The iPhone entered my field of view when the FA briefly lifted it up (I was looking in that general direction toward a drop down LCD). It took less than a split second to notice.

"oh that's interesting - i didn't know we get reception up here!" lol i probably would have just passed her by after a little staring

So far, this is the best one.

Never mind..

good point; pax shouldn't either.

Everyone ? no.

Safety concern ? no

it's not a safety issue.

Looking at someone's phone close enough to see their screen is creepy.

I was under the impression this is really an FCC concern, not an FAA concern. Cellphones at altitude can hit a lot more cellphone towers simultaneously which makes them busiers/less able to respond to actual users on the ground who can't hit so many towers.

Mythbusters looked into this a while back. A summary of their findings can be found here.

What was the airlines response when you contacted them?

Well if you're walking from the rear toward the front, it's quite easy to see the screens of people's laptops or phones that are pointed toward you. And it is generally much easier to notice something that's not supposed to be there, like 3 bars on a cell phone when you're airborne. It only takes a split second for your eyes to capture that image, and it may take a second or two for your brain to process that image before you realize the implication of what you saw. So if OP says he wasn't purposely trying to look at others' devices, I believe him (or her).

TBH, not many people on FT will agree that there's a safety issue. I certainly don't, and leave my phone on all the time on a flight, sometimes without turning airplane mode on, either because I was too lazy or I simply forgot. If this happened to me, I wouldn't give it a second thought. If it bothered you, you could've said something.

If a FA asked me to turn my phone off or turn off the cellular function, I would obey because "not obeying crew member instructions" could get me in serious trouble, not because I think it's a safety issue.

I'm surprised she had signal. Most planes don't get signal at altitude. You must have been flying right over a cell tower.

Signal in flight? What was the altitude?

Second, pax and FA are not the same. Remember? They get to walk around several minutes ahead of the seatbelt sign going off for others. Not that it excuses use of phone, if signal available, but all I am saying is that just because there is a rule for us does not mean the same rule should be enforced on them.

Finally, even if there was signal and assuming FAA is correct about interference, then three FA phones versus 100 pax phones is not apples to apples.

I envy OP's vision. Must be really good.

Cruising, so above 30k.

I've been eating a lot of domestic lounge carrots lately ....

Hmm. You were asleep the first 2 hours but you were awake the entire flight?

Ignore. It's none of your business and it's not a safety issue.

"the first 2"