Flying economy class: 14'' and 16'' impressions?

[ascender]

Having it on your lap is an option, but it just becomes a faff with no space to do anything else. If you're in economy and need to do work, if you can, that's where the iPad Pro and Magic Keyboard comes in.

Its kind of the same on non-first class train travel too. The footprint of the laptop is so big that it takes up all the available space. Even in first class, stick that on your table and there's very little room for anything else.

 

[teh_hunterer]

The morale of the story:
if you got money to buy 14/16 inch Mac
you ought to have money to fly business or first class. Problem solved, period.

Lol, depends what kind of flights you're talking about. A business class flight from Australia to England is nearly 5 times more than economy. AUD$1831 vs AUD$8630.

(USD$1166 vs USD$5498)

 

[StoneJack]

Lol, depends what kind of flights you're talking about. A business class flight from Australia to England is nearly 5 times more than economy. AUD$1831 vs AUD$8630.

(USD$1166 vs USD$5498)

well, if you want to use 16 incher on your table in a plane, you've gotta fly with style
It is priceless

 

[Stene]

One option (if you have an iPad) is to use Resilio Sync to duplicate work files between your 16-inch and iPad, work on the iPad and have it synch the changes afterwards. Faster to switch between work and relaxing modes with minimal fuzz.

 

[EugW]

One of the reasons I went from an older 13” Intel MacBook Pro to a 12” MacBook back in 2017 was because of economy class on the plane.

BTW, the 10.5” iPad Pro I also carried later on worked well as a secondary monitor via Sidecar in the hotel room at the destination.

 

[MrGunny94]

Man the 14" is perfect for me at least, have not had any issue whatsoever. Regarding battery life it's quite good but I always carry a power bank with me just in case for long business trips for 12-16h flights.

 

[maflynn]

Man the 14" is perfect for me at least, have not had any issue whatsoever. Regarding battery life it's quite good but I always carry a power bank with me just in case for long business trips for 12-16h flights.

I'm very happy with my 14" even the battery. I know a lot of people are less then thrilled with the battery performance, but I'm very happy. The 14" screen is tough on my old eyes, that's the only knock I have. The 14" is just so mobile, and easy to travel with, its hard to consider the 16" simply because of that reason alone.

 

[Zest28]

Flying economy class, the iPad Pro is by far the best solution.

 

[MrGunny94]

I'm very happy with my 14" even the battery. I know a lot of people are less then thrilled with the battery performance, but I'm very happy. The 14" screen is tough on my old eyes, that's the only knock I have. The 14" is just so mobile, and easy to travel with, its hard to consider the 16" simply because of that reason alone.

Battery it depends, I mean it can last 7-8h but like I said I hope with the M3 Pro they focus on delivering more efficacy cores rather than two extra P cores but that’s just my opinion.

 

[darngooddesign]

Flying economy class, the iPad Pro is by far the best solution.

Only if the work Pan needs to do can be done on an iPad.

 

[MrGunny94]

Only if the work Pan needs to do can be done on an iPad.

Yeah which isn't the case for me, either be coding what I'm doing, VMs, prepare highly technical things that needs APPS AND A TERMINAL THAT ISN'T AVAILABLE.

 

[theorist9]

Who the hell “works” on an airplane? You realize that people can watch what you are doing?

Would be very nice if a competitor just happens to sit next to you and can basically steal company information super easily.

Working on an airplane is a very bad idea.

Yeah, heaven forbid someone steals a code block from a particle simulation, or gets a sneak peak at one of my upcoming class lectures. You just need to use your common sense about what information is sensitive and what isn't, and plan accordingly.

 

[darngooddesign]

I agree.

Who the hell “works” on an airplane? You realize that people can watch what you are doing?

Would be very nice if a competitor just happens to sit next to you and can basically steal company information super easily.

Working on an airplane is a very bad idea.

Yeah, most people who do work on a plane are working on super secret projects instead of updating client presentations and what not. /s

But if you do.

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[maflynn]

Who the hell “works” on an airplane? You realize that people can watch what you are doing?

I think many people do, just going by personal experience, but its quite easy to see people pulling up work documents/spreadsheets I can't see the details, but its not too hard to see that someone has a spreadsheet open or a word processor.

I don't think for the industrial espionage is a major issue for most businesses.

 

[pshufd]

I think many people do, just going by personal experience, but its quite easy to see people pulling up work documents/spreadsheets I can't see the details, but its not too hard to see that someone has a spreadsheet open or a word processor.

I don't think for the industrial espionage is a major issue for most businesses.

You can always go with native resolution if you have excellent vision.

 

[halledise]

Hahaha.

My company has a zero business class policy. Everyone, CEO on down, flies economy. I could sometimes get a Y+ pushed through but it was rare.

I haven't flown for business since the pandemic started. Before that, most of my travel was international. Every now and then I'd check on the price difference between Y and business. Most of the time it was a 3X to 5X cost premium, and 10X wasn't terribly unusual.

When I was a consultant, I usually managed to avoid having to work on the plane, but sometimes it wasn't possible -- especially if someone else had made a commitment that I had to implement. Again, shouldn't happen in a perfect world, but reality can suck.

time to change employer? 😇

 

[kschendel]

time to change employer? 😇

They are fine in just about every other way, so no.

 

[Chancha]

Is the American economy class seat bigger than the rest? I keep hearing folks using 16" MBP during cheap flights in your country which would be a miracle here in Asia.

I was on a Cathay Pacific flight last week, my iPad Pro 12.9" with Magic KB can barely fit the tray on my Econ seat. If I don't extend the tray I couldn't even tilt the pad all the way back, it would be at almost 90 degrees vertical angle. It was a 12 hour flight and originally I intended to do work on a 14" MBP, didn't even bother taking it out of the bag and just left it in the overhead after seeing how small the tray table was.

 

[pshufd]

Is the American economy class seat bigger than the rest? I keep hearing folks using 16" MBP during cheap flights in your country which would be a miracle here in Asia.

I was on a Cathay Pacific flight last week, my iPad Pro 12.9" with Magic KB can barely fit the tray on my Econ seat. If I don't extend the tray I couldn't even tilt the pad all the way back, it would be at almost 90 degrees vertical angle. It was a 12 hour flight and originally I intended to do work on a 14" MBP, didn't even bother taking it out of the bag and just left it in the overhead after seeing how small the tray table was.

I have not flown since the pandemic but I could use a 15 inch MacBook Pro on the tray table though there was no room for anything else. I always chose 737s. There are a lot of smaller aircraft that likely have less space and I avoid airlines and particular flights that use them.

 

[Chancha]

I have not flown since the pandemic but I could use a 15 inch MacBook Pro on the tray table though there was no room for anything else. I always chose 737s. There are a lot of smaller aircraft that likely have less space and I avoid airlines and particular flights that use them.

I owned a 2015 15" before, I vaguely remember it being manageable on European like Lufthansa, but on an Asian / cheap airline it was tough. I mean it could sit on the tray, but barely any room left between the front seat and my body. It would take an awkward pose to use since the trackpad is too close to myself and it isn't fun to do it for a few hours.

The current 16" shares a similar footprint with that 2015 15", I imagine it being the same, just really unmanageable. Also with the pandemic come and gone, it seems the airlines have been using smaller aircrafts for given flights that used to be bigger also. And then they sometimes change the seat layouts to make the room for economy even smaller.

 

[pshufd]

I owned a 2015 15" before, I vaguely remember it being manageable on European like Lufthansa, but on an Asian / cheap airline it was tough. I mean it could sit on the tray, but barely any room left between the front seat and my body. It would take an awkward pose to use since the trackpad is too close to myself and it isn't fun to do it for a few hours.

The current 16" shares a similar footprint with that 2015 15", I imagine it being the same, just really unmanageable. Also with the pandemic come and gone, it seems the airlines have been using smaller aircrafts for given flights that used to be bigger also. And then they sometimes change the seat layouts to make the room for economy even smaller.

I mainly fly domestic on Southwest and they indicate the equipment for the flight at booking time so I just avoided flights that used planes that I didn't like. I plan to travel to Singapore within the next few years and would take Singapore Airlines for the trip and they have a reputation for comfort I think. My wife is going there this fall and I'm sure she will tell me what the flight was like.

 

[fakestrawberryflavor]

Man, I just flew Economy from the US to India and it was even a struggle to use my 11" iPad Pro on that small ass tray table. No way I could manage a 14" MBP, I'd be losing my mind.

Now if you sit up in Business or First, completely different story.

 

[EugW]

Man, I just flew Economy from the US to India and it was even a struggle to use my 11" iPad Pro on that small ass tray table. No way I could manage a 14" MBP, I'd be losing my mind.

Now if you sit up in Business or First, completely different story.

Yes, this is similar to my experience with my older 13 MBP (which I believe is roughly similar to the 14 MBP size), in economy class, particularly on cheaper airlines. Vacation charters are the worst.

While the experience wasn't perfect with my 10.5" iPad Pro or 12" MacBook, it was nonetheless significantly better than with the 13" MBP.

I didn't frequently take business class. Very occasionally an outside company would pay for my flight so I'd be on business class, and that was noticeably better for space, at least on international flights. On domestic flights it depended up on the plane and airline. However, my workplace had a no-business class policy. I mean I could take business class, but I'd be paying the difference between business and economy out of my own pocket, so I'd stick with economy. And for domestic flights under 5 hours, I didn't really care anyway. The times when it made a huge difference was international flights but those business class flights were horrendously pricey, so I wouldn't pay out of pocket for the upgrade there either.

Note, there is also something called Economy Plus or Premium Economy or whatever. This was a grey zone for us and my workplace would cover it, so I'd often take that. This would provide more legroom. However, the seat and tray style may or may not be different. Sometimes the seats are bigger and wider with more room on the tray like in some business class seats, but sometimes not. YMMV.

 

[teh_hunterer]

I’ve always felt that my old 13” models (2013 then 2019) were close to the limit of what would fit in economy, although I used them on many flights over the years, sometimes for several hours at a time, hunched over and barely able to move. I haven’t brought my new 14” on a flight yet, but I‘m hoping it won’t be a problem. I partly chose the 14” over the 16” for airplane / airport use.

The irony here is that my new MBP will be much better equipped from a battery life standpoint, even if it has a larger footprint that barely squeezes into the economy section.

Did you end up taking it on a plane after all? I'm tossing up whether to bring my 14" MacBook, my 11" iPad, or get an 12.9" iPad Pro for travel.

 

[jlc1978]

Did you end up taking it on a plane after all? I'm tossing up whether to bring my 14" MacBook, my 11" iPad, or get an 12.9" iPad Pro for travel.

Here’s how I would approach the decision:
1. What do I use theMac for when traveling?
2. What are the must have capabilities/
3. Can the iPad do all those things I will need to do when traveling?

If yes to 3:

4. Is an 11 inch screen big enough?

If yes, then use the 11.

If no, go with the Pro.

If no to 3, will the Pro do it?