I have recently been having a problem with my laptop not charging when I fly, and it’s pretty inconvenient. Especially on long flights, I only have a few hours of battery life before my laptop will just shut down on me. I originally thought it was something with malfunctioning power outlets, but when it kept happening to me, I got suspicious that maybe it was something else. I have done a bit of research on the problem, so I thought that I would write a post on what I’ve learned while also asking for help or suggestions from you guys.
Background: My Laptop Setup
I currently have a Microsoft Surface laptop, which has the following style of charger.
Like many laptops, the charger actually comes in 2 separate parts. The part that connects to the actual laptop is connected to a power brick. The other part plugs into the brick and has the.part that plugs into the wall. The actual part that goes into my laptop is nonstandard. This is the part that connects to my laptop. As you can see, it is not a USB-C or AC charger or anything standard.
The Problem: Laptop Not Charging on an Airplane
While this is the first time I’ve had a charger like this, for the most part it works fine. The problem I have been running into is that I can’t get my laptop to charge while flying on a plane. If I plug it in to an onboard outlet, the charging indicator will come on briefly but then go off.
At first, I thought that it was just a bad outlet (since those are unfortunately fairly common on planes). But it kept happening to me on multiple flights using multiple different outlets.
So I did a bit of research on the subject, and found that most airplane power outlets have a maximum limit of 75 watts (75W). As you can see, my laptop charger requires 95W. (I think – it’s a bit hard to read 😀 )
So what I believe is happening is that my charger is trying to draw 95 watts of power from the airplane power outlet. The airplane power outlet is only rated for 75W, so it flips the circuit breaker and stops charging my laptop.
What To Do When Your Laptop Doesn’t Charge on a Plane?
So what can you do when your laptop doesn’t charge on an airplane? One strategy that I read about online was trying to “trickle charge” it by rapidly pulling the plug in and out of the outlet. I’m not sure if that has any scientific basis or not, but in any case, I tried it and it didn’t seem to work.
Another option would be to buy another charger that is less than 75W. I looked at Microsoft’s recommendation and it says that 90W is the minimum for the version of the Surface that I have (Surface Laptop Studio (with Nvidia discrete GPU) – I have the Model 1798 power supply).
My laptop does have USB-C ports, but I wasn’t sure if/how well they will charge my laptop. But I got some of my USB-C chargers and they did appear to work. Unfortunately, the 2 that I have are 130W and 15W. The former will likely have the same problem, while the latter doesn’t seem like it will charge my laptop particularly quickly (especially if I’m playing a game or doing anything but light browsing).
Another thought I had was to use a power bank. Again though, the power banks I have are pretty wimpy – looking at the specs on the back, it looks like most of them are only 5W. Fine for charging phones probably, but not really sufficient for charging a laptop. I suppose it’s not a surprise that power banks that I got for free at conferences and such are not particularly high quality 😀
I looked at something like this Anker 25,000mAh Laptop Power Bank with Triple 100W USB-C Ports. That seems like it would work, and it’s even currently on sale at the time of writing this post.
The Bottom Line: What To Do When Your Laptop Doesn’t Charge on a Plane?
If your laptop isn’t charging on an airplane, it’s likely because your charger is trying to pull too many watts (too much power) from the airline power outlet. Many (most?) airline power outlets are configured to allow only 75-80W, and if your charger pulls more than that, it will likely trip the fuse / circuit breaker and not charge. While 15W and 65W laptop chargers are common, many power laptops have chargers with 90W or 120W (or more). The best option is to find a less powerful charger or get a power bank that supports your laptop.
Any other suggestions for how to fix the problem of laptops not charging on airplanes? Leave them in the comments below!
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at
Use your Usb-C charger, the 130W. It will draw ~70watts, and charge your laptop just fine. Depending on what you’re doing it might charge extremely slowly, but it should work without any issue.
So that will be different than using the other charger with the mag lock? Why does that one seemingly try to draw the whole 95 watts?