Originally Posted by AlanInDC
Another difference between a cell phone v. seat neighbor is that there is only 1, perhaps 2, seat neighbors to talk to. With a cell phone usable throughout a flight, one could imagine many conversations, thereby changing the frequency of conversations possible. One could think of a 20 minute conversation with a seat neighbor now, but with cell phones usable throughout the flight, perhaps 5 or 10 phone calls over the course of a flight. On average, the amount of talking onboard may well rise markedly.
And like someone said in a previous post, why the hell do people find it necessary to talk obnoxiously louder on their damn mobile phones??!?
The funniest thing I've seen - funny to me at least, because I don't know why you'd voluntarily make yourself look so stupid for so long - are the couple of people up in First I've witnessed wearing their Star Trek BT headset ALL FLIGHT LONG - and these have been flights of a couple of hours, and you KNOW they're not taking calls at altitude!
Oh, and quite a reliable method of removing an annoyingly loud mobile phone conversation from one's vicinity in a public place such as a departure lounge is to make a point of being obviously interested and evesdropping on the conversation! If it's so loud it's public, just get closer. ;-)
