Despite not even using their phone, one passenger got hit with a whopper bill.
Transatlantic passengers on Aer Lingus flights who leave their phone on during their journey and don’t switch on flight mode are running the risk of being hit with huge bills.
As reported by the Irish Times, one passenger received a bill for $300 after forgetting to switch their phone to flight mode during a recent flight to the US.
Apparently, the reason for the sky-high bill was due to antennas installed on the plane that operate outside an unlimited international roaming plan. The antennas, according to the Irish Times report, can automatically connect with phones that are not in flight mode and run up charges – even when the phones are not in use.
The same report states that these charges were incurred despite the fact that the passenger didn’t even use their phone during the flight.
The airline stated that if a phone was left on in its ‘normal mode’, it might very well connect to “the in-flight roaming network and the guest will be billed by their home operator for any usage”.
Aer Lingus stressed that they were not making any money from these expensive roaming charges.
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