nova08

If anything it is likely not as popular as they hoped it would be. Many of the business travelers I've asked would much rather use wifi and since these birds have ac outlets I've seen far more people pull out ipads and laptops than actually watch DTV, even in F.

craz

while doing a Run last week I had 4 flights all of which had DTV, the 1st time I was on a flight with it. My 1st 3 legs were in FC but due to the early hour of the 1st 2 flights I slept. Watched alittle during flight #3, problem was I wanted to watcha show during flight #4 but that wasnt UPed

In the end due to being delayed I was able to watch the 1st 45 mins and didnt think it was worth $6 for the last 15 which I was able to watch online the next day. Ma & Pa K who were in my row and the 1 in front of me were the only ones that I saw that had actually paid to use the DTV once the free viewing ended. I was in Row 21 on a pretty full flight, when I used the lav in the back and walked back to my seat I saw apx another 3 people watching, on a 3 hr flight

Could be with so few people paying they figured teh only way to make any $$ is by raising the price

The biggest IMO is now with these DTV units if you want to watch a movie you gotta pay for it, at least they should have kept 1 movie station free as it was till now

If this is the path that UA/CO will be going down, I can see myself starting to fly JetBlue alot more

channa

It's also possible that CO is not in control of the costs. Remember this was a very DTV-sided deal where DTV paid for the install and assumed much of the risk, keeping CO from fronting the install cost. That's why we see silly things like no on/off button (you have to hit brightness down until the screen dims out) because DTV obviously wants to keep these things on as much as possible to encourage the passenger to buy.

But you raise a good point that is problematic with these long-term commitments. There was no such thing as an iPad when CO signed this multi-year deal with DTV, and with the evolution of just one (1) technology device, the value of the DTV service is significantly devalued. The fact that you're seeing people in F watching the iPad vs. DTV demonstrates it's not an issue of cost.

On business-heavy flights on DL, however, I see quite a few using the Internet. I was in F on ATL-SJC (nerd bird) a couple weeks ago on a Sunday night, and we had 14/16 in F using Internet, and who knows how many in Y.

But I think that CO made it clear that their market research showed that people wanted TV over Internet. Though it's not clear whether they weighted business travelers any differently from leisure travelers. Nor do we know if respondents assumed that was that TV was to be free vs. Internet for a fee, which is what is customary.

platinumTA

I wonder if there will be some new and creative pricing for the DTV and AVOD in 2012. On the UA 777's, the AVOD comes with about six movies and some television shows for free; the economy passenger who wants more than six movies must pay $10 for the "premium" AVOD that provides another dozen or so additional and newer movies. C and F pax get the premium package at no charge, of course. With economy customers on UA already accustom to paying $10 for enhanced AVOD or perhaps acting as a test market, could higher prices be on the horizon when the merger is complete?

nova08

The key factor in their market research was how much weight they put on the potential cost to the pax. If you were to poll paxs I'm sure a great number would say they'd watch DTV. However if you told them it was going to be $6-8 per flight per person regardless of the length I bet you'd see that number drop considerably. As you pointed out earlier, if you tell a family of 4 that to watch DTV on their roundtrip it will cost $100-150 I bet many will pass it up. Remember a large number of airline passengers aren't elites like us so they have likely already paid for checked bags and potentially overpriced food at the airport or BoB so they are already fed up by the time they get 20 minutes into their flight.


I don't think it is just the iPad it is the Laptops, netbooks, ipods, iphones psp's, Kindles, nook's, etc. that people can easily bring on board rather than pay for entertainment.

Another point for wifi and business travelers is that I imagine it is an expensable item for many even if they spend some time "working"

What frustrates me is that many of the airlines feel that everything must come at a cost to the pax, they have tossed service quality out the window. Who knows, maybe it's our cost obsessed culture that has lead to such a degradation in quality because so many just pick the cheapest ticket.

platinumTA

I hardly see any people buying the DTV on the EWR to Florida and v.v. routes. It seems like a waste of money for a two hour flight. However, on the trans-cons, there always seems to be a great majority of pax watching the DTV and the price is a good deal. The other night, on an upgraded flight to FLL in F, I was watching one of the featured movies and 20 minutes into the movie, the movie went out and the screen flashed that the movies would be starting in 15 minutes! What a nuisance. The FA had no explanation about why the movie was cut off.

channa

Yes, and the price points are flexible depending on what you are permitted.

You can pay by flight (which varies by flight duration/length), by the month, or get an annual pass auto-billed monthly, with two types (one that works on Airline X, and another that works on all airlines).

pptp

Note to self: No more mini's, no more breakfast sandwich and now, no more DTV. Slowly pricing themselves completely out of my I-don't-feel-like-I'm-getting-ripped-off zone.

Awtas

This price change will have no effect on me. As of today I have paid for DTV 0 times (4$ with Chase CC). They can make it even 10$ and I still will not pay for it. And btw, most of my flights are transcon.

rkkwan

I have been pretty consistent. I'd been paying $4 for a 3+ hour flight like EWR->IAH or IAH->LAX, or YVR-IAH. But not for 3 hour flights like IAH->EWR. So, I guess my willing to pay is about $1 for each hour of flight.

If CO/B6 wants to get business from me all the time, they should charge $3 for flights up to 1 hour, $4 up to 2 hours, $5 up to 3 etc. And keep the $2 Chase discount. I won't have any issue paying $6, after discount, for a 6-hour EWR->LAX flight.

This kind of pricing is more fair, and they will get a lot more business for those 2-3 hour flights with the lower than current price.

nova08

I think you meant CO/UA. DTV on B6 is free.

rkkwan

I mean B6. They own the system.

nova08

Ah gotcha, well there's probably quite a bit of complexity behind the deal. I don't know much about it but I would venture to say B6/LiveTV set it up to ensure they got their money from CO regardless how popular it is with CO paxs.

Another point to consider is the content provided, LiveTV only advertises 36 channels of DTV (which is what B6 offers), however CO offers triple that, it must come at a cost.

buckeyefanflyer

I would assume the major cost of Direct TV is installation and not usage charge. I wounder how they get charged for the service.

perezoso

Have never and will never pay a dime, much less 80 of them. And I loathe all the wheedling (last chance!) and flashing screens on DTV flights. I so wish that DTV would go the way of the GTE Air Phone.

I would still pay five bucks for decent internet on long haul...