A passenger reportedly created voice memos for an entire American Airlines flight from New York to Miami, raising the obvious question: even if it was not technically a phone call, was it still rude?
Passenger Talks Into Voice Memos For Entire AA Flight, Claims It Was Not A Phone Call
Here is an interesting airplane etiquette dilemma that may not technically violate any rule, but still feels wrong.
A passenger on a flight from New York LaGuardia (LGA) to Miami (MIA) reportedly spent the entire flight talking into voice memos. When a flight attendant told him not to talk on the phone, he pushed back, arguing that he was not on a phone call.
The full reddit post was short and included the picture above:
This dude talked into a voice memo for the entire flight from LGA to MIA. The flight attendant told him to not talk on the phone and he argued saying it wasn’t a phone and kept talking. Is there a rule against this?
That is actually a fair question.
Is Talking Into Voice Memos The Same As A Phone Call?
Technically, no.
If the passenger was not connected to a cellular network, not making a phone call, not using FaceTime, WhatsApp, Zoom, or another live communication service, then he probably was not violating the traditional “no phone calls” rule.
He was speaking into a device, but he was not having a live two-way conversation.
Of course, that distinction matters. Airlines generally prohibit voice calls because they are disruptive and, depending on aircraft systems and connectivity, may also implicate onboard communication rules (though I’ve seen no hard proof of that). But recording a voice memo offline is not exactly the same thing.
So if we are asking whether this clearly violated the rule against phone calls, I am sure that it did not. But that does not end the discussion.
Just Because You Can Does Not Mean You Should…
There is something uniquely annoying about listening to someone narrate into a device for an entire flight.
Is it really different from talking to a seatmate?
In one sense, no. People talk on planes. Couples talk. Families talk. Business travelers talk. Seatmates who have never met sometimes talk far too much (oh my, stay tuned for a personal story). A person dictating voice memos is still just a person speaking out loud.
But in another sense, it does feel different.
A conversation with a seatmate usually has a natural rhythm with pauses and give and take. There is at least some awareness that another human being is involved. A person dictating into voice memos can become a one-man podcast, with no social brake and no reason to lower the volume because the “listener” is a phone.
That is what makes it so irritating: having your peace disturbed by a performative monologue is just aggravating.
Airplanes are not libraries, and I do not think passengers are entitled to absolute silence. But the cabin is still a shared space, and passengers should behave with at least minimal awareness of everyone around them.
Talking into voice memos for a few minutes? I don’t think anyone would have a problem with that.
But talking into your phone for the entire LGA – MIA flight? Come on…the issue is no longer whether you are technically “on the phone” but that you are creating a sustained noise burden for everyone seated nearby.
What Should The Flight Attendant Do?
The flight attendant was right to intervene, even if the exact rule may have been imprecise.
Maybe “you cannot talk on the phone” was not the cleanest way to frame it. A better approach might have been:
Sir, this is disturbing other passengers. Please stop recording voice memos or keep your voice down.
That avoids the loophole argument.
If the passenger responds, “It is not a phone call,” the answer is simple: that is not the point. The point is that you are disturbing other passengers. Airlines cannot write a rule for every form of obnoxious behavior, but at some point, crew need the discretion to maintain a reasonable cabin environment.
CONCLUSION
Was this American Airlines passenger technically breaking the phone-call rule by recording voice memos for the entire flight? No, probably not.
But was he being rude? I think so.
The problem is that he apparently talked into them for an entire flight, then argued semantics when a flight attendant asked him to stop. Air travel requires a little grace. Recline if you want, but do it thoughtfully. Talk to your seatmate, but do not shout. Record a quick voice memo, but do not turn the cabin into your personal podcast studio.
A plane is a shared space. Just because something is technically allowed does not make it considerate…
I’d say this falls under the same category as speaking nonstop in a subway in Japan. It is against the rules? No. But it is against the unwritten rules. Speaking from experience here. No one had warned me not to do that. But after 5-10 min of my wife and I talking nonstop in the subway in Tokyo, I realized we were the only ones doing it, so we stopped. Read the room and act accordingly.
I absolutely agree. Funny, my partner and I had the same experience on the Yamanote Line in Tokyo years ago. read the room or the train LOL
“Ain’t no rules says a (passenger) can’t (record voice memos for the entire flight).” — Air Bud (1997)