Because of the fire risks associated with lithium batteries, there are strict rules on carrying them on planes, particularly as spares. Spares must be carried in your carry-on bag rather than hold luggage, and the general principles are set out at length in the IATA regulations, but the various airlines interpret them slightly differently, eg British Airways Cathay Pacific Virgin Australia
So CP allows 5 times as many small batteries as BA, and Virgin Australia refers to a reasonable amount, which could mean whatever they want it to from day to day! Therefore, if you will be taking any spares with you on a flight, it is worth checking the individual airline's requirements, and doing the necessary calculations, re-packaging, taping of terminals, etc, to avoid delays at check-in and security, and even the danger of having a battery refused if you are thinking of travelling with serious power.
This is all relatively straightforward, but I ran into an interesting variation on the theme recently, when flying from Launceston in Tasmania to Sydney. I had checked in online, and dutifully ploughed through the security questions, to make sure that nothing of significance had changed in the 12 days since my previous flight. I had also stood for approx 30 minutes in the bag-drop line immediately alongside the "not permitted in checked baggage" sign, and that was also unchanged, but my bag was refused because I said "yes" when asked whether I had any batteries in it. After an extended argument, probably audible throughout the whole airport, about the differences between the various types of batteries, I and my OH had to unpack our cases, and retrieve everything containing batteries, as the requirement at Launceston, according to Virgin Australia's check-in staff, was that all batteries should be placed in the plastic tray at security for inspection and taping, and that batteries in checked luggage would be picked up by the screening process, and would have to be retrieved and destroyed by security staff, which would probably mean that the bags would miss that day's flight.
Interestingly, no one else had to repack their luggage (what, not one other passenger on the two flights being checked in, with an AA battery in their luggage?) and when we unpacked in Sydney we found various other items we had missed in the checked bags, so we could only conclude that the security screening wasn't actually looking for ordinary batteries in checked baggage, and that the majority of passengers, when asked the security questions, either aren't listening or tell lies.
But the moral of this rather unsettling tale is that it's as well to know exactly where in your luggage your assorted electrical or electronic bits and pieces are, just in case you run into some similar obscure misunderstanding of the normal rules - it would be a pity to find that your luggage had been taken to a remote part of the airfield and destroyed as a result.
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