If you are wanting to bring your toy lightsaber on a commercial flight and you don’t know if you are allowed to do so, you will find the answer in this article.
The TSA states that you can bring your lightsaber in either your carry-on or checked luggage.
However, understand that by using the term lightsaber, the TSA is referring to plastic toys and not items made out of metal.
Please note that most people bring their lightsaber as a personal item or in their carry-on to avoid the potential damage that could occur if the saber is packed in the checked luggage.
If you choose to bring the lightsaber as a personal item, you should know that most airlines request their passengers to store them in the overhead bins.
If you find yourself in this situation, you should wait for all other passengers to put their bags in the overhead before stowing the lightsaber. By doing this, you prevent it from being damaged by other people’s luggage.
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In theory, this works great until you meet a passenger who checks the overhead bin every ten minutes and grumbles about the long stick that prevents him from reaching his belongings.
Although you can bring a lightsaber with you on the plane, there are a few restrictions that the TSA forgot to mention.
One of the TSA’s many rules is “no club-like objects.”
If you ask me, this is pretty generic and leaves the decision in the hands of the TSA agents.
They tend to allow lightsabers made by Disney without any hurdles because they consider them practical toys that aren’t used to hurt people.
Keep in mind that if your lightsaber is homemade or feels way too sturdy to be considered a toy, then it’s better to pack it in your checked luggage.
When traveling with a lightsaber, the battery can cause another issue. If it has a lithium battery, you must bring it in your carry-on rather than packing it in checked luggage.
To pack your lightsaber in a piece of checked luggage, you will need to remove the lithium batteries first since the TSA doesn’t allow lithium batteries to be packed in checked luggage.
Most toy lightsabers have replaceable batteries, and it’s rather easy to check to see if they contain lithium.
Still, if you have a built-in rechargeable battery, it’s most likely a lithium one, in which case you are not allowed to pack the lightsaber in your checked luggage.
The TSA sees lithium batteries as potentially hazardous items that can endanger flight safety.
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Luckily, most of the lightsabers sold nowadays have replaceable AA batteries that you can bring in either your carry-on or checked luggage, and the batteries can even remain in the lightsaber.
Alkaline, nickel-metal hydride, nickel-cadmium, and other batteries that don’t contain lithium are safe to bring in your checked luggage.
Is it better to fly with a lightsaber in checked luggage or send it by mail?
Unfortunately, there isn’t a definitive answer to this question.
If your lightsaber is long and sturdy, it’s better to send it by mail.
From what I can tell, the chances of it being damaged in checked luggage are greater than the risk of damage when shipped by mail, so in the battle between mail and checked baggage, mail wins.
Mailing your lightsaber includes the added bonus of being able to buy shipping insurance for your package.
If you buy your lightsaber from Disney, you can use their Droid Depot to send your lightsaber home, if you can manage to get it away from your kid.
How do I get a lightsaber on the plane?
The first thing to do is check with your local airline to verify that they will accept the lightsaber.
Even though the TSA states that they allow lightsabers on planes, the airline company might have other rules that would prevent you from bringing them along.
The lightsaber must go through the CT scanner if you bring it in your carry-on.
You may notice people smiling when they see it on the scanner band, and no, the scanner will not damage the lightsaber.
If your lightsaber has a carry case like Savi’s, you should use it. If your lightsaber doesn’t have a carry case, you should try dismantling it before packing it.
The goal here is to make your lightsaber as small as possible. Provided that you can split it into parts, you can store it in your carry-on.
Remember that lithium batteries are only allowed in carry-ons and not in checked luggage.
If your lightsaber can’t be split into parts and you want to bring it in your checked luggage, here’s what you need to do.
First, find a sturdy wooden stick that is slightly longer than your lightsaber and lay it alongside the lightsaber.
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Then use duct tape to wrap the stick and the lightsaber together and put it in the checked bag.
If any force is applied to the lightsaber, the stick will prevent it from being bent and damaged.
This trick works only for the force applied by the padawan baggage handlers.
Do Southwest and Delta accept lightsabers on their planes?
Yes, both airlines accept lightsabers on their airplanes. You can even store your lightsaber under your seat.
Southwest flight attendants might insist on storing your lightsaber in the overhead bin.
One of the rules for flight safety is that you can’t have loose objects inside the airplane since they could hurt someone if the plane encounters air turbulence.
Will lightsabers ever be possible?
I think so. Please bear in mind that this is just my opinion.
In the 1800s, every university in the world would have signed a written statement declaring that an object heavier than air would never fly. Of course, now we know this statement is not true.
In theory, to power such a beast, we will need a powerful power source such as antimatter and a quantum computer to regulate the light flow in a specific way.
Photons that create light bounce with each other, so practically speaking, we can devise a way to stop the light at a certain distance.
To do this, we will need a powerful computer to take into account every photon that moves inside the beam, which will require a lot of computing power.
Quantum computers are in their infancy, and we currently don’t have a way to produce antimatter.
Still, we don’t know what will happen a hundred years from now. We can only dream of the possibilities.
But in terms of practicality, even if we reach a point where we can make a lightsaber, would it be wise?
Having a toy with a power source that can destroy half of the planet just because it’s cool makes no sense.
However, humanity makes stupid things all the time, and once technology catches up, someone will try to do it.
FAQ
Can you bring a Galaxy Edge Star Wars lightsaber on a plane?
You can bring it with you in your carry-on or checked luggage. The 36-inch blade will fit in most airlines’ overhead storage spaces.
In addition, the Galaxy Edge comes with a carrying case, and I suggest using it when you board the plane.
Can you bring a Disney droid on a plane?
I am happy to tell you that you can bring a Disney droid on a plane. If you choose to bring it in your checked luggage, remember to inspect it for lithium batteries which will need to be removed.
If you build the droid at the Droid Depot in Galaxy’s Edge, you can bring it inside a backpack, and you will not have to go through the hurdle of removing the screws just to take out the AA batteries.
Luckily, Disney sells their droids with alkaline batteries, and those batteries are safe to pack in checked luggage.
Can a lightsaber be considered an actual weapon?
The TSA does not consider a toy lightsaber a weapon.
You could hurt someone with one, but you could also hurt someone with a pencil, and that doesn’t magically transform the pencil into a weapon… unless you are John Wick, but this is a different story altogether.
Conclusion
In conclusion, you can bring your lightsaber on an airplane as long as it looks like a toy. If it looks more like a weapon, then the TSA will confiscate your lightsaber and turn you into a Jedi without the Force.
