I Traveled 30 Hours With My iPad. This Is What I Learned.
I just took my first flight (actually my first two flights) with my iPad.
I wasn’t sure what to expect — I’ve seen other people carrying around iPads to watch movies in airports, but I haven’t done so personally.
I was also worried about the size of my iPad — would a massive 12.9” iPad be too big for me to comfortably use it on a plane?
Here’s what I learned from 30 hours of travel.
What I Learned
Let’s go in sequential order from start to end.
Packing
72 Hours Before Arrival
When I was packing the iPad, I could definitely feel the added weight.
At first, I was worried that the 12.9” iPad would be too heavy for me. As I started carrying around my backpack, I didn’t have an issue.
In total, my backpack weighed about 9 pounds. Of that, my iPad (+ Magic Keyboard + Apple Pencil) took up 3 pounds and other accessories took up 1–2 pounds.
One lesson I learned was to keep my cables organized — keep all cables you might use during the flight in one section if possible.
TSA
28 Hours Before Arrival
After taking the two-hour drive to the airport and checking in to my flight, it was time for everyone’s favorite part of traveling: security queues.
Unfortunately, the airline I was flying on did not participate in the TSA Pre-check program. For my non-American audience, that means I couldn’t use the fast security lane.
Thankfully, despite flying out on July 4th weekend from one of the busiest airports in America, security didn’t take that long.
And interestingly enough, I was not told to remove my iPad from my backpack. That surprised me because I usually have to remove objects as small as my Kindle at the local regional airport.
I’m unsure why this happened, but it definitely reduced some burden — I didn’t have to unpack and repack my backpack.
Pre-Flight
27 Hours Before Arrival
Before the flight, I sat down at a table and did a little bit of work while eating dinner.
Since I was sharing the table with a few other people, it was a bit cramped with everyone’s food and my iPad. Despite this crowding, I was still able to get some work down.
While I didn’t sit next to the window, there were plenty of open seats for people who wanted to watch airport operations in the background (this will depend on the airport).
With such a large iPad, I definitely felt that it was attention-grabbing. I wasn’t in a crowded section of the airport and I was only working on a blog, so I didn’t care too much. However, this issue might be more important for business travelers.
Flight 1
25 Hours Before Arrival
This was an ultra-long haul flight — 16 hours of travel at 30,000 feet.
The airline I was flying on isn’t one known for entertainment. I was a little worried before the flight about potential entertainment options.
For the first hour, I listened to music with my headphones.
For the next 8 hours, I had the best sleep I had ever experienced on an airline.
When I woke up, I still had 7 hours to go.
For a few hours, I watched whatever I could find in the in-flight entertainment system.
For the remaining hours, I used my iPad for entertainment and for work.
In terms of entertainment, the iPad was fantastic. I watched a couple episodes of For All Mankind on Apple TV+. The large and high-quality screen made it perfect for watching TV — the iPad was on-par, if not better than the IFE screen.
In terms of work, the iPad was once again fantastic. Being on an airplane, there were very few distractions. I put on my headphones without playing any audio and got to work writing a couple blog posts.
The iPad fit pretty comfortably on my tray table, but I could definitely see size being an issue on smaller domestic flights.
Connecting Airport
9 Hours Before Arrival
I didn’t use my iPad at the connecting airport.
There was WiFi at the airport, but I didn’t trust a public internet connection in an unfamiliar country. When I did try to connect on my phone (I needed to send a message), it was very slow.
Flight 2
6 Hours Before Arrival
This was where having a large iPad became a disadvantage.
This was a shorter flight (6 hours), so the seat style was a little different. This meant that I couldn’t keep my backpack in front of me and I had to put it in the overhead bin.
I tried to fit my iPad in the pocket in front of my seat, but I couldn’t safely fit the iPad.
As a result, I had to put my iPad in the overhead bin during takeoff and landing. Once it was already there, I didn’t want to go through the process of moving everything around, so I just kept my iPad in the backpack.
The tray table was essentially the same size as the tray table from Flight 1, so the iPad would still fit in case I needed to do any work.
Waiting
-2 Hours Before Arrival
We lost a suitcase.
Every time in the past 6 years I’ve gone to this destination, I’ve lost at least one suitcase (I’ve only gone twice, but the statement still stands).
I had to wait for hours in a hot, crowded airport.
At this airport, there weren’t many seating options. It was a little trickier to use my iPad without a table, but I was still able to work on a Boy Scout merit badge.
Conclusion
That’s what I learned from 30 hours of travel. If you have any questions, feel free to ask by commenting on this post.
In addition, if you have some experience with traveling with an iPad, feel free to share any lessons or tips you learned.
Thanks!
Adi
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