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Is there any way to communicate between seats in Club World/Suite?
I’ve got a recollection that a friend who used to do a lot of travelling mentioning a way two people could talk to each other using headsets rather than struggling to talk through the partition
Is there such a mechanism?
There isn’t. Some other airlines eg Emirates feature in-seat chats but BA don’t
There did used to be a “messaging” system via the IFE, but I don’t know if this still exists. We used it a couple of times to entertain the teenager when he was quite a bit younger!
I used to have a Bluetooth chat on my phone a while ago. Very convenient to talk between people on a plane.
The free WiFi for BAEC members does seem to allow WhatsApp messaging, so that may be a DIY option
It does, I forgot I was actually using it a couple of weeks ago!
Yes, WhatsApp works and is great for communicating when you don’t want those around you to overhear (or in First/Club and can’t be bothered to get up).
My WhatsApp friend group was agog (as was I) that messages work when the phone is in flight mode. Except the one who’s a computer programmer who did eye rolls at the rest of us 😂
My WhatsApp friend group was agog (as was I) that messages work when the phone is in flight mode. Except the one who’s a computer programmer who did eye rolls at the rest of us 😂
I was lead consultant on a project in 2000 to install a “3G pico cell” in airplanes, designed to “capture” radio signals from phones switched on and reduce their power to a minimum (FCC/FAA were wary about cellphones radio waves). In theory we could “call” the phones and tell them to switch it off.
Fast forward. Doesn’t matter, but it will drain your battery. Often “airplane mode” will auto-off your Wifi and Bluetooth, but turn them back on and you’re good. Yes, I am a computer geek. And I am proud to sit in the same building that controlled the first air-land GPS communication from a mobile phone. (I had no part in it!)
Wasn’t there a movie based on an internal messaging system? Not sure if that was just fiction.
We used to have fun conference trips to LAS on Virgin, where inter-seat messaging existed circa 2013-2016.
Often a bit of a ‘party’ flight, you’d get all sorts of messages intended for other seats, and on at least 3 occasions we had joined forces with other conference goers before even landing, and made plans for later onFast forward to today and I’ve gone back to the traditional methods. Addressed a letter to another seat (my partners) on a recent BA flight with an ‘Air Mail’ sticker attached – and the crew were very happy to deliver it along with some surprise additions they decided to throw in themselves! (Bubbly and cake)
In principle you could set up your own local wifi hotspot for others to connect to, but without external connectivity for name resolution you’d need a bit more tech or a specific local app to facilitate peer to peer messaging.
Always take a mobile router/hotspot with me and many high-end phone support it, but it won’t work with apps. WhatsApp is a great solution.
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