Flying Smart with Your Smartphone

Smartphones make traveling by plane easier than it ever has been before. With myriad apps to help you get flight information, navigate unfamiliar airports, and find ground transportation once you’ve landed, your smartphone is almost as essential to traveling as your boarding pass—which you now can store on your phone as well.

Nowadays, 76 percent of people are using airline apps to streamline their traveling experiences. Your T-Mobile iPhone 6 Plus is the perfect resource for downloading travel apps and storing your flight data. But what about on the plane itself? Phone usage on the ground isn’t sufficient anymore. Airplane mode makes smartphones safe for onboard usage, and in-flight Wi-Fi connects you to your favorite websites and some great in-flight entertainment. You can even take advantage of in-flight Wi-Fi for sending emails and checking the status of your next flight.

Imagine if you could order food and drinks from the flight attendant with your smartphone, or make and receive calls while in the air. More and more passengers desire features like these for their smartphones while flying. Once upon a time it may have seemed out of the realm of possibility, but the FCC is currently creating rules that allow people to use data and voice features while above 10,000 feet. On top of that, interesting new technology like picocells (which are tiny mobile stations attached to the plane) enable passengers to make calls while in the air. Read on to see more about how smartphones are changing the way we travel.