Remember when you used to have to turn off your phone every time the plane was about to take off or land? For many shorter domestic routes, the phases of the flight during which it was previously forbidden to use devices added up to a significant portion of an entire trip. After all, fliers have had the chance to make calls in the past-remember the Verizon Airfone that used to be installed in every row? Why shouldn't we take airplane mode for granted? Many people think allowing voice calls is a bad idea (even the Chairman of the FCC said he "values a moment of quiet at 30,000 feet"), but some travelers don’t think it’d be a problem. In fact, ultra-low-cost carrier Ryanair even discontinued voice calls because passenger interest in them was so low after trying the service in 2009.
So far, there have been no major incidents traced to the fact that phone calls are allowed. Can I make a phone call?Ĭellular calls are not allowed on domestic airlines, but lots of international airlines, including British Airways, Emirates, and Etihad allow fliers to chat on a voice call in addition to texting and browsing the web. To make sure you're not at risk of a dead device, a portable phone charger will guarantee you have enough juice to reach your final destination. To see if the aircraft operating your flight has plugs-or those handy USB ports -check with your airline or consult, which shows seat-by-seat information for all major carriers. Won’t my phone be dead by the time we land?Īirlines are adding more and more power plugs to keep passengers’ phones and tablets charged. Of course, if your fare includes access to the plane's Wi-Fi, you can also email, tweet, and update Facebook as much as the bandwidth allows.
A number of airlines have incorporated free Wi-Fi texting into their offerings, including Southwest, Delta, Alaska, and JetBlue. Any communication has to be over Wi-Fi with a messaging app that provides similar functionality like iMessage, WhatsApp, or Viber. The ban on using a cellular connection means passengers can’t send SMS texts. Although that could soon be changing: last month, Norwegian Airlines launched "gate-to-gate" Wi-Fi, which will work during both take-off and landing. Fliers can enable Wi-Fi at any time, but likely won't be able to access the in-flight network until an announcement is made that the service is active-usually when the plane goes above 10,000 feet.
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