Originally Posted by
gfunkdave
It's probably not explicitly allowed but won't harm anything either. It probably won't work, in any case. The GPS chip in most phones needs a cell signal to give it its initial rough location before it can fine tune things.
All of the phones that I have owned can use GPS while in airplane mode. (including Samsung galaxy nexus, S2, ,Note 2 and 3, Motorola X, and HTC One). Take for example my galaxy note 3... a 38000 feet, several hundred mile south of the Aleutian Islands, it was able to Locke onto 11 GPS satellites within 6 seconds. (Upper deck window seat) it showed the heading and speed of 553 miles/hr.
Of course, I follow airline rule, but even the FAs don't seem to know. A couple of them told me that as long as airplane mode was on, it was okay.... but some say the exact opposite