Your power bank has always belonged in the cabin, never in checked luggage. What changed in 2025 and 2026 is how airlines let you use it once you are seated: no charging in flight, out of the overhead bin, kept where the crew can see it.
Read your own label before you fly:
- Watt-hours are the limit, not milliamp-hours: Wh equals mAh divided by 1,000, times 3.7 volts
- A 20,000 mAh bank is about 74 Wh, well under the 100 Wh line
- Under 100 Wh you are fine; 100 to 160 needs airline approval and a cap of two; over 160 is banned
- Korean, Taiwanese, Singaporean, and now Lufthansa Group carriers bar in-flight use
- Southwest, the first US carrier to move, wants it charged in plain sight
Charge everything before you board, and expect to see the bank, not use it, at 35,000 feet.
