19 ms·

Delta CEO: No Voice Calls on Our Flights

39 points by kudu 13y ago

sn0v 13y ago
Seems to me like most airlines stand to gain a lot of money by creating new sections that allow for talking within the planes, and ones that don't. People would probably pay extra for the latter.
- loceng 13y ago
  Not sure you can really do that. Even if it's a space with 4-8 seats sectioned off. If they're all planning on talking on the phone, I could see that being annoying for eachother. Otherwise if they were completely sealed off sections, they'd be charging a small fortune to compensate for the lost seat revenue.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]
  - JohnTHaller 13y ago
    If it helps, I'd pay good money to have a front row seat if they had a section right next to the section where all the folks who can't wrap their brains around not talking for 3 hours are forced to all sit and drive each other insane.
- Renaud 13y ago
  Way to make the whole flying experience even more awesome. I'm all for booths though, where you could isolate yourself if you really need to call and where calls would be limited in duration.
- jakejake 13y ago
  It would seem more fair to charge for the privilege of making calls (either access to a talking area, or a seat in a talking area). But, of course it would probably be an easier sell to say "hey, pay an extra $50 so that you don't have to be bothered by asshats screaming on their phone!"
krschultz 13y ago
When did all customers become "users". Delta has passengers. Delta has customers. They do not have users.
- melling 13y ago
  This is the #1 comment? It's kind of irrelevant. By the way, Delta doesn't use the word 'user' in the original memo. http://news.delta.com/index.php?s=43&item=2206 http://news.delta.com/index.php?s=43&item=2206
georgemcbay 13y ago
I'm not a big fan of people who are always on their phones but I don't think disallowing them on planes really solves any actual real world problem. Those chatterboxes who need to be talking will just continue to annoy the stranger sitting next to them or chatterbox with their friend sitting next to them if they are travelling in a group. Either way I need to filter them out with headphones or whatever. And while I have no interest in spending the majority of even a short flight talking on phones, it would sometimes be very convenient to be able to make a quick call to someone waiting at the airport 10 minutes before a flight lands or something like that. Throwing out that sort of convenience to get rid of a distraction like someone talking on their phone in an environment that is already inherently full of really loud sound distractions seems like a silly move to me.
- bradleyjg 13y ago
  The guy behind me on the train this morming was traveling by himself. Other than the 15 minutes he spent loudly participating in a settlement conference call (violating client confidentiality I might add) he was perfectly quiet. There was no evidence that he was a compulsive chatterbox, he just found it convienient to take a call right then and didn't care how many people he bothered. While it is true that other people have been very annoying on the train by talking to each other it is not true that banning telephone calls would have no salutary effect.
  - nisse72 13y ago
    If you'd been travelling with SJ (Swedish railway) you could have chosen a quiet section, where cell phones are expected to be turned off and even conversations are discouraged. http://www.sj.se/sj/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=189&a=34903&l=en http://www.sj.se/sj/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=189&a=34903&l=en
    - CaptainZapp 13y ago
      SNCF (The French railway company) specifically asks you by signage and by loudspeaker announcement to leave the car and make phone calls in the intersection between cars on their TGV trains.
alwaysinshade 13y ago
Charge a not-inconsequential fee for in-air calls so that people only use it if it's absolutely necessary. Perhaps make the charge go up exponentially with time so that calls remain brief.
- melling 13y ago
  In many planes people can't make them now. Why is it suddenly absolutely necessary?
- qq66 13y ago
  That's exactly how it used to be with the in-flight air phones (except the exponential part, it wasn't needed with calls costing $10 a minute).
jmspring 13y ago
My favorite instances of transit chatterboxes have occurred in Italy. Pedestrians and those on trains, on their phone and very "vocal" with their hand gestures. It made for amusing people watching. Personally, I don't care either way about voice calls on flights at this point. Aside from when my wife and I are traveling and trying to converse, I am usually fully checked out with my in ear monitors and music/video, so I rarely hear much -- I have to remove the IEM to interact w/ airline staff for things like drinks, food, etc.
FigBug 13y ago
Can you actually get a cell signal in an airplane? I guess you can or this wouldn't be an issue. I've never been able too in the few moments before I turn airplane mode on.
- vellum 13y ago
  Delta has wifi on some flights, so there's always Skype.
networkjesus 13y ago
And that's why I don't fly Delta.
manicbovine 13y ago
This was an interesting and quaint sentiment in 1993. Now it's an attitude shared by overbearing grandmas and hipsters alike. The culture police need to move on. I don't like loud conversations, but it's a jet plane - not a damn library. (And at least my librarian does not infantilize me)
- ericd 13y ago
  That talking on the phone or the train or the bus is rude isn't some quaint notion that is going to go away. It's very grating to listen to a lot of one sided conversations, and planes are places that a lot of people like to sleep.
  - manicbovine 13y ago
    Yes, and traffic is annoying too. I nonetheless want to have motorized vehicles. I'd similarly like to use my cellphone and want for other adults to make that decision for themselves. If other people irritate me, then I'll go buy some earplugs. But really, it's a jet plane. Jet engines are really quite loud. Who expects silence on a plane? (nevermind the crying babies, captain announcements, odd two-sided conversations, etc...) Maybe the best retort to my comment is simply "then don't fly Delta because their customers don't want cellphones on planes."
    - PKop 13y ago
      And I'd really like to travel without the annoyance of hearing other passengers loudly talking on the phone next to me. An airline that enforced a no phone call policy would be more desirable to me, all things being equal. Perhaps some will allow it and some won't, and we all can have choices. Also, jet engine being loud not the same as distinctly loud talking. More like a uniform white noise that does not prevent sleeping. Ultimately I think it just comes down to consideration for others and not being irritating during a long uncomfortable plane ride. I would presume most people would prefer to not listen to others talking and prefer silence. Therefore I think it's just inconsiderate to carry on a loud conversation within a plane where people are forced to have to put up with it and can't avoid the irritation.
enscr 13y ago
Flights should be like movie theaters when it comes to using your phone. Don't spoil the ambiance for everyone with your chatter. A message is fine. But for voice, kindly step out.
- ekianjo 13y ago
  Step out of the plane ? :) More seriously, if people have to move to make a call, this will cause a mess in the economy section, where seats are narrow and you need to step on people's feet to move around. And that will make the job of air hostesses way harder when it comes to moving around with their carts, too. There's hardly a good way to do that in a plane.
- manicbovine 13y ago
  Ahh, the lovely ambiance of a passenger plane.
spinlock 13y ago
This is a huge advantage when you're trying to win business from curmudgeons like me.
sakura_k 13y ago
Close your eyes and picture the last time you saw a clueless chatterbox gabbing on a cell phone. What do you remember? The nails-on-chalkboard voice? The hideous oversharing? Think deeper. Think of the flapping hands and the upper body articulation. Think of how oblivious that chatterbox was to any social cues, subtle or overt, that the world at large might not wish to share quite so deeply in its private discourse. Now imagine you're trapped 17" away (average distance between passengers' centers of mass on an international flight) from that clueless gesticulating chatterbox for 8 hours. If you honestly think that's no problem I won't call you a hypocrite. For me, cell phone chats go right down with cigarettes and guns as things that are so awful that even trapped air passengers shouldn't have to endure them.
- diminoten 13y ago
  Thing is, I can't picture the last time I saw a clueless chatterbox gabbing on a cell phone. I dunno who these people are I'm supposed to be afraid of. The face of the enemy is not known to me.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
enscr 13y ago
If you are dying to talk on a plane (unless it's an emergency), please use this to respect the comfort of other passengers. http://www.ostrichpillow.com/wp-content/themes/things/img/header/OSTRICH-PILLOW_Studio-Banana-THiNGS_kawamura-ganjavian_03.jpg http://www.ostrichpillow.com/wp-content/themes/things/img/he...

39 points by kudu 13y ago

sn0v 13y ago

Seems to me like most airlines stand to gain a lot of money by creating new sections that allow for talking within the planes, and ones that don't. People would probably pay extra for the latter.

loceng 13y ago
Not sure you can really do that. Even if it's a space with 4-8 seats sectioned off. If they're all planning on talking on the phone, I could see that being annoying for eachother. Otherwise if they were completely sealed off sections, they'd be charging a small fortune to compensate for the lost seat revenue.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
- JohnTHaller 13y ago
  If it helps, I'd pay good money to have a front row seat if they had a section right next to the section where all the folks who can't wrap their brains around not talking for 3 hours are forced to all sit and drive each other insane.
Renaud 13y ago
Way to make the whole flying experience even more awesome. I'm all for booths though, where you could isolate yourself if you really need to call and where calls would be limited in duration.
jakejake 13y ago
It would seem more fair to charge for the privilege of making calls (either access to a talking area, or a seat in a talking area). But, of course it would probably be an easier sell to say "hey, pay an extra $50 so that you don't have to be bothered by asshats screaming on their phone!"

krschultz 13y ago

When did all customers become "users". Delta has passengers. Delta has customers. They do not have users.

melling 13y ago
This is the #1 comment? It's kind of irrelevant. By the way, Delta doesn't use the word 'user' in the original memo. http://news.delta.com/index.php?s=43&item=2206 http://news.delta.com/index.php?s=43&item=2206

georgemcbay 13y ago

I'm not a big fan of people who are always on their phones but I don't think disallowing them on planes really solves any actual real world problem. Those chatterboxes who need to be talking will just continue to annoy the stranger sitting next to them or chatterbox with their friend sitting next to them if they are travelling in a group. Either way I need to filter them out with headphones or whatever. And while I have no interest in spending the majority of even a short flight talking on phones, it would sometimes be very convenient to be able to make a quick call to someone waiting at the airport 10 minutes before a flight lands or something like that. Throwing out that sort of convenience to get rid of a distraction like someone talking on their phone in an environment that is already inherently full of really loud sound distractions seems like a silly move to me.

bradleyjg 13y ago
The guy behind me on the train this morming was traveling by himself. Other than the 15 minutes he spent loudly participating in a settlement conference call (violating client confidentiality I might add) he was perfectly quiet. There was no evidence that he was a compulsive chatterbox, he just found it convienient to take a call right then and didn't care how many people he bothered. While it is true that other people have been very annoying on the train by talking to each other it is not true that banning telephone calls would have no salutary effect.
- nisse72 13y ago
  If you'd been travelling with SJ (Swedish railway) you could have chosen a quiet section, where cell phones are expected to be turned off and even conversations are discouraged. http://www.sj.se/sj/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=189&a=34903&l=en http://www.sj.se/sj/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=189&a=34903&l=en
  - CaptainZapp 13y ago
    SNCF (The French railway company) specifically asks you by signage and by loudspeaker announcement to leave the car and make phone calls in the intersection between cars on their TGV trains.

alwaysinshade 13y ago

Charge a not-inconsequential fee for in-air calls so that people only use it if it's absolutely necessary. Perhaps make the charge go up exponentially with time so that calls remain brief.

melling 13y ago
In many planes people can't make them now. Why is it suddenly absolutely necessary?
qq66 13y ago
That's exactly how it used to be with the in-flight air phones (except the exponential part, it wasn't needed with calls costing $10 a minute).

jmspring 13y ago

My favorite instances of transit chatterboxes have occurred in Italy. Pedestrians and those on trains, on their phone and very "vocal" with their hand gestures. It made for amusing people watching. Personally, I don't care either way about voice calls on flights at this point. Aside from when my wife and I are traveling and trying to converse, I am usually fully checked out with my in ear monitors and music/video, so I rarely hear much -- I have to remove the IEM to interact w/ airline staff for things like drinks, food, etc.

FigBug 13y ago

Can you actually get a cell signal in an airplane? I guess you can or this wouldn't be an issue. I've never been able too in the few moments before I turn airplane mode on.

vellum 13y ago
Delta has wifi on some flights, so there's always Skype.

networkjesus 13y ago

And that's why I don't fly Delta.

manicbovine 13y ago

This was an interesting and quaint sentiment in 1993. Now it's an attitude shared by overbearing grandmas and hipsters alike. The culture police need to move on. I don't like loud conversations, but it's a jet plane - not a damn library. (And at least my librarian does not infantilize me)

ericd 13y ago
That talking on the phone or the train or the bus is rude isn't some quaint notion that is going to go away. It's very grating to listen to a lot of one sided conversations, and planes are places that a lot of people like to sleep.
- manicbovine 13y ago
  Yes, and traffic is annoying too. I nonetheless want to have motorized vehicles. I'd similarly like to use my cellphone and want for other adults to make that decision for themselves. If other people irritate me, then I'll go buy some earplugs. But really, it's a jet plane. Jet engines are really quite loud. Who expects silence on a plane? (nevermind the crying babies, captain announcements, odd two-sided conversations, etc...) Maybe the best retort to my comment is simply "then don't fly Delta because their customers don't want cellphones on planes."
  - PKop 13y ago
    And I'd really like to travel without the annoyance of hearing other passengers loudly talking on the phone next to me. An airline that enforced a no phone call policy would be more desirable to me, all things being equal. Perhaps some will allow it and some won't, and we all can have choices. Also, jet engine being loud not the same as distinctly loud talking. More like a uniform white noise that does not prevent sleeping. Ultimately I think it just comes down to consideration for others and not being irritating during a long uncomfortable plane ride. I would presume most people would prefer to not listen to others talking and prefer silence. Therefore I think it's just inconsiderate to carry on a loud conversation within a plane where people are forced to have to put up with it and can't avoid the irritation.

enscr 13y ago

Flights should be like movie theaters when it comes to using your phone. Don't spoil the ambiance for everyone with your chatter. A message is fine. But for voice, kindly step out.

ekianjo 13y ago
Step out of the plane ? :) More seriously, if people have to move to make a call, this will cause a mess in the economy section, where seats are narrow and you need to step on people's feet to move around. And that will make the job of air hostesses way harder when it comes to moving around with their carts, too. There's hardly a good way to do that in a plane.
manicbovine 13y ago
Ahh, the lovely ambiance of a passenger plane.

spinlock 13y ago

This is a huge advantage when you're trying to win business from curmudgeons like me.

sakura_k 13y ago

Close your eyes and picture the last time you saw a clueless chatterbox gabbing on a cell phone. What do you remember? The nails-on-chalkboard voice? The hideous oversharing? Think deeper. Think of the flapping hands and the upper body articulation. Think of how oblivious that chatterbox was to any social cues, subtle or overt, that the world at large might not wish to share quite so deeply in its private discourse. Now imagine you're trapped 17" away (average distance between passengers' centers of mass on an international flight) from that clueless gesticulating chatterbox for 8 hours. If you honestly think that's no problem I won't call you a hypocrite. For me, cell phone chats go right down with cigarettes and guns as things that are so awful that even trapped air passengers shouldn't have to endure them.

diminoten 13y ago
Thing is, I can't picture the last time I saw a clueless chatterbox gabbing on a cell phone. I dunno who these people are I'm supposed to be afraid of. The face of the enemy is not known to me.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

enscr 13y ago

If you are dying to talk on a plane (unless it's an emergency), please use this to respect the comfort of other passengers. http://www.ostrichpillow.com/wp-content/themes/things/img/header/OSTRICH-PILLOW_Studio-Banana-THiNGS_kawamura-ganjavian_03.jpg http://www.ostrichpillow.com/wp-content/themes/things/img/he...