Originally Posted by
exerda
But under the current rules, you basically buy, what, an extra 5 minutes of use? You can't use your phone during flight, so that doesn't help with being on-call, and the time during taxi in is minimal in most cases. You can already use it prior to the door shutting. And if you're on-call and get a call during the flight, what would you do?
If I get a call on the flight, I can talk people through solutions and/or coordinate the recovery effort.
I've never received a call on flight (though I know this is possible), but I have had occasions where I've gone to the Galley and used the phone to call back into a conference that was under way as the plane took off.
For me, it's entirely economical, not convenience, because I will use the in-flight phone. I've had in-flight calls go well over $100. Those calls could have been made from my cell for pennies.
Personally, I can't wait for internet on the planes so I can talk AND do my job. But, then you are going to have that a-hole who decides to search the porn.
[QUOTE=exerda;9388389]People tend to talk much more loudly into their cell phones than they do to each other, so no, the chatter doesn't bother me, and it's rare during flight that I can hear the full details of conversations of those around me, whereas those people on cell phones seem to nearly yell into them.
I agree, and it's a shame. But I can hear full details of conversations rows away on some flights. Some people just talk too damn loud wherever. With my QC2s on, I can't hear anything. (Note, there is another post somewhere on FT where I talked about my seinnhieser 450's and recommended them. They suck, don't get them, I went back to QC2s)
Originally Posted by
exerda
Ah. Well, at any rate, UA, US, DL, and CO still have Airfone phones installed, but they are no longer functional (Verizon discontinued the service in 2006). Airfone as a unit is discontinuing their service as of 12/2008 unless they can reach an agreement with LiveTV, the JetBlue service which won the spectrum used by Airfone. (Verizon has apparently decided not to try to re-deploy using a different slice of the airwaves or to reach a sharing agreement with the new licenseholders.)
So the majority of airline pax on domestic flights have no in-air phones right now, it would seem, and if that were the primary reason the FCC refuses to allow cell phones in-flight, the capitalism barrier would seem to be gone.
One of the reasons I fly AA! Also, probably the reason that this topic has been making the rounds of the FCC / FAA / Congress since late 2006.
-SF