News and notes from around the interweb:
- Save 5000 miles on MileagePlus roundtrip economy awards to Mexico. Book by February 24 for travel April 29 through May 26.
- Stop kidding yourself, you’re not going to use the hotel gym (HT: Alan H.)
- JetBlue lost Mandy Moore’s luggage.
- Airline employee unions are claiming that allowing inflight phone calls would make travel unsafe because the cabin would be noisier and people wouldn’t hear safety announcements. That’s just silly. Inflight cell phone use is allowed all over the world without bad things happening. And phone connectivity can be turned off by crew if needed.
Copyright: creatista / 123RF Stock Photo - The Fairmont Newport Beach will be renovated and become a Renaissance. (HT: Alan H.)
- Why flight attendants make you raise the window shade
- New law would take away right to withdraw from US immigration preclearance in Canada, allow US border agents to strip search Canadians, and allow Canadian permanent residents to be turned away at the border.
I am sure it’s safe and there is no scientific proof to be unsafe.
The sixty-four-thousands dollar question is do you want to six next to someone who is on the phone the whole time during your 2,3,4….10 hours flights?
I agree with Gio. Too many people feel the need to be on their phones CONSTANTLY. Whether its just gossip or “important” business, I don’t want to hear it. At all. And I sure don’t want to hear it from all directions for the duration of my flight. One of the joys of flight, for me, is shutting down the phone and being off the grid and alone with my own thoughts for just a few hours.
Having been a helicopter pilot for 47 years, We used cell phones all the time with no problems. Not quite legally. Of course, this was at altitudes below 10,000 feet, where we could still interact with the ground cell sites. I don’t think it is directly a safety issue, but indirectly it will cause lots of problems. There are already enough instances with people imbibing too much and this causes fights and worse.. Some people talk on cell phones with very loud and penetrating voices. It is annoying. Especially, when you can’t get away from it. Multiply that by many and it is likely to be more of an issue than drunks on planes.
Nobody enjoys listening to someone else’s phone calls!!! Imagine that in the close quarters of an aircraft. If you have an issue that is so urgent that needs to be dealt with while in the air, too bad. We all have problems, big and small, but they can wait until we’re on the ground. Just like before we had cell phones.