
As if flying wasn't miserable enough already, soon you'll have to cope with the cell phone yell up close and personal on airplanes. Starting in December of this year, the US feds will allow onboard satellite uplinks on airplanes, threatening to eliminate that last bastion of chatter-free existence. If you thought that crying, pooping baby kicking the back of your seat from New York to L.A. was bad, now you'll have to cope with the ring tones and yackety-yak of fellow passengers, surrounding you with a vengeance only heretofore seen inside THX-certified theaters equipped with Dolby 7.1. Never mind that 61% of business travelers are against cell phone use on planes, according to a CWT Business Travel Indicator survey. Tough. There's money to be made; get out of the way, peon traveling cattle. So now, you get to pay premium prices to wedge yourself inside an uncomfortable sub-sonic tin can, with about 20% of the oxygen you need and 150% of the noise. Videoconferencing, anybody?
Cellphones to Further Ruin Airplane Travel
5:30 PM on Tue Jan 31 2006
By Charlie White
230 views
7 comments












Comments
Can I listen to my iPod during takeoff and landing yet?
Of course business travelers are against it. Speaking as someone who traveled 70% for three years, the "bush leaguers" and infrequent travelers are the most annoying thing about traveling. They are the people who will yak it up on the plane, can't get their crap stowed and get ass in seat, and try to put their footlocker in overhead storage at the front of the plane. Most serious business travelers live by an unwritten code. That code doesn't involve making an ostentatious ass out of yourself whenever you enter an airport. The people who do that are usually leisure travelers or the people who make one business trip per quarter. Heavy business travelers almost know each other by sight. They understand what it means to have gotten up early, worked a full day, and still have several hours to go before you can sleep in your own bed. They don't want to be bothered. Just give them WiFi and/or a power outlet so they can do their trip wrap-up and have a ride home in relative silence.
If it lowers rates, I'm all for it.
Talking people will be moderately annoying, but I can't imagine it being any worse than it is. Earplugs are cheap, and there's already several pairs in my travel bag. Although I support this, I'd be more than willing to compromise at internet/text-only rules. I just want freaking network access on the plane.
Given the way people use cellphones, it's not talking, it's the YELLING. For some reason or other, people can't talk normally into a cellphone (or at a reduced volume), they always seem to yell and talk very loudly. Add the noise of a plane and you're likely to have more a stadium atmosphere with everyone on the phone shouting. After all, it's not cellphones in public that annoy people, it's all the people who insist on yelling into them that annoy people. Yelling annoys everyone around them, but doesn't translate across the line (it's internally clipped, anyhow). I see cases of "airplane rage" caused by cellphone use to be the next big lawsuit...
I'd like to get a follow-up survey of how many of the 61% that said they don't want it will be talking on their phones from NY to LA about their action items. Hopefully the airlines get the memo and understand that "just because we can, doesn't mean we will."
It's that damned push-to-talk that will send me over the edge. Potential upside: wonder if an EVDO connection will work for in-flight dial-up networking?
Start a discussion:
Login with your username and password below. Or comment on this post via email.
Forgot your username or password? New User?