And this story ....

One bottle of wine before boarding and another in flight.

http://www.flyertalk.com/articles/ea...aces-jail.html

I think, drinking should be prohibited on board unless provided on board. And, in the latter case, only limited to e.g. 1 glass alcoholic drink on a short haul flight and 2-3 glasses on a long haul flight. Or not provided free.

Most unruly passenger cases are the result of drinking.

And the alcohol just makes the volume of shouty-phone-people even worse. I have a colleague who took a work call from someone in an airport lounge and he gradually got louder and louder. When I told him to quieten down he actually did the comedy thing of giggling and shushing himself.

Why not just put a period at the end of that clause. Why do we need people drinking on an airplane. I can think of a lot of ways that it creates a potential for problem for the plane, the crew and other passengers. I can't think of a single way that it makes things better. If you can't take a flight, even a long haul, without drinking, you have other problems you need to address.

This is a good thing !
Talking about myself, I take no drop of alcohol during a 16 hours flight.
Moreover, to minimize effect of night flight hangovers / jet lag one should not drink alcohol, but just water.

In the OP's case, I would have been really tempted to say something like, excuse me but what's your name? I know this guy's lawyer wife really well.

My own worst story of something like this was my FC seatmate on a USA domestic flight that had a long delay at the gate after boarding.

The guy next to me first has a LOUD long emotional conversation with his wife trying to convince her that she has severe emotional problems and needs to go back into serious therapy since she's messing up the family's life by imagining that he's having an affair.

Next he calls the girlfriend and has an intimate chat (almost phone sex) about how she's
so much better than the wife and he'd like to divorce and marry her immediately except for the kids.

I wanted to take a shower.

One reason I always pack noise canceling headphones and ear plugs no matter the length of the flight.

When I worked for the government it wasn't unusual to overhear folks in the elevator plotting their strategy for their upcoming meeting with me.

Cheers,

Happens all the time, but I've learned to live with it, I suppose.

While I understand there are times when it's imperative to use a cell phone in public, you'd imagine a person would make an effort to find a relatively private area to carry on a short conversation. There's really no reason to have these "face time" and "phone conference" call meetings that Middle Managers like to always get on when in a public area. It seems as if they have "meetings" about the "meeting" after the initial call.

It's a free country and public space. I get that others have as much right to public space as I and are free to exercise that freedom. However, I'd greatly appreciate two things. One, if people would generally speak with a lower tone in public. And, two, unless absolutely necessary, stay off the cell phones, especially when sitting next to me.

Doesn't just happen on planes. A number of years ago, a colleague and I were on a train with our client down to a meeting. In the same carriage as us were a group having a loud conversation that turned out to be all about the subject of the meeting we were going to. They were advising the other side. By the time the train arrived at the station, we knew their strategy, their thoughts about their client (which were not complimentary), the defects in their arguments and the position they were willing to advise settling for.

Best meeting of my life.

1F

Similar situation in ORD Admiral's Club a couple of years back. Lawyer was discussing in detail how his client was being held by Chicago Police as a John Doe and that he had outstanding warrants so if they found out his real name they would throw away the key.

Almost but not quite enough information to be able to advise Chicago PD. If had named the police station where his client was being held, no expectation of privacy at that volume, I would have made the call.

Too big a city to call in and say "somewhere at some police station in the city you have a John Doe who has warrants."

This reminded me of a semi-dirty joke I saw on the internet. A boy tells his pharmacist he's going to need a lot of condoms for the girl he's seeing. Guess who the pharmacist was?

Well I learned a new British slang word today! ^

Not a business conversation but on a recent flight a young woman flying home from college and a probably late-60s woman seated beside her struck up a conversation over some area of common interest - they were in the row behind my wife and me.

The pair basically chatted - rather loudly - nonstop and volunteered lots of personal information - full names - including how to find one another on Facebook, hometowns, workplaces, college name and major, and the like. Anyone seated near them could easily have caused mischief or worse had they wanted to, using the detailed personal information provided.

A lesson I learned in my early 20's. (Not during travel, but still on topic)

Our company had been subcontracted to perform a large job for a big client. (We were a commercial printer.) The client had been told they could not subcontract due to privacy reasons,but they were very behind and subcontracted.

Anyway, I had an awful day at work. The project was going terribly. My wife and I had to take the cat to the vet that night. In the waiting room, I was offloading about how the project was falling apart-mostly client issues and data they needed to provide from their client.

The next morning my VM was lit up from client panicking that they had been "found out". They wanted to know "who talked" etc. Turns out, I was sitting next to a woman who worked for end client as was project coordinator. Unbelievable coincidence. Now, I keep my voice very quiet on mobile phone calls. Take nothing for granted.

I never really understand this. I could pick a random person off of LinkedIn or Facebook and find the exact same data. And so what?

OPSEC (OPeration SECurity) is horrible on aircraft (both phone calls and computer screens) and in airline clubs. I've idly wondered if my secondary (or new) career should be to listen for tidbits on acquisitions, earnings misses, and other significant events.