Well, I can scratch Virgin Atlantic off my list of airlines I’ll be flying on…
When they start allowing phone calls, texts, email inflight; I’m done with em…
It’s bad enough to listen to some pax prattle to the seat mate, much less have to listen to one sided conversations.
You can read the whole thing HERE. And I agree with this comment…
When they start allowing phone calls, texts, email inflight; I’m done with em…
It’s bad enough to listen to some pax prattle to the seat mate, much less have to listen to one sided conversations.
You can read the whole thing HERE. And I agree with this comment…
“At the very least, the airline will have to restrict times of day when passengers will be able to scream into their phones ‘Can you hear me now?’ at 40,000 feet, in order to not wake up fellow passengers on overnight flights,” says George Hobica, president of AirfareWatchdog.com. “But you know what will happen–no one will listen. There will be screaming matches, glares, and probably fisticuffs.”
Virgin Atlantic’s chief operating officer Steve Griffiths told the U.K. Daily Mail: “We have listened to what customers want and connectivity in the air is always on the wish list.”
But it is already possible to make phone calls on planes. It’s been that way with airlines for many years. Just not with your personal cell phone.
I don’t see how adding text and email on top of that makes things worse. And with only 6 concurrent users of the system, its unlikely you’ll get time on the system.
That just sounds like a nightmare, count me out, too!
The grope and irradiate floor show had pretty much killed my desire to fly.
This just dumped a shovel of dirt on the coffin.
What does it cost to charter a GIII or similar for a hop?
Say ORD to ATL?
BGM
Amen. I used to ride a bus and the rule was no cell phone use. A few people always felt that they were more important and it often got ugly when the rest of us tried to shush them. I actually contemplated buying an (illegal) cell phone jammer just to get some quiet and what was set up to be a “quiet bus”.
That sounds like hell to me.
i agree with you … i think it’s a bad idea – there’s no way i want to listen to other people’s calls
I’m with you. Glad I’m no longer flying weekly.
One of the best purchases I ever made was a set of those noise-cancelling headphones. From what I understand they’re now available in earbud models.
Yackety yackety on the commuter train. Now yackety yackety on plane. Good thing I like driving my SUV despite gas prices.
Delta does that too. I felt like putting a ‘cone of silence’ (plastic bag) over the head of a stock broker sitting next to me and cinching it down with a garrote (Colombian necktie) around his pencil neck. The bastard conducted business once we passed 10,000 ft. for the entire 4 hour 11 minute flight from Atlanta to LA.
I settled for shooting ear plugs, and tried to simply ignore him. But that didn’t really work either.
Hell, since 9/11 simply flying has been a pain-in-the-wazoo. I don’t fly anywhere I can drive, even if it takes me three days. I remember flying in the military and pre-9/11. Throw your bags in the hold and get on the airplane. Little drinks from the stew, a nice nap before touchdown. It ain’t like that any more.
Andy- It’s all the bitching when others can’t get on…
CF- it’s bad enough when they had the pay phones, nothing like having to listen to your seat mate chat with somebody for 5 hours…
BGM- About $4k/hr…
Murph- Agreed! Illegal or not, if it works, it would be worth it!
ADM/Julie- Agreed!
WSF- Shaddap… 🙂
Tim- I use em, but they still don’t kill all the whining…
PH- yeah, but a 2800 mile commute takes a while…
LL- You’re right, and no the ear plugs/headphones don’t work that well!
Paw- It sure isn’t!!!
“It’s all the bitching when others can’t get on…”
True that. I’ve taken to putting in ear plugs and investing my energies in a book. That’s pretty much the best way to stay sane.
American has GoGo wifi on some of its aircraft for web, text and email access. No phone yet that I am aware of.