Question concerning Handheld consules on planes

[Groovee]

On Monday we flew to Paris and the families in front of us , the 4 children had games consules for the plane and when we were about to take off the cabin crew said they weren't allowed to use them on the flight at all. I thought it was just during take off and landing as we're flying to Sanford next year I had planned to use a Nintendo ds for dd and get a vpocket smile for ds, but if we can't use them in the flight there will be no point taking them really. Does anyone know if we are allowed to use them or not yet?

Love Louise xx

 

[florida sun]

Im not sure of the reason for this, Im sorry, perhaps somebody else might. My daughter has always used her games console on our flights to Orlando, with the exception as you mentioned at take off and landing. I would also be interested to find out if this is a recent new policy as we leave next week.

 

[JohnnySharp2]

Never taken a games console, but we always take a portable DVD player for Joshua and never had any problems.
Cannot see why there should be a big difference.

 

[Deedee]

I used my Ds all the way home from sanford to birmingham a couple of weeks ago without any probs. only time i didn't was take off and landing same with mp3's

 

[Claire L]

Certainly with Virgin Atlantic they can be used during lfight just not during taxi, take off or landing.

Claire

 

[ely3857]

Gavin used his PSP on and off on the way to Orlando and a young lad across the aisle only put his down for take off and landing, and to eat!



Jodie

 

[alisonbestford]

DD has always used her Gameboy on flights - except for take off and landing

 

[Trinad]

We came back from Sanford last Saturday and my DD used her Nintendo DS most of the time. She was only told to turn it off for take off and landing.

 

[Groovee]

Thanks for that. Relieves me quite a bit. Not sure why the children were told to switch them off.

 

[steve_rob]

Some airlines have some very wierd rules. Someone told me that until recently, Aer Lingus didn't even allow portable CD players to be used on their flights, even though most airlines allowed not just those, but MP3 players, consoles, laptops and many other things.

I also remember once that when flying Britannia, they wouldn't let me listen to the on-board radio through headphones while the plane was on the taxi-way. I tried to point out to them that this wouldn't interfere with anything in the cockpit - the radio was playing on a constant loop regardless of whether I was listening to it or not (if they didn't want anyone listening to it, why had they switched it on in the first place?)

The worst of it was we were stuck on the taxi-way for another 50 minutes waiting for an incident to clear (we weren't even moving and there were about ten also stationary planes in front of us), so it wasn't like we were even about to take off when they told me.

 

[bazzanoid]

Came back on monday, we used laptop, PDA, and a PSP the whole trip there and back, except for take off and landing - they (should) make an announcement before take off and landing to remind you to turn them off until the seatbelt sign goes out.

Flew with TCD - I'll be writing a full TR soon - they were brilliant other than a minor seating glitch, but this was the fault of XL rather than TCD specifically as XL supplied a cover plane when ours had technical problems, so the row numbers were slightly different - seems they had an extra row up front which caused some confusion, in the end everyone just ignored the seat numbers and plonked themselves in the same seat they were in (after the cabin crew checked with the captain of course - safety and all that stuff - should you die, they need to know which seat you were in to identify you properly )

 

[ariel75]

On Monday we flew to Paris and the families in front of us , the 4 children had games consules for the plane and when we were about to take off the cabin crew said they weren't allowed to use them on the flight at all. I thought it was just during take off and landing as we're flying to Sanford next year I had planned to use a Nintendo ds for dd and get a vpocket smile for ds, but if we can't use them in the flight there will be no point taking them really. Does anyone know if we are allowed to use them or not yet?

Love Louise xx

we flew to paris last year and my son played his gameboy on the way there and back apart from take off and landing and we will be taking gameboy,ds and an i pod when we go in january

 

[patdavies]

I also remember once that when flying Britannia, they wouldn't let me listen to the on-board radio through headphones while the plane was on the taxi-way. I tried to point out to them that this wouldn't interfere with anything in the cockpit - the radio was playing on a constant loop regardless of whether I was listening to it or not (if they didn't want anyone listening to it, why had they switched it on in the first place?)

The worst of it was we were stuck on the taxi-way for another 50 minutes waiting for an incident to clear (we weren't even moving and there were about ten also stationary planes in front of us), so it wasn't like we were even about to take off when they told me.

This has nothing to do with interfering with the cockpit and everything to do with impeding an emergency evacuation should it be necessary. Nothing should interfere with the ability to empty the aircraft in 90 seconds from the time of pushback until it is in the air. Whilst you may think that wearing the headphones wouldn;t impede you, it would cause a delay to you and others seated alongside you. Also, if discarded, it would cause a trip hazard for others.

 

[bazzanoid]

This has nothing to do with interfering with the cockpit and everything to do with impeding an emergency evacuation should it be necessary. Nothing should interfere with the ability to empty the aircraft in 90 seconds from the time of pushback until it is in the air. Whilst you may think that wearing the headphones wouldn;t impede you, it would cause a delay to you and others seated alongside you. Also, if discarded, it would cause a trip hazard for others.

Very good point.

 

[wifey]

Our DS took his nintendo ds with him last summer and used it after take off BUT could not play multiplayer with others on the plane because it would interfere with the cabin equipment (something to do with wireless transmissions) and he had to turn it off before we landed. Other than that it was fine Ipods were acceptable to use after take off too...

 

[carolfoy]

Probably the reason why they weren't allowed to use them on the trip to Paris is because the plane is pretty much always landing or taking off - there's not much spare time in the middle.

 

[Groovee]

It's still a 2 hour trip to paris for us. The seatbelt sign was off for about an hour.

I e-mailed airtours and they said this.

Good Afternoon,

I have recently travelled on a MyTravel airways flight and I could use my PSP on both flights, this must be switched off whenever the seatbelt sign has been illuminated. Therefore this should be the same for your Nintendo DS.

Regards,
Pam
Airtours Web Bookings Customer Services