Tag Archives for laptop.
A JetBlue passenger says they had their laptop fried when a flight attendant spilled an iced coffee all over them. The crewmember “apologized, brought me a cheese plate, and gave me a $25 voucher” and they left it at that until they realized the laptop would no longer work.
A United Airlines passenger flying from Los Angeles to Chicago O’Hare found himself with an empty middle seat beside his window seat, pulled down the tray of the middle seat while inflight and whipped out a second laptop – working on both of them. Another passenger wonders if he bought himself a second seat planning to do this for work – it’s actually more width than flying first class, “I think I found myself more impressed than annoyed.”
United Airlines flight 12 from Zurich to Chicago diverted to Shannon, Ireland on Sunday when a passenger’s laptop got stuck in a business class seat.
The Boeing 767-300 was carrying 157 passengers and 10 crew. Crew couldn’t get the laptop out, so the pilot decided to land – not because they wanted the passenger to be able to work inflight, but because lithium ion batteries can catch fire, and if that happened and the laptop was inaccessible over the Atlantic it would be a significant safety hazard.
A Delta Air Lines economy passenger was spotted inflight on a four hour flight using his seat as a standing desk. He’s resting his laptop on top of his seat back, and facing backwards to work. This is a power move.
I don’t want to spend money unnecessarily, for features I won’t use or because bloated machines always have tradeoffs (like weight or battery life). At the same time cost isn’t the primary constraint since this is a productivity tool for me.
What advice can you offer?
I’ve been using an HP Spectre X360 and I think it’s great. A couple of months ago I asked for reader advice on getting a new laptop. I use one machine so it has to be able to function at home and on the road, for work and for watching movies on planes.
Battery life matters a lot, I carry it everywhere, and I want to be able to open it and even use it in coach.
It’s only been two years since I bought my last laptop. It’s a Lenovo T460s, and I hate it. It has an Intel i7-6600u processor and a 1 terrabyte hard drive. But battery life is awful.
Here’s my criteria in a new machine and I could really use suggestions about what will work best.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
