My seatmate on my United Airlines Los Angeles to London flight was busily engaged in a rather loud in-flight FaceTime conversation, leaving me wondering why people are so clueless about respecting others on an airplane.
Woman Yammers On FaceTime From LA To London On United Airlines (Sigh)
I’ve completed the first impression posts of my Asia trip and now will revert to the Ethiopia trip report. Looking back, I neglected to mention this little side story in my United Airlines 787-10 review from LAX-LHR.
> Read More: United Airlines 787-10 Business Class Los Angeles – London Review
It’s pretty simple, really: the woman across the aisle from me decided to have a conversation with her friend seated in another part of the cabin. But instead of standing up and walking to her, she called her on her iPhone and they engaged in an extended gab.
I mean, it could have been worse…at least it wasn’t in economy class. But it’s not like United’s Polaris Suites are soundproof…everyone could hear the conversation and the laughing.
Lately I’ve been more likely to speak out directly…I could have ducked my head in and joined the conversation in a way that hopefully would have shut it down. But I don’t think that was appropriate here. It was a younger woman, and I didn’t want to be accused of violating her personal space or getting uncomfortably close to her (sorry Scott Galloway).
As a general rule, I don’t think it is wise to confront people on your flight, period. The conversation did not go on the entire flight, but it still went on far too long, and it should have been a flight attendant who noticed it and told her to disconnect. Not to bag on flight attendants (especially the nice ones on this flight), but the passenger was yammering away. Could they really not hear that?
I’ve argued before (even on NPR) that cell phones would not be the end of the world on airplanes. After all, many carriers allow cellular phone calls onboard, and we are not hearing about brawls stemming from those calls. But I think there’s a difference between phone calls (in which you only hear one side of the call) and speakerphone or FaceTime calls where you hear both sides of the conversation.
I do understand why many fear that Americans would not be able to handle onboard calling and we might see fights and disruptions far worse than we saw from mask violators during the pandemic.
I don’t know. I just wish that flight attendants would put a stop to this sort of behavior the moment it starts. It should not be up to passengers to scold fellow passengers about their breaking the rules, especially when such rules are made very clear during the in-flight announcements by flight attendants.
Should I have handled this differently?
I would have gone over and either joined the conversation or told her to use headphones. If she did not listen, I would be pushing the button for the FA.
The general lack of self awareness in Airports (or planes) is truly amazing.
This is absolutely on you and you only.
Alert the flight attendant. If you don’t want to verbalize it, open your phone notes app and type on the details – then show to fa as if you’re asking about something in flight or possible connection or destination aspect
Definitely I would ask to use headphones. You should also. Don’t understand your reservation.
George Carlin said it best “People are f**kin stupid”
A lot of people say what you said George said.
George actually said: “Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.”
That’s a better quote and more nuanced than merely calling everyone you hate dumb.
Recent overnight flight JFK to Athens, Delta One, two men stood in the aisle for 45 minutes loudly discussing business while everyone was trying to sleep. FAs did nothing. Courtesy has completely disappeared.
They sound like malakas
When I encounter problems like this, I always ask the flight attendant for earplugs so I can have some peace and quiet, and that usually gives them the hint to say something.
I would point out to the FA when getting up to use the restroom. Using the speaker instead of earbuds has no excuse.
We might need a ” Quiet ” light. Perhaps then flight attendants may find the energy to act on the behalf of of other passengers. Although I hear “quiet piggy” is trending to shut others up, I would not recommend it
A major argument for killing off internet on flights. Unfortunately, I doubt that particular genie is getting stuffed back in the bottle so it’s up to the airlines who doubtless knew this was coming and arranged policies to combat these issues to enforce those policies if people won’t act with civility on their own.
Well many of this foresaw these issues arising when airliners started installing wifi. Let’s not kid ourselves – anyone who’s so important that they cannot be out of touch with the world below for half a day isn’t flying commercial, despite what our egos may insist on telling us.
Doesn’t United and the feds ban this? So, yeah call the FA.
But Sean Duffy was clear that if we start dressing better for flight this will all go away….
And it was the junk food’s fault… /s
Hahaha.
Delta has a very clear policy listed on their website and FAs always read that out loud before take off. I am glad that is the policy.
From Delta website FAQs:
“Can I make calls during flight?
No. Video calls and voice calls (including voice over Wi-Fi and voice over IP) are not allowed during flight.”
United does too, but passegners are rude and selfish and FAs do not always enforce it.
I recently spoke up on an E170. Landed at ORD and had about a 30 min taxi due to weather and busy ATC. No one knew how long it would be but I was in 2A and the man in 3A decided upon landing “you may now use your cell phone” meant “you may now play random videos at full volume for the whole cabin and laugh out loud and be entertained.”
It was obnoxiously loud and everyone else in the forward cabin was quiet, had headphones on, and understood the concept of respect. For that matter, so did the children in economy… The FA was in her jump seat, as we were on an active taxiway.
After far too long of video playing and much too much noise, I turned and said, very politely, “Excuse me, but would you mind using your headphones, please?”
“Huh? What? Don’t have any headphones” he said, after I repeated it.
“Then would you please wait until you’re in a private space? Thank you.” And I turned back around.
I was not oblivious to the muttered words he called me that began with the letter F. No one in the cabin missed that either; however, no one missed the fact that we spent the next 30 minutes on the taxiway without loud videos either. Apart from his not-so-subtle name calling, since I turned back around after that, it was the end of it. I wouldn’t have said more, but I was tracking the fight and weather, and I knew we were not about to be at our gate, and that was just too much. It was first class, for Pete’s sake! If children in the back of the plane can behave, then bring your headphones or shut up!
Headphones are required on American. They make an announcement on all flights.
Walking around a residential area in Tokyo I recently saw this sign “Leaving dog feces laying around is a big nuisance please make sure pet owners take it home.”
The airlines should make an announcement like this and replace dog feces to talking on a call. This would empower passengers to tell the offenders to shut up
Younger generations are afraid of quiet, afraid of their own thoughts, and need constant electronic noise. I don’t advocate for smoking (anymore) but when I was in my 20s and on break from work, I’d smoke cigarettes with my coworkers and we’d laugh, joke, talk, and connect. Now nobody smokes, but they sit in the breakroom doomscrolling TikTok or Facetiming their significant other– isolated in their own bubble– detached from the world and the real human connections around them. Maybe smoking wasn’t so bad after all.
LOL – That shot of her in the phone. Brilliant timing!
“Pardon me, would you please silence your call? Thank you.” Done.
I suppose you’re right.
@ Matthew — This should have immediately been escalated to crew.
Sadly, this is what cheap/free in-flight WiFi begets.
I don’t understand why you couldn’t have asked her to keep it down, or better still ask flight crew to do that for you. These obnoxious passengers don’t learn unless they get some pushback.