wait. Why aren't the airports banning these batteries? Can't they somehow be made into bombs?!

      lol.
    • scottylist, on 10/12/2007, -1/+36"Can't they somehow be made into bombs?!"

      Uh, they already ARE bombs.
    • eadnams, on 10/12/2007, -4/+16Of course, only 1 out of every million portable batteries suffer from this problem apparently.... This sure has been blown out of proportion.
      As I recall, a lot of other companies use the same batteries, and have decided to *not* recall their portables... Seems like Dell is becoming the pyria(sp?) for this issue...
    • t3hX, on 10/12/2007, -14/+1Beat me by negative... 8 hours? And mine got... wow... 2 diggs?
    • TheBarge, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7@eadnams

      Exactly. I also find it funny that everyone blames Dell, yet the battery cells affected are actually manufactured by Sony.
    • Ninjab3ar, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3so if you bring a dell....
      they force you into first-class?
    • Flashman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@eadnams: "Of course, only 1 out of every million portable batteries suffer from this problem apparently.... This sure has been blown out of proportion."

      Yeah but fewer than one person in a million is a terrorist, and look how much THAT gets blown out of proportion.
  • iSEPIC, on 10/12/2007, -6/+18I guess they "forgot" that Apple uses the same Sony batteries? - oh well, not my airline of choice anyways (and I dont own either one, Apple Laptop or Dell).
    • EmileVictor, on 10/12/2007, -6/+8Fine, fly Virgin Blue and enjoy. I prefer Virgin Blue because I'm young and I like cheap, but business people who use these laptops prefer to fly Qantas.
    • panique, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Forgot? or perhaps made a logical decision. Apple did not sit on the news of failing batteries for 10 months before issuing a recall.
  • rtquint, on 10/12/2007, -5/+13They should be including Sony Vaios and Apple Powerbooks and Macbooks.
    • mikev, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4why, this way you can make your own breakfast instead of eating nasty plane food.
    • kaiwai, on 10/12/2007, -10/+2"why, this way you can make your own breakfast instead of eating nasty plane food."

      Isnt't that an oxymororn - "airline food" - I've seen scrambled eggs that have bounced less; hell, flubber is positively nothing compared to the crap served up on Quantus.
    • starsky51, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7"Isnt't that an oxymororn - "airline food" - I've seen scrambled eggs that have bounced less; hell, flubber is positively nothing compared to the crap served up on Quantus."

      Thanks for that, Jerry. Now do the one about how you always lose a sock in the laundry.
    • dickrichie, on 10/12/2007, -8/+1Cause its not just who manufactures the battery but the quality of battery you buy. Dell is a bargain basement buyer. Thats how they make ultra cheap crap. They buy ultra cheap crap. Sony and Apple pay a premium for their products and it shows in the quality. thats why youll probably never see a 499 notebook from them. Once again you get what you paid for.
    • nnonix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4@ dickrichie

      and yet .... macs blow up also.
  • pintomp3, on 10/12/2007, -5/+8Qantas,never had a crash,never had a crash, definitely qantas, definitely qantas.

    sorry, couldn't help it
  • wubrgamer, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4so, this is totally the funniest thing i've read today
  • CJz44, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Link is to blog. Direct link is:
    http://www.smh.com.au/news/biztech/safety-first-for-carryon-dells/2006/08/23/1156012601607.html
  • sayanranu, on 10/12/2007, -20/+0wow...gr8 way to travel first class for free!!!
    • BadassCheese, on 10/12/2007, -7/+9gr8 way to look like a 12 year old.
    • maximinus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Also, I don't see anything there saying that you will be upgraded to 1st class (or even business class) for free because you have a Dell. I don't see any reason why they'd do that - they don't really care if you can't use your laptop; they'd rather you pay the extra for the upgrade.
    • 4ndr3wk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5they never said the upgrade was free
  • scottylist, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7It comes as no surprise that Qantas is the safest commercial airline in operation today.
  • elljay, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4So misleading. Read the story again. All they restrict is having a battery in while connected to AC. I'm sure most people in coach don't have handy AC plugs (sorry, never flown to AU).

    Running by battery at least according to this article which makes no sense the way I read it, is just fine.
  • kingkilr, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3Wow, I made this joke to my cousin just last week!
  • LeeVal, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Its a better solution than completely banning notebooks on planes
  • SIGINT, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Mate! I'm getting a dell!
  • SanFran216, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Well, it would suck if the Dell exploded in-flight... :P

    Qantas rules! Just rode on them two days ago, best flight of my life thus far, and it was only economy class.

  • samtajain79, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1God knows what is going on
    http://www.articles-hub.com
  • GrimReeper, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Yeah Qantas is the sh*t go Qantas.
    I guess they banned Dell batteries and not macs because there is no video of a Mac battery exploding that has been all over the world.
  • maximinus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Did nobody else notice that you're allowed to run them on battery, so long as you take the battery out? (That's bloody clever, I'd like to see that done!)
    "... they could only use them on battery power or through the aircraft power supply available in some first and business class cabins once they have first removed the batteries from the unit."
    • interiot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The only restriction is that you can't charge the battery while you're on the plane. You can either 1) discharge the battery (not have it connected to wall power), or 2) use only wall power (and remove the battery).
  • ghm101, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Qantas sucks – specifically their service sucks. I never fly with them.

    Now I can only speak about economy class as I have not yet attained Kevin Rose like levels of wealth. but:

    I have flown London to Oz several times with them in the recent past and all the Flight Attendants want to do is chat with each other, usually about their hangover from the night before.

    You fly with Malaysian or Singapore Air and you get a Flight Crew that seem to be genuinely pleased to see you and look after you through the flight.
  • dw2005, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This is stupid, theres probably a better chance of the plane being hijacked by terrorists than a laptop battery exploding.
  • jellygraph, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2how embarassing for Dell
  • H0tKarl, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10Someone get these motherfkn dells off this motherfkn plane!
  • FuckThemAll, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0http://www.aroup.com/en/?p=56
  • tejdhawan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I think people are jumping to possibly incorrect conclusions. When the battery is plugged in and the laptop is on external power, the battery is getting charged and the laptop is being powered by the external source. Many low wattage sources like those on airplanes can do one or other, but not both. All Qantas is likely saying is that they don't want to provide a large amount of total energy. So use the laptop unplugged from AC or remove the battery and plug in the laptop. This is no different that the lower wattage iGO adapters that can do one or the other.
  • mikeandike22, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2What good does it do anyone if someone who has a deffective dell battery isnt sitting next to my but someone with a defective mac book is. This should just be a standard policy against all laptops not just Dell's and if I were Dell id shoot this company in the face.
    • mikeandike22, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1HAHA the newest story is about apple having to recall the same batteries. Dell should seriously sue this company for making them look even worse when they really dont need it now im sure they could say this is against some law.
  • sporkman, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2thats ***** stupid.
  • acespades, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1Dude, you got a Dell....
  • Elephant789, on 10/12/2007, -7/+1digg down...
  • lemz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Paranoia and stupidity has taken over clear judgment and reason?

    In other news, passengers will be required to regurgitate the content of their stomachs before boarding a plane. An independent study has found a way to for a number of individuals to swallow liquid ingredients required to assemble an explosive device.
  • raccettura, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Works for me.... my Thinkpad isn't a Dell.

    Seriously... I'm not suprised Dell has had so many recalls. You don't get quality for cheap. To keep prices low, you have to cut corners somewhere.
    • Sefirosu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Everything with Sony batteries sold in the same period is potentially affected and right now they are recalling just as a precaution since the chances of having them really blow up is quite slim, but still there.

      But this isn't the last story of "Battery recalls" we will see for a while. AFAIK Sony makes batteries for lots of things, and they _may_ be also affected.

      The thing is, last time I checked, Sony wasn't the cheapest bargain basement China manufacturer ...
  • betax, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1hmm sounds like a good way to get into first class to me:P
  • ballbag, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Funny how I had to tape my Dell battery leaving Canberra (AUS) last week, only to walk straight thru 'untapped' when leaving Sydney. WTF?? Bit of consistency please...
  • huyashamasha, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Nice indeed. This makes me smile.
  •  

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