yoshapman

We flew last year from JFK-LAX, LAX-KOA, & HNL-LGA through DFW and none of the planes had personal tv's. When I have flown on Delta they almost always have, so I was wondering if this has changed or will be changing anytime in the future. I am flying in August from JFK-LAX, LAX-OGG, & OGG-LGA through DFW. Any chance of them having personal tv's?

These are the flights:

1) Boeing 767-200 Passenger(762)
2) Boeing 757 Passenger(757)
3) Boeing 767-300 Passenger(763)
4) Boeing 737-800 Passenger(738)

The Mileage Millionaire

1) Boeing 767-200 Passenger(762) Coach No; Biz/First Yes (passed out by FAs in flight)

2) Boeing 757 Passenger(757) Coach No; First No

3) Boeing 767-300 Passenger(763) Coach No; Biz/First Yes for SFO or LAX to JFK (passed out in flight by FAs), otherwise No

4) Boeing 737-800 Passenger(738) Coach No; First No

yoshapman

Is there a reason they have not invested in this while other airlines have? We are not frequent fliers (usually getting points by surveys or credit cards) and the only reason I have flown with AA is because from NYC they always had the greatest availability so long as you booked 6 months out (when I booked this trip almost every day was still open). But I love when Delta or Jetblue have the personal entertainment systems, it makes flying a lot better...

magic111

If you don't get the award you won't be flying at all.

Seriously though a lot of frequent aa flyers who depend on IFE bring their own. It seems everyone with a laptop and bose is watching a movie of their choice.

aa4ever

What AA HAS invested in which many other airlines haven't is powerports. They're available on all (or virtually all) planes, throughout the cabin. Not all coach seats have access, but many (most) do. Can't say near the same thing for Delta.

It was absolutely painful making it from BCN-ATL (nearly 11 hours) last year in Y without a powerport. One movie was all I could watch on my laptop (in fairness, my battery is not great) and that was it. DL has no PTVs on their 763s, which are what make up the backbone of their TATL fleet. Ironic that so many of their domestic flights have them but only a few of their international (and yes, I know it is a weight thing, but still...).

bdemaria

No one is forcing you to fly AA. If you prefer the DL or Jet Blue product, then fly on those airlines.

mvoight

Most of my DL flights haven't had personal tvs.

yoshapman

No need to be defensive, I was just stating my opinion. Since AA has the best seat selection obviousely I am going with them, it was just a little annoying flying without the tv's, thats all. But my laptop will do, I looked up where the ports were and picked seats for all 4 flights by them.

Blumie

I don't think bdemaria was trying to be defensive. Rather, I think her post was just her short-hand way of pointing out that:

1. Airlines, including AA, generally don't have a lot of cash sitting around to invest in goodies like seat-back entertainment systems, unless they think they can get an adequate return on their investment (i.e., by keeping passenger they otherwise would lose to the competition, by attracting new passengers from the competition, and/or by increasing fares).

2. Domestic airline passengers routinely have demonstrated that price is the most important factor in a ticket purchase decision, not amenities like free food, more legroom, or in-seat entertainment. (I suspect schedules are the second most important factor.)

3. Points 1 and 2 add up to AA not making the investment.

It is interesting to note that you continue to purchase tickets on AA, even though you are annoyed by the lack of entertainment. That helps to reinforce AA's conclusion that it would be a waste of money to add it.

777-DCA

The 777s have personal TVs in each seat, but don't know if AA is still running 777s domestically (they did MIA-LAX and DFW-MIA).

bdemaria

Blumie is correct in his expanded explanation of my response.

On more than one occasion, people have assumed the "B" in my name stands for Blunt.

tuanners

Blumie pretty much summarized it.

Also take into account how the fleet size affects the cost to implement personal TVs in aircraft. JetBlue is also purchasing the TVs on new aircraft VS. retrofitting older aircraft.

AA: 665
B6 (Jet Blue):141
DL: 451

Also keep in mind that DL absorbed the aircraft from the discontinued spinoff Song, which used PTVs as a selling point. These former Song planes are now focused primarily on trans-continental flights, possibly the ones you frequent?

FWAAA

Is there a reason? Sure there is. Instead of wasting money on crappy AVOD systems for the entire fleet, AA has instead "invested" in its employees' retirement security, having contributed over $2 billion of cash to its employee pensions in the past six years.

AA has also "invested" in building its cash balance to the largest in the industry, the better to withstand the record high fuel prices today.

AA has also "invested" in debt reduction, paying down billions of dollars worth over the past several years, improving the odds that it will again avoid the expense of a court-supervised restructuring.

Quite a long time ago, AA invested in powerports so that many coach (and all premium seat) passengers can use their own portable DVD players and laptops. I'd prefer that AA not waste money on individual tv screens at each coach seat and instead ensure that powerports are available.

YMMV.

hillrider

That argument goes against: the bigger the fleet, the higher are volume economics and bargaining power leading to a lower cost/aircraft.

See http://news.delta.com/article_displa...ticle_id=10362 . DL began by investing in IFE with the Song retrofit (48 planes), as you pointed out, and then invested further in expanding IFE to all the fleet that does >4 hour domestic segments (100 planes) and upgrading it to on-demand.

WanderingGent

Absolutely. ^^ As long as my powerport works, I don't care if AA ever has personal IFE everywhere, because I always have my own.

And lest anyone think that my attitude is 'I'm being taken care of, so screw everyone else,' I'll point out that there are a myriad of personal DVD and other media players that one can purchase quite inexpensively. An 80-GB iPod, if half-full with music (and that would be a lot of music), would still hold about 35 movies. These days one can even rent movies from the iTunes store, thus keeping your personal AVOD selection "fresh."