alexdown

Don't know you, but I normally talk during a video call.
So it's VoIP, just, not *only* VoIP.

Of course you may be allowed if you and the other side mute their mics.

HonoraryOrange

The main issue is: It usually isn't the same as talking to another passenger. People on the bus/plane/train/whatever on phones 99% of the time talk to the air in front of them, usually louder than necessary because of all the background noise combined with the quality of cell phone calls. So not only are they talking louder than they would if they were just talking to the person 12 inches away, they're angling their voice in a way that sends it into the 'room' around them.

Sure, not everyone does this, but if you take public transportation you must know how crazy loud people get.

NoStressHere

You did not really say that, did you?

What part of the passenger and person on the other end that were "talking" does not qualify as voice service.

Posts like this are scary.

bubbashow

Isn't it clear that OP simply wants to argue about semantics? We get a similar post on here about once every 6 months or so.

SFO777

Duh, really?

This.

LOL. Exactly. Kudos to the FA for shutting down OP.

Passengers yapping on the phone is one of my pet peeves. I love the Larry David clip.
This loudmouth was gesticulating so much I thought he was going to break his seat.









If OP wants to FaceTime, then Emirates is your airline. They permit and encourage inflight cell phone use. Ugh.
This jerk actually woke me up, yapping for the better part of an hour including walking around the cabin.

gooselee

Yep. Two points to add to what has already been said:

1. It's not whether someone is on the phone or talking to their seatmate, it's the volume and whether they're conscious of their environment. YMMV I guess, but IME people on the phone seem more oblivious to their surroundings since they aren't interacting with said surroundings, and thus have a higher tendency to be loud and annoying.

2. OP seems very interested in drilling down into the letter of the law/policy, just to spite the spirit of those same laws/policies (set aside the fact that if we really want to get into semantics most of these are airline or FAA policies, not laws). If that's the road OP wants to head down, he/she should consider that right or wrong, they were going down a path of challenging crew instructions during a flight, and it seems to me that the policies related to that are very clear.

18sas

This is a two-way street. If you want to talk on the phone, then charter a private plane.

The airlines apparently feel very confident that there are more people who don't want intrusion of other people's phone calls than those who want to allow them.

Also, noise canceling headphones don't work on things like conversations. Maybe one day someone will invent a conversation-muffling scarf and that will solve the problem.

orca15

All I know is, that if the guy next to me in the club yesterday making a business phone call was strapped next to me at 35,000 feet, I might be tempted to step outside. Middle of the club (JFK of course), threatening to "slice that *&@%* in pieces" "F this, F that." I suspect that the same person, despite the clear lack of class, would speak less obnoxiously to a seatmate than he was doing to his employees.

Not a fan of phones in the cabin...

Mike Jacoubowsky

gooselee

I use Skype to text with my coworkers while in flight all the time. Works fine as a substitute to calls (actually better for some conversations) and helps me stay in touch when, for example, flying west to east during the work day.

davetravels

Switch to T-Mobile and get UNLIMITED inflight texting on DL flights domestic AND it'll!!!

arunhn

I have FT-ed multiple times using gogo service before with my wife and baby at home. Wife knows I am on a plane and we barely speak anything. It's mostly to make funny faces at the baby. Flight attendants have seen me use it and one flight attendant even said 'cute baby' to me once. Haven't been told not to use it yet.

dzflyer

I use viber all the time when on gogo to text.

NoStressHere

Voice calls (or voice on video calls) have been beat to freakin death on this board and every other flyertalk board.

Though some people are okay with it, the vast majority have been very clear. NO VOICE CALLS on the plane.!!!

Why do people keep hashing it over and over like it is a new conversation?

Geez.

fpmurphy

Some passengers are totally oblivious to their surroundings.

Example DTW-NRT yesterday. While at the gate with people still boarding, I could clearly hear a woman who was at least 15 rows behind me loudly talking to a family member for over 20 minutes. She was completely oblivious to the racket she was making!