Likely in response to JetBlue’s systemwide double-points promotion, in effect through February 29, Virgin America is also offering double points, but only on select routes.
27.07.2023 - 18:25 / smartertravel.com / Tim Winship
If current practice is any indication, cellphone calls aboard U.S. flights might as well be banned. Technically, that’s not currently the case. But it might be soon.
The debate over inflight phone-calling raged hot and heavy two years ago, with the opposing forces seemingly gaining the upper hand. The Association of Flight Attendants called for an outright ban on the calls. A no-call bill was introduced in Congress. The DOT signaled its general opposition to inflight cell use on safety grounds, in particular that it would distract passengers from attending to routine safety announcements and flight crew instructions in emergency situations. And several airline CEOs pledged it would never happen on their planes.
While the DOT never formalized its inflight call policy, the FCC did:
Although that might seem to put an end to the matter, it doesn’t. Whether intentionally or not, the FCC rule allows for the possibility of making calls via WiFi, as is easily done using popular phone apps such as FaceTime, WeChat, and the like. And WiFi calls are no different from cellular calls in terms of their effects. They’re annoying, disruptive, and, as has been argued by many airline workers, they can create an unsafe condition in flight.
But the FCC’s objection to inflight calls wasn’t based on concerns about travelers’ safety or comfort. Rather, the ban was imposed to preempt the possibility that cell calls might interfere with a plane’s communications and navigation systems. Because those concerns had been mooted by advances in technology, in 2013 the FCC began to consider revoking the ban, a move that would effectively leave to the DOT the final decision whether or not to allow cell calls inflight.
Related:Free Tickets Anyone? JetBlue Is Giving Away 1,000 of ThemLast week, however, the FCC’s new chairman, Ajit Pai, circulated a proposed order that would reclaim for the Commission a leading role in definitively blocking inflight calls. In a major departure from his predecessor’s single-minded focus on technical issues, Pai cited cell calls’ potential to undermine travelers’ safety and to annoy other passengers, and proposed shelving the 2013 plan.
Here’s Pai’s statement in support of the proposed order:
Assuming the Commission votes to approve Pai’s order, as seems likely, the question of inflight calls, whether using cellular or WiFi technology, will be put to rest, finally.
Reader Reality Check
Inflight calls: Yea or nay?
More from SmarterTravel: Don’t Want to Fly United? Here’s How to Redeem Your Miles JetBlue Offers More Mint Service (But No More $399 Fares) Biggest-Ever Sign-Up Bonuses for 2 Hilton Credit CardsAfter 20 years working in the travel industry, and 15 years writing about it, Tim Winship knows a
Likely in response to JetBlue’s systemwide double-points promotion, in effect through February 29, Virgin America is also offering double points, but only on select routes.
With the high probability of Virgin America’s being folded into Alaska Airlines within the next two years, Virgin loyalists are in the market for an alternative. And JetBlue wants to be that alternative.
Enter the Clos Du Bois “Spring in Sonoma” sweepstakes by April 26, 2016, for a chance to win one of the two grand prizes: trips for two to Sonoma, including air, three nights’ hotel, and $700 spending money.
Hilton titled the news release announcing upcoming changes to its Honors loyalty program as follows: “Hilton Honors Delivers Even More to Its Members in 2018 with Industry-Leading Earn Rates and New Benefits.”
Smoking traditional tobacco-packed cigarettes has been banned on most U.S. commercial flights since the late 1980s. But the “No Smoking” signs didn’t specifically prohibit the latest nicotine-delivery device, e-cigarettes.
When American Airlines merged with US Airways, American’s disgruntled unions were unanimous in their support for what amounted to a hostile takeover of the much-larger American by Doug Parker and his mid-sized US Airways.
U.S. commuters wasted 8 billion hours sitting in traffic last year.
In April, when the FAA removed restrictions on additional flights at Newark Liberty International Airport, the hope was that other airlines would increase their share of the airport’s flights, in the process eroding United’s dominance and near-monopoly pricing in that important market.
How much is a monopoly worth? Plenty, for sure. But it’s no easy matter to precisely quantify its value in any particular situation.
How much should you expect to spend to visit each of the largest 100 U.S. cities?
The ban on electronic devices carried onboard flights to the U.S. and U.K. from select African and Middle Eastern countries has been anything but uncontroversial. While the response at the level of companies and organizations has been mostly muted, travelers on such sites as FlyerTalk and InsideFlyer have expressed considerable skepticism as to both the ban’s underlying motives and its efficacy.
Just hours after the Department of Homeland Security published its ban on electronic devices on flights to the U.S. from 10 Middle East and African airports, the U.K. followed suit, with its own ban on carry-on devices on flights to the United Kingdom from Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia, and Saudi Arabia.