• A spare battery is one not installed in a device. This is an important distinction to remember.
• You will have to transport spare batteries as carry-on baggage, not checked baggage. The TSA does not want loose lithium-based batteries in the check luggage.
• You may put an approved battery in checked baggage only if it is installed in a device. A checked video camera, cell phone, or laptop with a battery installed would be fine—ignoring the folly of doing so due to risk of physical damage—but any spare, loose batteries are now forbidden.
• Spare, loose batteries transported as carry-on need to be securely packed. That means you should use manufacturer's plastic battery caps for spare batteries or pack them in plastic bags. You can also place electrical tape over the terminals of the batteries.
For 99% of us that travel, even battery-heavy folk like bloggers, that should be enough information to help you forward. It's really not that bad. Take all your electronics on board as carry-on and pack loose batteries in plastic.
Where things have gotten slightly more confusing is in the TSA's "lithium content" regulations. Who knows how many grams of lithium are in their batteries or whether the TSA considers their battery a "lithium metal" or "lithium-ion" model?
Fortunately, most cell phone and laptop batteries are under the 8-gram lithium limit. I expect that the real world effect of this will be that extra cell phone and laptop batteries will be accepted without question by TSA screeners.
For camera operators or those who use large-capacity extended life battery packs (like the ones that fit under the whole width of a laptop), you're going to need to be prepared to have calculated exactly how many grams of lithium are in each of your batteries and have that information readily at hand in case you need to discuss it with a TSA screener. You are allowed "two spare batteries with an aggregate equivalent lithium content of up to 25 grams, in addition to any batteries that fall below the 8-gram threshold." In short, carrying lots of low-capacity batteries in carry-on baggage is allowed, while no more than two large-capacity batteries is approved.
This information was gleaned from the Safe Travel.dot.gov bulletin and TSA sites, prompted by my initial balking at my future inability to travel with all my gear which was quickly followed my the realization that for me travel would remain fundamentally unchanged. Which is to say: still a pain in the neck.
[via Bits.Blogs.NYTimes.com]
