Comments

1
Are you people technical idiots? Off course this has to do with Trump's Muslim ban. The Galaxy 7 was banned for EVERYONE, because any Galaxy 7 might explode.
2
How is this protecting anyone?

If there are explosives in a laptop, so they explode in the cargo hold instead.

More Security Theater.
3
Easier for them to copy data while your luggage is on the way to baggage claim.
4
@1: Actually, probably quite the reverse. These choices seem to have been made deliberately and strategically in response to... something. Restricting flights out of UAE is a big deal, and one that is likely to have some significant blowback. (Note that UAE and Saudi Arabia were kept out of the Muslim ban for a reason...)

However, with the Muslim ban being on the front burner, the government can no longer take actions like this that could actually have a rational security basis without the pall of that racist bullshit tainting it.

Frankly, I'm dreading the day when batteries are only allowed in checked luggage on any flight, and I need to trust the idiots handling my luggage won't destroy everything inside.
5
There's an article in today's Washington Post claiming that this is not about security but is instead about punishing these airlines. Washington thinks that these airlines get unfair subsidies from their home governments so this is economic retaliation.
I have no idea how true this is but the suggestion makes me uncomfortable. If we think that the airlines are getting unfair advantages over US business there must surely be a way to address this without lying about security.
6
@5 But that's true of a whole host of different things. Health and safety regulations are also a great blunt instrument for punishing foreign firms...
7
The UK just joined the party, and that government has been notably unenthusiastic about the Muslim ban.
8
@5:

That would actually make sense, since it only affects foreign-based carriers. Presumably, the intent is to inconvenience travelers from those locations and force them onto U.S. based carriers.

@6:

I don't think that's quite an apples-to-apples comparison. Health and safety regulations on imports are designed to protect the end-consumer in the domestic markets to which the product is being imported. This restriction seems designed entirely to affect only those coming FROM certain countries, which one might imagine would be primarily citizens of those countries, since I would venture to guess U.S. passengers would have more of a tendency to self-select U.S. based airlines for their travel.
9
@5: It's just exacerbating the problem with trade disputes. Personally, though, I'm not too bothered by this given what kinds of crap these companies pull themselves. With airlines, UAE played hardball with Canada to get premium landing rights at the Toronto airport for its national carriers. When they couldn't get that, they imposed very harsh visa requirements on Canadian citizens for no other purpose whatsoever.

So I have a lot of sympathy for folks that suddenly need to shove expensive laptops into checked luggage, but I could give precisely zero fucks if the US and UK just decided to screw over Emirates and Etihad.

@8: At the very least, it's apples-to-pears. Health and safety regulations are important, but they can also be great trade barriers that are politically unpopular to dismantle. (Regulations on international cigarettes, for example, can be interesting and just a little hypocritical...)

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