Travel China and Beyond

What drives rules on-board planes (Air Travel experiences)

Over the last week I was on a bunch of flights going to a conference in Las Vegas and during those flights I observed something strange and irritating.  I was in my seat on-board the plane waiting for pushing off the gate.  I had my laptop out in my lap with the power being turned off, and my noise cancellation headphones on my head but with power also off.

So you can tell I was well prepared for my flight — as you can imagine things were very well packed full flight and full overhead bins, so having my laptop, iPod, and headphones easily accessible near me, in my lap, was the only way to be.

Then I was surprised by a tap on the shoulder from the flight attendant — she wanted me to take off my headphones. I told her that they are in an off state, but she insisted that they need me to have them off my head….
The PC notebook in my lap was supposed to go on the floor of the cabin — it could not be in my lap during take off (eventhough it was also in power off state).  I did not argue any of this.  No point.  But I was really unhappy - for several reasons:

1) The headphones even in off state provided some noisecancelation to block off some of the engine noise

2) the notebook PC is not much bigger than an average paperback that most passengers had in their laps — what is the difference?  I can obstruct emergency exit for someone with the small laptop??? What a joke…

All in all it points to one thing only — the airlines apply arbitrary rules to whatever they feel like.  The reason I say that is that in my next flights (on another carrier) in continuation of my flight to Vegas the notebook in my lap was not an issue….Go figure.  Plus I was sitting in an exit row so you would think it should have mattered even more.  No, simply inconsistent rules…