Comment by filmgirlcw | Hacker News Reader

Comment by filmgirlcw | Hacker News Reader

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Sure -- but that also depends on your class of cabin, your flight length, all kinds of things.

I fly a lot for work (I'm already at 67k miles flown for 2019 -- that's actual miles not airline miles (so that 67k is lower than my status miles)) and for anything over 6 hours or so, I fly business (unless I get an upgrade on a short-haul) and have had 6 flights over 10 hours this year, where I tend to have a lay flat bed and attempt to sleep. So I DO sleep on flights. Quite a bit (my flight to/from Australia was great, largely because I slept 9 of the 14 hours the first leg and 7 of the 13 hours the second).

I'd be just as freaked out if someone was recording me sleeping on an airplane in a ticket I paid $10k for as if I was when a hotel employee knocked once and then barged into my room in Sao Paulo back in December while I was changing into my pajamas. (And I was plenty mad at the WTC Sheraton for that!)

If the $10k tickets provide a private area separated from the other passengers with a partition that prevents observation then I'd expect privacy from being recorded. Likewise in a hotel room, it's a solitary space separate from others and I'd expect privacy from being recorded or observed by employees entering my room. I'd share your same outrage!

However my experience stems from two long haul flights in economy and a handful of domestic flights in the same class. If someone was recording me while I was sleeping there I'd treat it the same as if I was napping under a tree in a national park. I wouldn't be concerned.

If there aren't measures in place to prevent other members of the public from observing then I expect recording is a possibility.

With respect -- a long haul flight in economy (or even premium economy) and a long haul in business class (not to mention first class on airlines that offer that) are VERY different experiences.

In many business class seats, they are designed so that you cannot even see the person adjacent to you unless you specifically put your head out of the curved herringbone shell -- and that's when you're sitting. If you're laying flat, your head is completely obscured by the seat.

Delta and Qatar have doors on some of their business class seats.

People walking through the cabin can observe people sleeping, of course -- but these products are literally designed for sleeping and privacy. It's one of the reasons they charge such a premium for those tickets.

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