mikexner

Hello friends!

I’m not a versed IT professional - I know just enough to be dangerous.

I absolutely support, agree with, and understand why we can’t be allowed to have phone conversations on the plane, can’t join video chats on the plane, and really other than text and email can’t communicate with the ground from the plane.

But why?

I’m old. I remember when the $7.99 a minute phones were at every row. Granted I never saw a single person ever use one. Ever. But the technology existed back to the 90’s. The late 90’s.

I don’t need to be able to talk. I don’t need (or want) to be on video while I’m on a plane.

but why can’t I join a zoom in airplane version? Let me listen only and be able to make chat comments. On the planes with satellite WiFi, I can do Netflix.

first world problem here lol.

ASA_1

It’s not a technical problem, they could enable that capability. It’s a matter of courtesy. Who wants to sit next to someone on the phone, or worse yet, a video call for hours and hours? Not me.

tonei

i think you may have misunderstood the OP…

ASA_1

ah ya, just reread. Agreed, a rushed read previously.

notquiteaff

I haven’t tried it… is it actually blocked? Are VPN blocked, too?

olouie

With VPN it works … poorly. Videos download speed works fine but uploads don’t work well at all due to low speeds. I’ve watched zoom feeds before bad it’s iffy at best. Maybe the connection isn’t optimized and uses more bandwidth than Netflix or something? VPN also impacts things but our company required it.

williwaw

Latency is the big issue in general for any real comms. Chat engagement could make sense.

notquiteaff

Especially if the bulk of the video is just mostly static powerpoint slides, it really shouldn't be worse than Netflix. I don't use Zoom very much anymore and don't recall off-hand if you can turn off the camera feeds from the individual participants to save bandwidth. In a pinch, what I would care about is slides and decent audio. And I would definitely use chat to send my comments, to not annoy my neighbors. I also would need to be careful to not let my seat mates see the video feed, so an angled cellphone instead of the laptop would probably my preference.

Repooc17

I fly so I don't have to think about work, even on work trips. No Zoom or any other video conferencing tools.

twitch76

I once was on a two-hour (+) flight and sat across from someone who used their video/game without headphones. Three different flight attendants tried 4 different times to get her to stop. She basically ignored them and/or could not (or pretended not to) understand their requests. While it was annoying, I was glad they didn’t escalate to the point of landing the plane to off-board her.

I understand that the OP simply wants to watch or type/chat in the room. But I think that the lack of common courtesy today would lead to people using the tool in other ways. If it were open, I can imagine people (even with earpieces) talking loudly and trying to engage in the meeting room. Given latency issues, the communication would be awful and out of sync… but you can bet people would try it.

(also, because zoom is real-time, buffering is not helpful like it is with Netflix, etc.)

olouie

This is so terrible when people do that. Leisure flights to anywhere near Disney/hawaii tend to be bad for loud music/games. Also if you fly in the Middle East / India its super common to have a bunch of people all listening / playing games sans headphones full blast and its insanity. Was in Etihad first one time and 3 of the passengers were all playing very loud "rap" with lots of moaning and expletives - FAs tried to ask them to stop but they didn't care at all, thank god it was only a few hour flight. Also common at restaurants, cafes, etc. Sadly you often have to resort to playing extremely loud and annoying sounds while holding your phone right next to them for them to understand how annoying it is and try to be a decent person and turn it down / put on headphones.

notquiteaff

Years ago, in a LH Senator lounge, a “gentleman” was watching a movie on his laptop with speakers on (no headset). Multiple people nearby gave him the stink eye, a LH staffer asked him to turn it down (off?) but he didn’t care. Eventually I just took the seat next to him and made a phone call (or rather pretended to, telling a fictitious friend everything about my trip to Germany). He gave me the stink eye and pulled his BOSE headset out of his rollaboard.

And then there were the orphan children playing their game boys (you can tell it was years ago) for hours in the row behind me. Orphan because they clearly didn’t have responsible adults with them.

Kacee

No zoom, please.

We've survived just fine with no cellphones usage allowed once the door's closed, and we'll do just fine without zoom.

olouie

I see no difference in only listening to a zoom vs Netflix etc. OP isn’t saying he wants to talk on zooms just watch them and use online chat.

floatingpoint

It might also make your neighbors uncomfortable if it seemed you were sharing video (or audio). Regardless of whether you're muted and have your camera turned off, that might not be immediately obvious to those around you.