Just to be fair to people on this (As I'm a gold and often share my seat block, which is fine - I'm more upset when it doesn't happen, dang BA strikes filling BD's planes for the first time in years!) - If you don't read flyertalk you probably won't know about this as it isn't widely advertised and its not really obvious its "your" seat. The chap could also be a gold himself.

Otherwise its true, nobody listens to safety briefings anymore - things such as this are common and not specific to blackberry users - but a lot of people with phones.

Alas, I noticed today on a story that BMI is one of the airlines that has partnered with the same company that (until they cancelled the contract today) provided Ryanair's in-flight phone service.