Air Canada enforcement of inear headphones connected to IFE
 

I wear in ear headphones (nothing expensive), but I connect it to my phone, and then I hide my phone under my thigh (during taxing/critical phases of flight etc).

Has AC ever forced you to plug into the aircraft IFE?

I'm at 0% - they don't care, thankfully.

Yes, every time they've seen it wasn't connected to the IFE.

If they THINK it's connected to IFE, they never say anything (obviously).

With the new IFE, it's pretty obvious because the IFE headphone port is clearly visible when the FA walks by. Unless you plug in a dummy seat of earphones there and hide those.

I find this is strictly enforced. In any case, do you really want to be the guy who doesn't hear a critical announcement?

I prefer to drown out all announcements. If the plane is going to crash, the screams will break through :eek:

But I don't get what you mean re: IFE. I'm in narrowbodies all the time, I don't think that is an issue? Same with the 777, 767s off the top of my head in J, they are near the Empower plug, so I hide my phone near there.

If I have to hear that safety video or those stupid Skytrax announcements I may never get on a plane again.

In Y or PY on the 787 and 777HD, the audio port is located directly below the screen. You can see it in this photo (http://c8.alamy.com/comp/EFH084/an-a...ner-EFH084.jpg), the illuminated circle below the screen is the headphone port.

Even on the 787 I just stick my phone in the little area that has the headphone port and close the door on it. Although I haven't tried that with a 6 inch phone yet :p

I'm always listening to something on my iPod and have never been asked to remove earbuds. I keep the pod on the centre table when flying in J, on my lap if in the back. Only time I'm asked to remove them is on AC Regional flights where for some reason they don't permit the use of small devices until in the air. Never use the IFE until we're in the air. My current earbuds have very good isolation, though not noise reducing. Otherwise, I have my Bose20s for later in the flight (unless the airline I'm flying has good headphones in F/J). Flew the 777HD in J last week and the only IFE jack wass three-pronged so didn't bother testing my earbuds with that system.

I comply, I like sleeping with my earbuds plugged into the IFE just so I can be disturbed by announcements in 4 languages 8 or 9 times each time I fly to/from HKG.

This. Drives me nuts, the IFE starts playing again for 30 seconds or so between each language too, so I'm always trying to hit pause quickly in the first gap so I can tune out until all the languages have been covered rather than be interrupted each time. I know... their are worse problems in this world, but sometimes the little ones just get to you...:(

On my last 58 ish segments........ I would say at least 35 I saw someone wearing Bose noise cancelling headphones and they never said anything.

Dude. You just publicly stated that you ALWAYS violate a safety instruction from cabin crew. You could get banned for life and then you'll only have Cutie Kat to hug. Think !

I generally watch a movie on my tablet, with the tablet on my lap for take off and landing. They only ask me to put it away about half the time.

What I find funny is that the announcements rarely if ever come through the IFE, so having earbuds in means I drown out most of it anyway. I used to listen to music while working flights on the ramp and that drowned out aircraft noise by like 75% so a quiet announcement doesn't hardly get through anyway.

My beef is on the Express flights, they are militant about it. Even when the announcements are just ads. "We have beer and wine blah blah, vin et biere blah blah" I KNOW YOU HAVE THESE PRODUCTS, they're $6, credit card only...GOT IT. It seems like flying on the US carriers they don't give a single F. Headphones in my iPhone 99.9% of the flight. South America is the same in my experience too, they pause the IFE (speaking of which, I was impressed when my streaming IFE paused, thought it was high tech) during announcements but they never make any gesture for you to remove headphones, over ear/earbuds during any portion of the flight.

Airlines that are based in Canada answer to a higher authority - Transport Canada. They lay out the framework, we're expected to abide by it. We undergo audits - sometimes identified in advance and other times not. Failure to comply can result in anything from a verbal warning, a personal fine or in extreme cases a suspension. Indeed there should be consistency right across the board from Mainline to Rouge to Express to Westjet to Transat. It's irrelevant what the policy is in the US, Peru or Papua New Guinea.

Your "outing" these issues is actually a good thing. It will increase vigilance and compliance.

(Note to Self: Look for concealed phones hidden under thighs)

DAMMIT SAP :p