A passenger turned their Spirit Airlines seat into what may be the most bizarre makeshift workstation I’ve ever seen, consisting of a large external monitor (that looks to be about 17 to 20 inches) strapped to the seatback in front of them. It’s anchored to the tray table with a base and a vertical support, and then belted around the seatback and headrest.
He had a split mechanical keyboard strapped to each thigh on kneepads while actively coding on top of a Spirit Airlines half half tray table.
Imagine you’re on a plane and guy next to you busts out a 3 foot tall PC monitor and straps on his keypad kneepads https://t.co/D8RiY2goPP
— ⟠Palis⟠ (@palis) October 24, 2025
Passengers seem to find this obnoxious, inconsiderate, and performative. But outside of the potential encroachment on other passengers’ space, the hazard it represents during turbulence when you’re doing this in such close quarters, and general annoyance is it weird to think it’s also a little bit awesome? What a great productivity hack, to make use of your time at 36,000 feet!
This is really something you can only do on Spirit’s ‘pre-reclined’ seats – imagine if the passenger seated in front of you reclined!
Most people, of course, would just use a tablet holder that many seat backs without inflight entertainment screens now have to hold their smaller “second screen” instead of bringing a giant monitor. They make smaller devices in a way that didn’t exist when I was first flying. I remember carrying a Mac desktop on planes in college when flying to debate tournaments, and our own rig to power it.
Tablet-style devices are actually going to get you more work time, since tray tables have to be stowed for taxi, takeoff and landing and larger electronic devices need to be stowed as well. Plus you can do a better job maintaining privacy and discretion.
Here your work is visible to the rest of the cabin, and you never know who’s seated beside you (although Spirit Airlines is hardly ground zero for corporate espionage). Maybe consider using Apple Vision Pro on the plane instead?
We’ve seen a tech billionaire build an office in the sky but they had plenty of room to do it, seated in American Airlines Flagship First Class. In coach, it’s far more efficient to use the top of the seat in front of you as a standing desk. Ultimately I’m not sure if this monitor setup beats actually using two laptops in coach?
Gary, all due respect, this is not a hazard in any meaningful sense. So many things that are slightly annoying are classified as safety issues because they are in variance of statute or regulation, or because people don’t like it. It’s inhuman and bizarre to cloak personal pet peeves in statements of concern for safety.
Don’t mean to aim this at you specifically – that comment just reminded me of strange society we seem to inhabit where the mass of men and women seem to want their interactions with each other and the world at large to be governed by policy. It’s not natural.
That’s the Spirit!
What I really want to know is, where can I get a ~20-inch monitor with a nice square-ish aspect ratio like that??
@Stop Regulating The World — Yeah! Pick you plane up by the bootstraps!
Good idea. Where can one purchase strap ons like those?
@Larry — What’s this about strap ons? Bah!
As a Delta Medallion I have the opportunity to fly Delta One for free with coupons, and when I have done that, I have set up my portable external monitor and had two screens working. I don’t have a portable keyboard that I take with me but maybe I should.
I’ve also done this in a regular first class seat (also with an upgrade) when the seat next to me was empty.
@Barry Graham — If only you were a Delta 360, then you could have monitors surrounding you in all directions…
someone please tell this guy there is something called a laptop
God forbid he spend an extra $10 for a flight on the US4.
@George Nathan Romey — Let’s be clear, only Delta and jetBlue consistently have IFE on their narrow-bodies (737, a321), minus regionals (CRJ, ERJ). United is doing better with their newer Max jets (most have IFE). American’s 737 and a321 (minus the T), and Alaska, are the worst for their lack IFE. Now, AA is changing that with the a321XLR, Flagship Suites, but that’s really just a replacement for the 321T. So, I’d edit your quip to: “god (lower case is fine for made-up sky-daddies) forbid he spend an extra $10 for a flight on jetBlue, or an extra $250 for a flight on Delta.”
@1990, your comment to me is hilarious!
“this is not a hazard in any meaningful sense.” I believe it is. Yes, people love to miscategorize things to get their way. Ask any restaurant about faking allergies to get preferences accommodated. But this is clearly a danger in turbulence or in an emergency evacuation.
@Barry Graham — If this were United, I’d prefer Premier 1K, you know, about 1080p, because while it’s not as clear as 4K or 8K, it still beats 720p or 480p.