Originally Posted by
JMN57
There are different airplane phone technologies. Airphone was available in the 90's (at the time it was GTE I recall) but it wasn't satellite but air-to-ground. There was one year there was a little known promotion that if you committed to $30 per month for a year ($360), you could get unlimited airphone use.
I was running a company in Seattle at the time and flew quite a bit (2-3 transcons a month, other flights) so I signed up. It was a great way to make the time flying productive. I was generally in F and often without anyone next to me so I could talk without disturbing anyone. I'd get a lot of business calls done, call family, call anyone... I do think people thought I was just burning money because the per minute rates were high but it was really nothing since I had unlimited use/flat fee.
Yes it was GTE, I was flying mostly AA to DFW in the late 1980's as a real estate investment consultant. I was on the same price plan as you so the whole flight was spent talking to people at both end of the deal.
Calling them on my cell phone pre and post flight was more expensive.
I bought from Skymall a handset cup for the GTE handset that fits over your mouth so your seatmate cannot hear what you are saying just like the one used by "Navy Aviators".