I was on a flight over the weekend – flying over Sunday night and landing on Monday – and I was surprised that I was allowed to read my Kindle all the way through both the take-off and landing. Normally I’m asked to turn it off and I turn to paper based reading, but on this flight no-one said anything. So are they allowed now?
That said it was a bit of a weird flight.
Overnight flights can be a little bit strange anyway, and then if you add the fact that it was outside of the high season you can multiply the weirdness.
Just near where we were sitting was:
– An incredibly arrogant woman who actually got up to get something from the overhead lockers as we were about 15 seconds away from take-off – you should have seen the speed and anger of the stewardess to close the overhead locker!
– A loud (possibly South African) family – two parents and a grown-up son – who seemed to shout to each other about the films they were watching and be taking photos of the screen – with a flash while most people were trying to sleep.
– A young woman with a baby who was befriended by another passenger who spent as long looking after the baby as the mother did – admittedly this wasn’t weird so much as sweet, but certainly unusual.
And to multiply the weirdness there was us too.
For those interested I was flying back from Canada – of which MUCH more to follow I’m sure.
1000kmstowindermere 
You make a good point about the Kindle. I think it depends on the airline. I’d be curious to know which airline you used? That said, agreed. Usually, they ask you to turn off all devices during landing and takeoff. 🙂
It was on Air Canada. I couldn’t tell if they were allowing it, or just hadn’t seen it (not that it was hidden).
Interesting. Well, I can’t speak for Air Canada, but I do know that many non-U.S. airlines are not as strict as, say, American Airlines. The reasoning appears to be that a Kindle, for example, emits .00003 electrical volts per metre, and a plane is generally (it would depend on the plane, of course) made to withstand about 100 volts per metre. Plus, that doesn’t factor in the countless people who “forget” to turn off their phones/iPads, etc…or don’t put them in airplane mode. And so far (at least not to my knowledge), onboard electronics haven’t caused any plane crashes. Interesting.