Travel dispatches from a shrinking planet

Travel dispatches from a shrinking planet

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Susan Sessions Rugh: ‘The Golden Age of American Family Vacations’

Elyse Franko asks the author of “Are We There Yet?” about the rise and fall of the family vacation, segregation in travel and how family trips are changing today

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As a Woman, Can I Really Travel Without Much Fear for my Safety?

Vagabonding traveler Rolf Potts answers your questions about travel

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Inside Slum Tourism

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Break Bread and Brie in France

Great cheese abounds in the land of Gaul, but dig in and you risk committing any number of faux pas. Terry Ward explains how to partake of the nation’s famed fromage with savoir faire.

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10 Wanderlust-Inducing Summer Concerts

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A Journey Into ‘The Second World’

Some bureaucrats joke that they would never claim expertise about countries they had not at least flown over. In an excerpt from his new book, Parag Khanna argues that real global understanding can only come from serious travel.

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‘The Worst Guidebook Writer Ever’?

Lonely Planet author Robert Reid reviews Thomas Kohnstamm’s “Do Travel Writers Go to Hell?” and weighs in on the controversy surrounding it

TRAVEL BLOG
4.7.08

EU Approves Cell Phone Use on Planes

Nooooooo! I was hoping this day would never come. Alas, I lose. And so does everyone else who’s going to end up “sitting next to a chatterbox at 30,000 feet” en route from London to Rome. The silver lining: The United States will maintain its ban on cell phone use on planes, and has no plans to change its mind.

Update: April 7, 6:26 p.m. ET: The AP has a Q&A on Europe’s new rules. 

Posted by Michael Yessis • 4.7.08
Categories: WeblogAir TravelEurope

Share this item at del.icio.us PermalinkComments (8)


COMMENTS

Say it ain’t so. I beg you.

A long time ago, my brother made a nifty little device that he could use to interfere with radio broadcasts for morons on the NY subways who cranked their boomboxes up to jet engine decibels. It was hidden in a cigarette pack.

I’ll get him thinking about a similar device for cell phones. But I guess it will have to be hidden in an iPod or something. Or perhaps a phony cell phone.

By Sophie  on  4.7.08  at  04:49 PM

It’s been covered before, but it still deserves to be said:

This is going to be a nightmare!

The regulator waffled about something about how ‘social norms’ will keep people from making unnecessary calls. Well, as anyone taking public transportation knows, a vital call is “Honey, I’m on the train home now” shouted loudly into the cell phone set to speaker mode…

*sigh*

If anyone makes the device Sophie mentions, could we have the blueprint please?

By Jack from eyeflare.com  on  4.8.08  at  01:45 AM

We’ve also got In-flight Mobiles FAQ over at Lost Weekend, which looks at who, when where and how. Including what happens when you want to punch the person on the phone next to you.

By Rory Boland  on  4.8.08  at  06:54 AM

Sophie, please tell your brother to get a patent on his device.  I sure hope it includes loud shrieking noise in the cell phone users’ ears.  He can market it on this website.  In the meantime, lets all buy stock in earplugs. 

I don’t understand why people feel the need to talk incessantly about nothing on the cell phone.  They even walk allllllllll the way to the far end of the train and use them on the cell phone-prohibited quiet car, which was designed in reaction to complaints of cell phones.  If you say something to the violators about the cell phone prohibition, they are often more rude or ignore you, and act surprised when you have the conductor remind them cell phones are prohibited. 

Other than singing, clapping my hands, and stomping my feet until they hang up, any suggestions out there?

By  on  4.8.08  at  08:11 AM

I’m afraid I’m going to have to comment on every single post that raises this issue…

I am exceedingly angry about the prospect of phones in the sky and am making sure I keep an eye out to boycott whatever airline allows them.

If enough people comment negatively and boycott those airlines, they might listen. So please, continue to speak up - you may sound repetitive to yourself but every voice needs to be counted.

I live in France and Air France is one of those airlines… it won’t be easy for me to boycott it but I will.

By Scribetrotter  on  4.9.08  at  08:26 AM

This cell phone is complete with self-contained systems - the radio, battery pack and other areas. This mobile is a big facilities radio station is a very clear catch in the traveling time.

By Mobiles India  on  6.17.08  at  09:38 AM

The European Union has approved cell phone calling for commercial airline flights , but the French and the Germans immediately were at loggerheads on the issue. Air France has already introduced onboard cell phone service while Germany’s Lufthansa said its customers don’t want the service.

By sms text  on  7.1.08  at  03:55 AM

I really appreciate this piece of information, and this is the fact in this world. Thanks.

By Rakhi to India  on  7.1.08  at  04:24 AM


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