On a flight earlier this week from Europe my colleague commented on how gross it was that people were going shoeless to the bathroom wearing only their airline issued socks.  He’s new to international travel and hadn’t yet had the pleasure of witnessing the business class bathroom ”walk of shame”.  Similarly, when I began my heavy international traveling about six years ago, I too was surprised by the otherwise well mannered business passenger’s bathroom etiquette.

Well, how things have changed, I admittedly am now one of those shoeless offenders.  Though, I am a pretty big germaphobe in flight (always equipped with my anti-bacterial gel), I can’t imagine taking the effort to put my shoes back on just for a quick run to the bathroom.  Let’s be clear, I’m talking about long-haul flights of at least 8 hours to the ultra long-haul flights up to 18 hours when I may be stretched out in a lie-flat seat enjoying my third movie of the flight. I would never wear my own socks into the bathroom, but with the amenity kit provided socks, I figure why not.  I put them on for the flight, wear them, and then take them off  and trash them at the end of the flight (without touching the bottoms).  Readers, is there anything wrong with this?  Do the same rules go for First Class? Now, what I do find crazy are those barefoot bathroom passengers…gross.  Take our poll below and let’s find out what the Boarding Area population is wearing to the bathroom!

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Virgin Atlantic has joined Emirates in enabling passengers to make in-flight mobile calls using their own personal devices. The service kicked off in test mode yesterday on Virgin’s new A330 planes flying from New York JFK to London Heathrow. By year-end the service will be rolled out to about 20 planes and about 10 routes in total, including the 747s which are currently being refurbished. The service allows passengers to make calls, send/receive text messages, and use data services.  The network displays as a roaming GPRS network on passenger’s phones and they are billed at international roaming rates (determined individually be each carrier).  The network is available in all classes and works via land to plane satellite.  The service is not available during take-off, landing, or within 250 miles of US airspace. Luckily, current technology and bandwidth will only allow for up to ten passengers to make calls at any given time. Lufthansa and Qatar dropped in-flight cell phone calls a few years ago after passengers began complaining that is was interrupting their sleep and work productivity. Qantas tested a similar system few years back and ended up declining a full roll-out.  However, Virgin’s press releases states that the service will be extremely helpful to passengers as “many people will have experienced that moment when you’re about to take off on a 10-hour flight and you need to send an important message to the office, or even reminding a family member to feed the cat.”  I’m hoping that the international roaming costs will deter most passengers from using the service.  I know when I board a plane, I’m looking to relax and disconnect, watch some movies, and hopefully get a little bit of sleep. The idea of my seatmate chatting away across the Atlantic is a very scary thought!

What do you think?  Take the poll below…

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