Aer Linugus - mobile phone in flight mode!

Random

I was on an Aer Lingus flight at the weekend and a member of the cabin crew came over and told me to turn my mobile phone off. I calmly tried to explain to them how flight mode worked, and how my phone was doing exactly the same as my mates IPOD in the seat next to me.

He said it was "Aer Lingus policy that you can't turn on a phone on a flight".

Right, fair enough ... if it's policy I'm not getting into a fight on a plane

Are airlines still so far behind the times that they don't understand flight mode? I was on a Delta flight to New York in the summer and had no issues with it ... and they're an American airline!

Kolodny

The same thing happened to me when flying to Turkey in the summer. The cabin crew refused to leave me alone until they saw me turn the phone off, despite my explanations. Can't remember which airline it was though. Defeats the whole purpose really doesn't it?

Random

Trying to decide if it's worth asking Aer Lingus about ... anyone know of an email address for their customer relations dept?

Ruu_Old

Don't think they have an email, the only way to contact the Customer Relations is by writing to the below address. Its a wonder airlines policy is not updated by now regarding phones in flight mode.

Aer Lingus Customer Care Unit
Aer Lingus Head Office
Dublin Airport
Ireland

Fax Number: 00353 1 8863832

empirix

Just turn the damn thing off for the flight, people lkike you annoy me on flights, they clearly say to switch off all mobile phones on Aer lingus and indeed most other airlines, what don't you understand about that, god be with the days when we were mobile free

tbh

people like you annoy me, giving out about something you don't understand. He did turn his phone off, it was in FLIGHT MODE. i.e. the mode you put it in when you are on a flight - it's offline.

mikedragon32

It's ironic that an Airline which now does most of it's business online and, at one point, had changed the livery on some of its planes to reflect its online presence doesn't allow you communicate complaints via e-mail.

If you do a rummage on the site, there is an electronic form you can complete to contact customer "service", but don't hold your breath. I was so long waiting for a response I ended up writing to head office instead.

thewing

Flight mode - turned off - same ****ing thing you still can't get a call on it...

amp

But you can still play tetris. Or read old sms messages. I wouldn't know however the only flight mode my phone has is when I throw it.

I think I need to go to bed now.

Zascar

Having to turn your phone off on a plane so that it does not disrupt the planes navigation systems is just paranoia anyway. Mythbusters proved it!

BuffyBot

It's up to the airline in question to decide what policy they want to operate. I don't see should the cabin crew have to spend time figuring out which phones are ok and which aren't when they have better things to be doing.

Kali

BuffyBot wrote:

It's up to the airline in question to decide what policy they want to operate. I don't see should the cabin crew have to spend time figuring out which phones are ok and which aren't when they have better things to be doing.

Very true, its not upto the cabin staff to vet every single phone or be knowledgeable of every new feature on the latest gadgets.

I personally dread the day (next year on ryanair) when they allow phones on... as if crying babys weren't enough, now we get people shouting down the phone and dodgy ringtones as well.

empirix

empirix wrote:

Just turn the damn thing off for the flight, people lkike you annoy me on flights, they clearly say to switch off all mobile phones on Aer lingus and indeed most other airlines, what don't you understand about that, god be with the days when we were mobile free

Yes i do know what flight mode is, but it still does give the impression that the phone is on and hence cause disruption, whats the problem with turning it off completely, i want to play my games or mp3's - give me a break, Your just being a dick!

djfattony2000

Not to sound like I'm bragging, but I have just finished a years travel around the world and I flew with alot of different airlines (The One World Alliance) and every flight mentioned it in their saftey check before the flight. "If you have a phone flight mode please enable it now" In fact I'm almost sure the Airlingus flight said it too.

Random

tbh wrote:

people like you annoy me, giving out about something you don't understand. He did turn his phone off, it was in FLIGHT MODE. i.e. the mode you put it in when you are on a flight - it's offline.

Thank you. I swear I was going to kill him

Flight mode is not the same as having it turned off. Flight mode means you have the equivilant of an IPOD or a gameboy in your hand!

As for it being policy .. I don't dispute that and ain't gonna argue if it's the rule... but I did want other peoples experiences of it, and will be contacting Aer Lingus to get their side of it.

Oh, and empirix - please don't call me a dick.

RasTa

I forgot to turn my phone off once(coming back from Amsterdam) and i fell asleep as soon as i sat down and buckled up..... and we lived! Another time I was on a flight coming back from New York and some crazy guy just attacked an air hostess then tried to open the door, all this crazyness was going on mid flight. He had to be held down by passengers for the rest of the flight. Anyway the poor girl was prty shuck up and rang her mother when we started making our descent so I dont think having your phone on even does anything. It also anoys me when i have to turn off my ipod for landing and take off
/rant over

BuffyBot

It also anoys me when i have to turn off my ipod for landing and take off

That's an entirely different issue. That's to make sure you hear any instructions in case of an emergency.

Sam Vimes

empirix wrote:

Yes i do know what flight mode is, but it still does give the impression that the phone is on and hence cause disruption, whats the problem with turning it off completely, i want to play my games or mp3's - give me a break, Your just being a dick!

it may well give you that impression but that impression is wrong. a phone in flight mode is no different to an ipod. they say people can use laptops with the wifi turned off so there's no reason not to allow phones in flight mode

when my phone is in flight mode, there's a big X through the signal bars clearly indicating its not on the network. i showed them this. they didn't care

tbh

And thats the point - I don't want them telling me to switch it off because "that's what it says in de buke" - I want them to understand how having a mobile phone switched on can be dangerous. The main reason for this is that technology is changing so fast - Imagine I had an MP3 player with wi-fi - are they going to ask me to switch that off if they'd never seen one before.? (even tho I'd do it myself unprompted anyway). Probably not.

netman

Kali wrote:

I personally dread the day (next year on ryanair) when they allow phones on... as if crying babys weren't enough, now we get people shouting down the phone and dodgy ringtones as well.

If it drowns out the noise of screaming children it will be well worth it!

Ponster

Why does it seem that half of you have either missed or misread BuffyBot's post? No one is debating if the phone being on is dagerous or if 'flight mode' means that the phone isn't sending out any signals and is therefore useless.
If they ask you to turn them off then you have to turn them off, reagardless of 'flight mode' being an option on your phone.

I do agree though that Aer Lingus are behind the times as I'm having a problem finding a major airline that doesn't mention flight mode being ok on their website.

CtrlSource

I accidentally left my phone on during a recent flight. As we were on final approach for landing (the landing gear had just been deployed so we were still at a couple of thousand feet), my phone beeped loudly and 3 texts messages were delivered! Nobody said anything, but I was a bit embarrassed :rolleyes:

I've never heard the term 'Flight Mode' used before, but my phone does have an offline setting which I normally use. I agree with BuffyBot - how can people expect cabin crew to monitor which phones are on or offline? If the policy is there, it's there for a reason.

It's debatable whether there's really any safety risk posed by using phones in flight. Still, I think each airline should decide on it, based on the best available information.

Sleepy

It's just another example of what happens in big business these days. Wages are high so instead of paying for good staff, the company hire idiots cheaply and give them "idiot-proof" systems, guidelines and policies to ensure nothing goes wrong aside from annoying the hell out of your customers.