Power on Airplanes

I spent the last two days flying to Lund, Sweden for meetings here. During the flight from Salt Lake City to Paris I spent most of the time working on a presentation I will be giving during the trip. Fortunately my laptop has a seemingly never-ending battery that lasted the entire flight. However if I had needed it, I could have plugged in my power supply and charged the battery. There is a universal power outlet on most International flights. It will either be between the seats in front of you or down behind your knees.

I started my trip in San Francisco and the young lady sitting next to me had a phone with very little battery life left. She looked at the funny blue light above the outlet on the seats in front of us and asked me if it was a power outlet. After all, a universal power outlet will accept most plugs and so it doesn't look like your standard outlet you would find at home. I told her should could use it to charge her phone which she did.

Not all planes have the outlets and so you can't rely on them being there. However if your plane has them, you should not hesitate to keep your electronics topped up. Almost all of my flight experiences are restricted to Delta, Alaska, and Southwest. My experience is that most Delta planes have the outlets. On Alaska about 60% of the planes have them. Very few, if any Southwest planes have power to the seats. Your mileage may vary.