In January, Emirates airline plans to launch mobile phone usage in its planes, making it the first airline to allow passengers to make cell phone calls on its flights.There's nothing more annoying than a stranger sitting next to you, loudly yapping his nonsense into a cell phone. At least, however, on a train or bus, you can switch seat, or the ride might end soon enough. On an airplane? Not so lucky. You're stuck next to the bastard for the entire length of the flight, from 3 to 11 or more hours.
And Australian carrier Qantas plans to start evaluating technology that lets fliers use their cell phones and PDAs during flight early next year.
I met one of those assholes on my last flight back from Ohio. He was sitting in front of me and was screaming so loudly in his phone before take off that I wanted to scream. I had to do breathing exercises to keep my blood pressure from blowing an artery. If I had to sit next to him for a 9 hour flight to Italy, I could very likely have murdered the sicko.
I seriously regret this decision by airlines. Surfing the web is one thing, since it can be done in silence, but no activity that disturbs your neighbor should be allowed. Airlines even started equipping individual seats with headphones first and small monitors next to avoid disturbing travelers with a show or movie they didn't like, and now they want to allow people to call their aunt in New Mexico to tell her to feed the cat, do the laundry or tape a show for them?
That's just crazy, and I'm not the only one who thinks so:
A majority of business travelers (61 percent) oppose the idea of being able to use their phones in the sky, according to a global survey conducted by travel management company Carlson Wagonlit Travel early this year.
But if the technology is there, the service will eventually make its way to the skies, said Chris McGinnis, editor of Expedia Travel Trendwatch.
"Whether people like it or not, in-flight cell phone use is going to become a reality," he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment