Can I bring my Boosted Board on a plane with me?
It’s about time to draw the clear conclusion for this
Can I bring my Boosted Board on a plane with me?
— The Boosted Board crazies
Ok, let me make things crystal clear. The answer is: No.
Disclaimer: There are not much stories to be told. This is simply about describing what happened to me when I lost my Boosted Board.
On May 23th 2019, I used Asiana Airline to fly from LA to Japan and stopped by Gimpo, Korea.
After arrived at Seoul, Korea, I moved over the Gimpo to transfer an airplane, and checked in my baggage that contained my Boosted Board inside.
I was told by a check-in officer to wait and see some monitors as everyone else was. The monitors display scanning processes for baggages. All of sudden, the announcement called out my name, telling me to come to the desk again. They took me inside the back room where several staffs were working, and where was filled with belt conveyors and radars.
They told me I just can’t bring an electric vehicle. That’s it.
After several squabbles, I just gave up bringing my board to Japan since I had been dead tired of flying already.
(I used all my mental elixir by carrying colossal baggages and fighting with sleep since the night before)
I’m still not able to make it sense why my board had no problem at LAX checking, and it did at Gimpo although I didn’t change airport company, Asiana Airline.
But it was the past thing, let’s move on and take a step on what Asiana Airline said.
According to what the officer explained to me, the reason I couldn’t bring board from Korean to Japan was because of the Korean’s law.
So to interpret that, the U.S. law says U.S. doesn’t care whether you bring Electric Board abroad, but Korea doesn’t. Hmm… does it make sense you?
My position is: IT IS THE SAME AIRPORT COMPANY!!
Then, you could lose everything you possess before you get to your destination, right…
This guideline below describes what kind of items we’re not allowed to bring.
There are lithium battery operated riding vehicles, and Lithium battery exceeding 160Wh.
So, yeah, Boosted Board is not allowed, according to this warning. This 160Wh means that you can bring chargers for like smartphone, PC or something alike.
As you notice from the web page, wheelchairs are fine even though it has a lutetium batteries as long as it doesn’t exceed 300Wh.
You might claim that Boosted Board’s standard battery capacity, 99Wh, is under 100Wh, so it’s fine. You can be right. Since after a series of negotiations, an airport staff allowed me to bring battery if I could detach it from the board and took it with me on a cabin. (But it was too tight to take off.)
But still you will get caught over this problem before talking with staffs.
This reminded me of that Casey Neistat had exactly the same problem, or more precisely, disaster, with an airline in terms of Boosted Board. (I’m not sure which airline he flew with)
He flew from the U.S. to Sydney without any problem, and when he got back to the U.S., his Boosted Board was taken at the airport. He was mad at the rules that are different by countries, and seemed he had no idea why it had to be taken. Airport staffs only said ‘No.’
End note
There is no advise here.
But I miss the sound of wire motors, the acceleration pulling me back, the centrifugal force when turning around, and what’s the most is its convenience of cruising around the city.
Although I’m about to hit the roof still, I can only try to wish to play with a Boosted Board ASA I’m back in the U.S.
That’s the first priority of my to-do list.
Cheers.
