Originally Posted by
United PR
Wanted to clarify some topics mentioned in this thread.
Shortly after the situation on the flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, we temporarily disconnected the IFE on IPTE flights inbound into the U.S. We did this to immediately comply with a component of the new TSA security directive. If we were not able to comply, we likely would have had to cancel the flights that were scheduled to depart shortly after the directive was issued.
As more time progressed between when the directive was issued and when our next bank of international flights departed, we were able to turn off the GPS portion of the IPTE IFE system and keep the remainder of it in operation. IFE on IPTE (B767 and B747) is now in operation and continues to be on the B777s.
For those of you who were inconvenienced during this short interim phase, Customer Relations will be reaching out to you to apologize with a goodwill gesture.
To comply with the current TSA security directive, Channel 9 is turned off on international flights inbound to the U.S.
All this aside, we hope you had a nice holiday.
Many of us have heard unconfirmed reports that TSA has relaxed the inanely stupid restrictions about being seated for the last hour of the flight, and the disabling of GPS and other real time connectivity instruments - which led to no CH 9 and no airshow on the IFE.
Denying access to CH 9 and airshow/route mapping is monumentally stupid. Anyone with a watch and a rudimentary knowledge of math can figure out when an international flight has made landfall after crossing the Atlantic or Pacific.
CH 9 and Economy plus are two very unique products that separate United from the competition. If United doesn't act to push back against this ridiculous and totally unnecessary TSA Kabuki theater, you are putting your own bottom line at risk.