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Turning off electronics - do you?

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Old Aug 20, 2013 | 1:11 pm
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Turning off electronics - do you?

Was on DL1677 this past Friday. Guy in 3A (whose carry-on was sporting Flyertalk tags!) had a smartphone and a tablet. Had to be told to turn them off multiple times, which he actually didn't. The tablet he just closed the flap of the cover on; the phone he was using as an MP3 player and he hid it until the FA was seated up in her FA seat, then continued right along.

What do you think of this behavior? I've read the various studies and do understand that, officially, the chances of interference are "remote". But I still feel he's violating the rules, maybe the law. Should I have done something?

Your thoughts?
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Old Aug 20, 2013 | 1:14 pm
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I think the rules around the use of electronics are pretty silly. That being said, we're supposed to be adults and not children. If a flight attendant asks you multiple times to turn something off, don't be jerk. He should be embarassed.
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Old Aug 20, 2013 | 1:15 pm
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I said something to someone once that I believe his phone should be off. He played it off like "oh sorry didn't realize" but I saw him hide it multiple times when the FA came by. We are adults and may not like the rules but should follow them.
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Old Aug 20, 2013 | 1:16 pm
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Originally Posted by spcran4d
But I still feel he's violating the rules, maybe the law.
It's not maybe the law, it is the law.
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Old Aug 20, 2013 | 1:21 pm
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Originally Posted by spcran4d
Was on DL1677 this past Friday. Guy in 3A (whose carry-on was sporting Flyertalk tags!) had a smartphone and a tablet. Had to be told to turn them off multiple times, which he actually didn't. The tablet he just closed the flap of the cover on; the phone he was using as an MP3 player and he hid it until the FA was seated up in her FA seat, then continued right along.

What do you think of this behavior? I've read the various studies and do understand that, officially, the chances of interference are "remote". But I still feel he's violating the rules, maybe the law. Should I have done something?

Your thoughts?
On the tablet, many have cases that will put the device into sleep when the cover is closed. Yes, technically this is not all the way off, but I doubt they are ever going to get reasonable compliance on the sleep/off issue, so I would ignore it.

Hiding the phone player is just wrong.

Last edited by exwannabe; Aug 20, 2013 at 1:35 pm
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Old Aug 20, 2013 | 1:31 pm
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Was on a Virgin Australia flight 2 weeks ago and the girl seated next to me continued talking on her phone until take off. The people behind us yelled at her several times to turn it off...so it's not just an isolated American problem. I was amused at how vocal and ticked off the Aussies seemed about this!
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Old Aug 20, 2013 | 1:32 pm
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Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3G: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 6_1_2 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/536.26 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/6.0 Mobile/10B146 Safari/8536.25)

Originally Posted by s0479
I said something to someone once that I believe his phone should be off. He played it off like "oh sorry didn't realize" but I saw him hide it multiple times when the FA came by. We are adults and may not like the rules but should follow them.
Agreed. I witness such behavior from adults far too often. I feel embarrassed for them. Ridiculous rules or not, why make someone's job that much more difficult. I am sure the FAs dread having to ask a specific individual more than once. Disgusting...
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Old Aug 20, 2013 | 1:40 pm
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I shut mine off.
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Old Aug 20, 2013 | 1:40 pm
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As a physicist, I don't believe having the phone on is much of an issue. As a pilot, I try to avoid things that are even a little bit of an issue, particularly near the ground and double particularly on instruments.

Somebody thinks that lots of EMI could be a problem; they've relooked at this several times and continue to ban phones. Why does 3A think he is smarter than they are? How tough is it to turn off the phone?

[added] Interestingly, guy next to me the other day literally could NOT turn off his phone. Power button was broken, or maybe there's an app for that...but FA let him keep it on after trying herself.
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Old Aug 20, 2013 | 1:44 pm
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I turn off.
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Old Aug 20, 2013 | 1:59 pm
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Off. No need to be disrespectful.
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Old Aug 20, 2013 | 3:19 pm
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Turn it off, lived many years without phone/tablet...can certainly survive without them for a couple of hours

That battle is lost anyway imo. On every flight i see 1-2 people from my seat who are still using their phone/tablet or simply put it away (but don't turn it off).

Also the counter for seeing crew using it this year stands at 3.
1x KLM cabin crew using whatsapp untill accelerating on the Schiphol runway and 2x DL crew on AMS-MSP legs. On one occasion the purser made a remark to the DL FA: be carefull they (pax) might see it....eeeuh Mrs. Purser and FA, i give you a hint: when sitting in 1B/C on a A330-300 pax indeed can hear what you say and see it lol....
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Old Aug 20, 2013 | 3:29 pm
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Not really a Delta thread (aren't there many like this?). But I'll contribute nonetheless. Worst recent experience was on Thai in F (great flight, by the way). A Russian-speaking man in 1A was on the phone in a loud conversation and the FAs seemed oblivious to it, but just as the plane was rolling, an FA ran up, quite upset, and told the man to hang up. I couldn't tell if the man was clueless or thought that in F, he could do anything he wanted.

People should be respectful of the commands of the FAs, as well as the laws. But so many people are ignorant, oblivious, or just don't care.
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Old Aug 20, 2013 | 4:02 pm
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First this thread and now another one today. I'd like to call dibs on starting tomorrow's thread on defying the FAA's personal electronics rules.
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Old Aug 20, 2013 | 4:24 pm
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Originally Posted by plagwate
First this thread and now another one today. I'd like to call dibs on starting tomorrow's thread on defying the FAA's personal electronics rules.
Folks, this is not a DL specific topic even though this particular time it took place on a DL flight. As it has been covered countless times before on FT I am closing this down to any further discussion.

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