"Personal headphones or earphones must be unplugged and not in use when the aircraft is taxiing, taking off and landing."I travel often (as some may already know) on budget airlines and I always hear this on the flight announcement before take off. I bet for those of you that travel on budget airlines. You hear this alot too. Do you really follow and unplug? Or do you just ignore it until the flight attendant comes over to tap you on the shoulder (or better, misses you altogether)?
HAHA.
Here's the thing. Although I always hear it on budget airlines, like jetstar and scoot (my frequent budget go to airlines), I don't hear it when I fly full service flights like SQ or ANA. And on top of not hearing it, you get to keep their headphones or earphones connected to their in flight entertainment systems.
WHY?
I mean. I get it when they say
"Laptops may not be used and must be properly stowed when the aircraft is taking off, landing and on the ground".Logically, the laptop will sit on your tray table and you usually have them stowed for whatever's mentioned above. Should the take off or landing be bumpy, I would think that a laptop is a big enough device that may or may not result in some "injuries". Something simple like leaving an unfortunate bump on your forehead before your business meeting or a stamp of shame before your vacation starts that will show in every single photo you take? So yeah. I get it. No laptops.
But why no headphones or earphones?
I didn't understand the double standards (with full service flights).
So I began thinking about the differences.
Budget:
- You bring your own headphones/ earphones
- You connect to your device
- You are in your own world with zero interruptions
Full service:
- You use their headphones/ earphones (Yes, I know you can use the connector and connect your own headphones/ earphones too)
- You connect to their in flight system
- Your movie gets interrupted every time there is an announcement.
THERE.
THE 3RD POINT.
When we're connected on our own devices, we would have zero interruptions. With loud music and maybe noise cancelling for some, we would not be able to hear any passenger announcements. When we're connected to the in-flight entertainment systems, they get to interrupt us whenever they want. Okay, to be honest. They're not so bad but it just irritates me sometimes that the multi language options takes such a long time and gave me too much of a break from my movie marathon. HAHA. Actually, I really don't know if this is the right reason. But it's something I can understand and live with. If by chance, any flight attendants are reading this, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
Side note. The flight crew today on Scoot TR276 were awesome and funny. "Ladies and Gentlemen, we are very very very pleased to announce at we've arrived 25mins ahead of schedule. Woohoo!"
Yes, he did that woohoo! HAHA
Ciaos~
