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Cell Phones Invade Qantas, Emirates Air

By Dan Schlossberg
ConsumerAffairs.com

January 30, 2007

Cells Aloft/Adrift • Airlines Compete for Inflight Internet • Cell Phones Invade Qantas, Emirates Air • Study Warns Cell Phones Could Cause Airliner Crash • Cell Phones Go to Sea • FAA Leery Of Cell Phone Use On Airliners • Feds Want to Eavesdrop on Airborne Internet Users • Astronomers Worried About Cell Phones on Airliners • Survey Warns of Air Rage • In-Flight Cell Phone System Survives Test Flight • FCC Moves Ahead on Airborne Wireless Voice and Data

Cellphone etiquette -- or lack of it -- is about the invade the quiet skies.

Two foreign-based airlines, Qantas and Emirates, will soon introduce limited inflight cellphone service that could become a trend-setter for the industry.

To be fair, the satellite-fed service is limited:

• Qantas will allow only e-mail, text message, and actual calls only within Australia;

• Emirates will permit only six passengers to use cells simultaneously and will not permit any calls at night.

The very idea infuriates veteran traveler Jill Schensul, leisure editor of The Record in Hackensack, NJ.

Writing in her Sunday column, she said, "Once upon a time, you were unhooked from the rest of the world when you were 30,000 feet up. But that time is gone forever, thanks to Flight Fones, real-time television, and even Internet service at your seat. With cellphone service, there will be no excuse for downtime anymore."

Schensul suggests airlines that allow cellphones in flight provide separate cabins for users.

"That chatty seatmate will look pretty good after you've listened to a seatmate chatting on the phone rather than to you," she wrote.

According to Schensul, cellphone users come in many types, from inane conversationalists to cooey ones -- lovers or family members enmeshed in long goodbyes. She also has little regard for those whose decibel levels rise when they get anxious or angry.

In her column, the award-winning editor said the three worst inflight scenarios of the moment are

(1) occupying a middle sight between two passengers who have requested seatbelt extensions,

(2) sitting next to a screaming baby, or

(3) sitting in front of a fidgety child or adult who kicks your seat for 12 hours.

Schensul says cellphone users could go to the head of that nasty class.

Fortunately for U.S. air passengers, surveys have shown Americans object to allowing cellphone usage in flight.

But airlines, always anxious to find new revenue sources, could ignore those findings if real-life results from Qantas and Emirates prove inflight cellphones practical.

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