I get some of my best work done on a plane. I flew out of LA a few months back and a family of five (mom, dad, daughter, and two young boys) had the rows behind me. They made a lot of noise and were just being kids. The dad apologized and offered to buy me a drink. I told him no need, because that activity allowed me to focus on what I was doing. I think that I added a new feature that I was mulling over during that flight.

I love coding in public spaces. Life acts as a very good white noise

As a father of three toddlers, I can tell you that sitting in an airplane for hours is pure heaven for concentration and lack of distractions.

This is how I try to justify flying up front (if the price works out right). I take the extra cost and attempt to "pay it back" by how many hours of extra work I can get done (or, if an overnight flight, extra work I can do the next day after sleeping the whole way instead of feeling like a zombie).

One of the companies I started a few years back was born in the back of the highway 17 Express, a bus with cramped seats that blazes down a really windy road at 60 mph. It even has wifi (for some parts of the ride). After that, working on airplanes was easy. You just need to fight a bit for elbow room and hope you aren't seated between two obese people. If you're really lucky, the person in front of you will be too concerned with others to lean their chair back...but even if they do, it's workable.

Probably helps that I'm fairly scrawny though.

It's not the constant interruptions (headphones do a good job of dealing with that), its the lack of internet access that is the showstopper - I don't have all the APIs + docs in my head.

Agree, I sometimes have problems even fully opening my laptop.