Originally Posted by
honmani2
Not to engage in semantical hairsplitting but I did mean AVOD and not IFE. I was not aware that on CO's 737s, there is absolutely no free content on the video screen during flight. It's interesting that CO is essentially saying to anyone flying to/from Hawaii that there will be no inflight entertainment. After all, who would pay $7.99 for DirecTV knowing it doesn't work over water?
Also, I'm sure the system was working; after all, I did see people watching their screens. My point is that there was no free content available (at least according to the FA). I know I could have purchased DirecTV and, as a result, had access to the movies embedded in the system.
It would be helpful if CO made people aware that if they fly a 737, there will be no free movies.
That said, my friend is a CO Gold and he claims to have flown on the 737s a lot (he lives in Hawaii) and they always had free movies; that is, AVOD, meaning movies that you can choose rather than movies that are played in a loop.
Last point; yes, it's true I rarely fly CO and try to fly UA exclusively. Now I have another reason not to fly CO.
First, I agree with you that $7.99 to watch a handful of movies playing back on a loop is not a good deal at all. In fact, I have never dropped a dime ever on any of CO's IFE, even on flights where the DirecTV has an incoming signal.
Regarding CO's IFE set-ups, on CO's domestically-configured fleet there is no AVOD and no free IFE, except on the small handful of 737's that retain the previous loop-style IFE with drop down screens every few rows (a few of these remain in the fleet).
Some of CO's domestically configured aircraft have no IFE at all, namely the 735's that tend to fly short- and medium-haul.
Also, all the latest acquisitions among the domestically-configured fleet also have no IFE, because they have temporary interiors that were required when CO's seat manufacturer, Koito of Japan, was banned by Boeing following a seat flammability document forgery scandal. Since the screens are installed in the seats, these a/c have no screens, and thus no IFE.
As far as CO informing its customers about the type of IFE it provides, this information is made available on its website and, I believe, each itinerary.
As stated in an earlier post, CO's 777's and 757-200's are configured with AVOD, and some of these a/c operate domestic segments (but not LAX-HNL).
As far as your friend's assertion that CO 737's have had AVOD, to my knowledge there has never been a CO 737 installed with AVOD.
Finally, while I definitely agree with you that the $7.99 is not a good deal, I would point out that a much larger part of UA's fleet has no IFE at all, and that very few of its a/c have AVOD, especially in the economy section.