Singapore Airlines - interesting experience

[Rush2112]

I am a PPS Solitaire member, meaning the top level of their FF club (lifetime membership now closed before anyone points that out...), and as such periodically I get invited to wine appreciation dinners here.

Last night was one such occasion, showcasing Masi wines from Veneto in Italy, at the Shangri-La Hotel and jolly fine it was too.

You have to sit through a bit of a SQ "Aren't we wonderful" speech from one of the big wigs and two interesting titbits of information were offered up: one is that from next year they will be flying Singapore - Barcelona - Sao Paulo, which got a general approval. The other, and this to a room with about 200 very frequent fliers, all fairly senior people in the business world (not sure how I got there then, but I digress), was that sometime next year they are upgrading the inflight connectivity systems to include making and receiving voice calls on your mobile.

This was met with a unanimous groan of disapproval, and our table in particular was quick to harangue the manager from SQ who was our host and indeed who had stood up and given what she thought was good news! We suggested that they do a bit more market research before they commit and she said they had and got the thumbs up, mainly from lawyers and bankers.

I opined that Singapore hospitals will become world leaders in extracting mobile phones from places where the sun don't shine...

One of our table companions announced he was going to apply for a concession at Changi selling premium grade earplugs, a shrewd move!

[Rwy in Sight]

It is always interesting to see how a market research is conducted as all to frequently the results are wrong and people don't behave like the declare on the research.

Our only hope is the in-flight phone services to be a big flop due to a number of reasons hence stopping the experience as soon as possible.

Rush2112, respect for your status...

Rwy in Sight

[Load Toad]

An aeroplane cabin is completely the wrong place to have to tolerate the intrusions of others into what is already a small and often uncomfortable personal space.

Whoever at SIA thinks allowing in flight mobile voice calls is a good idea is a Grade AAA pillock.

[kaikohe76]

I fly with SVQ, as in my opinion there is no other airline to top them for passenger service. However if we now have to suffer the intrusion of continual moblie phone conversations, I may well reconsider. Definitely a no no & I wonder if SVQ have got this one wrong, time & pax complaints will tell.

[Joao da Silva]

thumbs up, mainly from lawyers and bankers.
Whoever at SIA thinks allowing in flight mobile voice calls is a good idea is a Grade AAA pillock. That depends how big a share of the revenue/yield pie comes from the lawyers and bankers, doesn't it?

If they form a big part of the yield pie and they can charge $xxx per hour for billable work to their clients by making inflight calls, then SIA would be insane to let a competitor gain competitive advantage by providing this facility, when they do not. Remember that these type of companies have corporate accounts and block bookings, they are not casual or passing trade.

You guys may well be small fry and easy sacrifices.

Sorry, but that's the way airline marketeers think and money talks.

[bjh123]

If trains can have a quiet coach why not have a quiet cabin on aircraft where mobiles would not be allowed. It wouldn't accommodate everyone and there might be occasions when an individual ends up in the 'wrong' cabin but you can't please everyone all of the time.

[Tarq57]

The problem with market and consumer surveys is that the correct questions are never asked.
Only those pertaining to what the commissioner of the survey hopes to hear.

[Joao da Silva]

bjh123

Good idea in principle and maybe easy to implement in single class cabins.

Probably more challenging in 3-4 class aircraft.

[Hartington]

Then turn the "quiet cabin" idea on it's head. Put an area somewhere adjacent to a toilet block (which is noisy anyway) with a couple of fold down seats (like the crew use) and designate it the "mobile zone".

[Joao da Silva]

Hartington

I like your 'inverting' logic, but doubt if the peeps in F and J, who are prepared to pay for this, will stray far from their comfy seats (and tables of documents.)

[Donkey497]

Picture three scenes.......

Long haul overnight flight, say SIN-LHR, a fairly full A380, 3 -4 hours in the light, the dinner is long past, the lights dim and most drift off to sleep.

Ring Ring, Ring Ring, Cue long, loud & inane half-shouted partial conversation of complete irrelevance to the rest of the flight. Passengers start to wake up, grumpy about even more disturbed sleep.

Conversation continues, waking up the cabin in an ever expanding series of ripples.

Second scene, similar situation.

Ring Ring, Ring Ring, Ring Ring,....... ad infinitum as the owber snoozes peacefully whilst the rest of the cabin wakes and seeks the source of this disturbance....

Scene three......
fairly quiet flight with a number of empty seats.
Ring Ring, Ring Ring,....... Hi Mate, long time no hear,....... No I'm flying home just now,.......No kidding, what flight?....... No way - I'm on the same one, what seat?...... yeah, I'm in 23A, plenty room no-one else in the same row. And so on for the next ten miutes, with neiter of them intelligent enough to actually move about the cabin to sit beside each other.


Anyone taking bets on how long before we have an airborne brawl?

[Skipness One Echo]

How many like people in unison in quiet unison intoning

"Please be considerate and hang up now" over and over and over would it take I wonder?
Personallly after a few moments I would forcibly make them hang up. I'm not kidding I'd proably get arrested, I detest the damn things even on trains.

Public transport of any form can wind me up that way. Even stuck on the tube with tourists chatting in whatever foreign language ups my stress levels as it's just a noise in my personal space I cannot escape.

[ZFT]

Are mobile jammers illegal on aircraft?

[Entaxei]

If they are not they should be - devices of that nature can also jam aircraft systems, including all types of electronics - this is why laptops and mobiles are forbidden to be used when aircraft are taking off or in landing mode. Although passengers don't like being told to shut off their devices, the ones that argue are total pillocks.

And thats just a mild point of view!! ;)

Cheers

[L'aviateur]

Thats quite an unusual route Singapore - Barcelona - Sao Paulo, at the moment they operate the Singapore - Barcelona route with a stop in Milan. Wonder how long the additional Sao Paulo leg will last...

[Rush2112]

That depends how big a share of the revenue/yield pie comes from the lawyers and bankers, doesn't it?

If they form a big part of the yield pie and they can charge $xxx per hour for billable work to their clients by making inflight calls, then SIA would be insane to let a competitor gain competitive advantage by providing this facility, when they do not. Remember that these type of companies have corporate accounts and block bookings, they are not casual or passing trade.

You guys may well be small fry and easy sacrifices.

Sorry, but that's the way airline marketeers think and money talks.

They mentioned the cost of making calls and how high it will be - that won't stop the bloody lawyers they just pass on the cost to us!!!

[ExXB]

... who remembers when almost all main-line aircraft had satellite phones installed in the seat backs? I remember flying Swissair to Heathrow and being diverted to Gatwick because of the Burger King fire in T1. We were able to use the phone to change our rental car booking and advise our friends.

But the airlines took them out. Why? Because they were expensive to use, expensive to carry, and nobody used them. (Not even lawyers)

There are jerks everywhere (present company excluded) and I suppose that from time-to-time one may be disturbed by loud users. However my experience is that these people are loud all the time - not just on the phone.

If I had my choice I'd rather have a loud caller, who will annoy us for a limited amount of time, than a misbehaving child who will never stop.

[WHBM]

The problem with market and consumer surveys is that the correct questions are never asked.
Only those pertaining to what the commissioner of the survey hopes to hear.
It works a bit differently.

1. Electronics manufacturer comes up with expensive product.
2. Salesman with good contacts bends the ear of airline exec relentlessly about its value.
3. Airline exec gets budget for market research.
4. Market Research company chosen is the one whose results last time agreed with the exec.
5. MR company puts together questions to achieve the same again.
6. Board convinced, investment made.
7. Financial flop, of course.
8. Exec quits, takes a new job - as a salesman for an electronics manufacturer, having Good Airline Contacts.
9. Go back to 1.

[HKPAX]

Its inevitable, sorry to say. Even woke up somewhere over Russia to find my neighbour wuz using the house internet connection to do a Skype call - but to his full credit he was being very discrete about it.
I always pack earplugs - the industrial grade. This is to filter out Cathy Pathetic's interminable announcements - all of them in three effing languages!!
One day people's precautions against racket is going to be identified as a safety hazard and we will be forbidden from using them.....
And while I'm about it is really hacks me off when Pathetic and Daggidare do "onward connection announcements" in the 45 mins before landing "as a service". They KNOW which pax have got connections and if they wanted to give real service they would jot the stuff down for them and give it to them rather than making the entire complement of pax sit through a 3-lingo list for 20 minutes instead of having a bit of extra kip.

Rant over...

[Bus429]

I agree that the idea of sharing a flight with loads of jabbering idiots is of no appeal. However, I believe current technology only allows (or can allow) a limited number of simultaneous calls. The crew are in command of the system and can disable it.

[ThreadBaron]

I agree that the idea of sharing a flight with loads of jabbering idiots is of no appeal.

But then, the flight deck crew and the cabin crew are indispensable! ;)

Disclaimer: This p*ost is tutterly tongue in cheek. Please put down those rocks!)

[Paraffin Budgie]

I've been on several "mobile-enabled" flights with Emirates (at the back) and never seen or heard anyone use one.

Maybe it won't be as big a problem as previously feared.

[crewmeal]

With the advent of more and more smart phones that update the apps themselves such as the iphone and people getting horrendous bills without realising it when they travel abroad, I would imagine that there won't be much call for them inflight unless there is some sort of emergency. I always take my sim card out and put it in my Nokia 1200 when away from the UK.

Just as a matter of interest whose network do the airlines use whilst inflight?