She was calling her husband and car service while we were doing the 20 minute taxi at ORD. She told me she lived in Chicago. Recall this was Superbowl Sunday. At the TSA security point, she told me they have a house in PHX and her husband and pet had to change the travel plan and fly back to Chicago on an earlier flight to catch the game. She stayed behind. (The whole conversation got started when she could not check-in because they split the PNR incorrectly - the pet was still on her PNR and she could not check in at the kiosk.)

The interesting thing is this woman appeared very technologically illiterate. All her work was in paper form (mostly J.P. Morgan analyst reports). There were tons of paper sticking out of her seatback pocket. She did not know how to use the re-dial function on her phone and didn't even have her husband in the speed dial. So, I doubt she knows all these flight-mode and the debate whether cell phones really hurt the plane. Furthermore, all electronic devices must be TURNED OFF below 10,000 feet, not just placed in flight mode.

Also, I was sitting next to her and I did not see her making any changes to go into flight mode on the Blackberry. I doubt the cell phone she turned on while approaching ORD would have been that mode when she turned it on. I didn't even know she had a 2nd phone until she pulled it out and turned it on when we were approaching ORD.

What gets me is we frequent flyers are supposed to be good examples and help improve the system for ourselves. Then you have these people breaking the rules big time and brag about it. (Last year, I was on a PHX-SLC flight, a woman in F pulled out her phone and started making phone calls in-flight. She also had a bed pillow with her and did not appear to be a frequent traveller. That did not annoy me nearly as much as this. I was just amazed in that case.)