Time-saving Belkin FlyThru laptop case now available
By Donald Melanson 
posted November 6th 2008 1:54PM
posted November 6th 2008 1:54PM
We've already seen a few laptop cases that are compliant with the TSA's new time and stress-saving rules but, if you still haven't found one to your liking, you may want to consider Belkin's new FlyThru case, which is now available to make your travels a tiny bit more bearable. As with other TSA-friendly bags, this one packs separate, easily-accessible compartments for your laptop and accessories, and it'll accommodate laptops up to 15.4-inch in size. At just $60 it's also a good deal cheaper than something like the $220 Tom Bihn laptop bag or Skooba's long-promised Checkthrough bag which, coincidentally, is now finally shipping as well and will set you back $140.
[Via Engadget Spanish]
Read - Belkin FlyThru laptop case
Read - Skooba Checkthrough
[Via Engadget Spanish]
Read - Belkin FlyThru laptop case
Read - Skooba Checkthrough
exactly, I dont see any difference for this one either.
"Pinky, are you pondering what I'm pondering?"
Is that a Lenovo S10 laptop or a Samsung NC10?
its are you thinking what im thinking
I don't know. Were you thinking, "Holy shit, holy shit, a swordfish almost went through my head"? If so, then yes.
These are bags you don't have to take your laptops out of -- so no unzipping required at the airport
So it's selling point is that it has a useful compartment for a laptop, it would be a pretty poor laptop bag if it didn't have one of these.
The TSA screening nonsense has put me off from flying. I won't buy one of these bags or any other TSA friendly product just to make their violation of my 4th Amendment rights easier.
I live in the UK, we bend over for an anal probe before every flight, I guess we shouldn't have given up those civil liberties so easily. Darn it.
Emailacar, I don't know which part of the UK you are from but here in London/Manchester (I live in both) neither airport requires such a probe. Are you getting your fetishes and airport security confused again?
I fly very frequently, I just use a laptop sleeve its much cheaper then any of these bags and I can get it in out of my bag very quickly.... Now if TSA would just hire smarter people as screeners we'd all be safer and so would our laptops ... but I guess we get what we pay for.
What's interesting is that if we all stopped paying they should be out of jobs.
Two birds...one stone.
oh, and make sure you spend $200+ for a laptop bag. (stop the madness, yes we can!)
why are online degrees hot?
the point of these bags is not the unzipping but that you can send your laptop through in the bag through the xray machines without having to take it out and put it in the bins
I never take out my laptop, regardless what they ask. It goes through the Xray- they see everything anyways. Never had a problem in the states, canada and netherlands.
TSA friendly? Why should we make it easier for them when they are the problems.
What does "availalbe" mean (in the subject line)? Don't think I've ever seen that word.
Your avatar is just perfect for the title.
As an owner of a Tom Bihn Checkpoint Flyer, I can tell you that I would buy that bag (the Tom Bihn) even if it didn't allow me to go right through security. The TB is unbelievably well-designed - from the waterproof zippers, to the pocket placement, to the shoulder strap that makes the weight feel like less than it really is. The TSA approval is just an added bonus for me.
If I spent that much money on a laptop bag, I'd make myself think that too.
If I'm re-stating the obvious, please stop me.
The picture included with the post is pretty useless considering that's not the feature of this bag you're really concerned about.
The bag separates the laptop and everything else in two "clamshell" halves of the bag, attached at the handle. The little blue-tagged zipper unzips the two halves so that it lies flat in the X-ray machine. No need to remove the laptop from the case, and just grab the handle on the other end, and it quickly folds back up into a bag-shape.
The new TSA rules say that as long as the laptop is in its own compartment with nothing else in it (no metal, no zippers, no power supplies, etc), it can go thru X-ray if the bag can open flat exposing the laptop separately from the remainder of the bag.
As a frequent traveller, this sounds great - but I doubt the TSA agent is going to believe me when I say I don't have to take my laptop out because I bought a bag they approved. Maybe in 6 months, but generally they're prone to err on the side of what they know, and if they don't know about something yet, they're not gonna believe the frustrated traveler's argument.
I'm thinking I might wear these bags as shoes.
They did a story on these bags the other day on the local news here and tested them out at DFW. They went right through and were not asked to take them out of the bags. Supposedly TSA agents have been told about the new bags and wont ask you to remove the laptop.
All this high-tech nonsense, how about they save me the time, trouble and loss of dignity that removing my clothing (aka shoes and jacket) causes?
Seriously. Maybe 25% of people fly with a laptop but 100% fly with shoes.
I bet if i wandered around an airport with no shoes security would question me too!
@ trooper - Agree 100%. Though things have gotten a *little* better since the TSA opened their website to people posting public complaints, enforcement is still varied.
@ gunner - Either you're lying, you're incredibly lucky (lazy TSA agents every time), or simply have nothing else in the laptop case to begin with. I've been in a rush and forgotten once or twice - and the TSA agent took my bag off the belt through their trap door, removed the laptop, and ran both through for a second round.
The other obvious benefit of this design is they have eliminated all that unnecessary padding around your laptop.
If you drop this thing and it falls with the weighted side down, you can kiss your laptop goodbye.
At least the Tom Binh (and no I wouldn't buy it), is a trifold and keeps the laptop in the center.
Given all the junk I tend to carry (USB Wifi, Power bar, Mouse, Ethernet cable, iPod USB cable, phone, phone USB cable, USB extender cable...) I've often had to take a lot of stuff out of my laptop bag to get through security. These "solutions" assume you aren't carrying a whole lot else.
trooper--100% agree. where's my silicon gel transparent TSA approved "travel shoes"? Maybe they could even make some with little goldfish suspended in the gel...
Mac rules
I got the Skooba Checkthrough and I love it. It holds my entire business and tech travel arsenal in perfect organization, and takes one annoyance out of security. Have been through at least 10 checkpoints since I got it and have gotten great comments from every TSA screener who's seen (or "seen through") it. I travel constantly and this bag makes a difference.
There are certainly cheaper bags out there. But from my pre-purchase research this bag is as low as *half* the price of the only other bags that are truly comparable in capacity, quality, features, etc...
I pre-ordered before the bags shipped and willingly waited over a month to get the Checkthrough bag, and it was worth it. I just love it and actually have a slight grin on my face when I travel now. Traveling still sucks, but this bag makes it suck less, and that's something.
@Jay - you sound more like a Belkin PR agent than a true customer.
Jack, thanks for the thought, but it looks like maybe you didn't actually read my post. I said I bought the *Skooba* bag--which of course, would not make me a very good PR agent for Belkin. The point of my post was simply to say that the Skooba/Belkin price comparison was not apples-to-apples, as they are completely different bags in almost every way.