I have a very preliminary report which is.... the set doesn't work at all indoors, behind a patio door with two 6mm non-metallised glass panes.
It would be interesting to see any satellite handheld working with its own antenna inside an airliner but I suppose it's possible.
The advantage of Thuraya - if it works - is that it is a much better deal cost wise than Iridium. In fact it pretty well compares with mobile to mobile phone calls. Thuraya has cherry picked the market by providing just one satellite covering Europe and much of Africa, plus the Middle East.
Thuraya also do a "super SIM" on which you don't get the standard PAYG sat phone ripoff: the confiscation of your outstanding balance at the end of the charging period
This is quite relevant to pilots, with the intermittent usage.
I doubt OBL is using his sat phone much these days. The calls are so easily monitored and tracked. The phones have a GPS receiver in them and if somebody spent enough time on the phone, you could drop a GPS guided bomb straight on top of him. The GPS in this phone appears accurate to much better than the length of my patio... The whole system is a GCHQ/NSA dream come true.