Hi FlyerTalk and Flying Blue folk,
I have a hearing problem and need to read subtitles on in flight video (films, TV programmes, etc). Most of my flights are AMS to/from China, and usually I think on a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner (891/892 route). I find that anything that does not have an English language soundtrack will have English language subtitles, but anything originally in English will not (there will be options for Chinese, Dutch, and possibly other languages, but not English). Consequently, I have to watch films that are not originally in English. I find the non-English language films to be generally quite good; however, if I fly several times in a month then the Hollywood stuff is the only thing I haven't seen. The situation with documentaries and TV shows is worse, as they almost never have English subtitles.
I thought this could be fixed by simply editing some code the next time the software is updated, assuming that their system has space for the additional subtitle files. So I asked KLM if they had any plans to do this, but their reply was:
Please be advised our in flight entertainment such as movies, films, or documentary has English subtitles. We kindly suggest you to ask further assistance to our cabin crew to have the subtitles in English.
I have asked the crew before about this, but they showed me the same menu as I normally use to choose English subtitles for Russian films etc, and this does not have an English option if the original soundtrack is in English.
Is KLM customer services correct? Is there some accessibility menu on the system that puts subtitles (or CC) in a chosen language (including English) on everything?
I find others noting the same problem on tripadvisor, so I am not sure that KLM customer services understood my question, and the fact is that English subtitles are not available on anything originally in English. Or they have been introduced very recently.
If anyone has found the way to activate global English subtitles, or has been on a recent 787-9 flight and has seen them, then please let me know---it would be one more reason to fly KLM. I expect there are also experts out there who can explain to me the costs/hurdles involved in adding the extra subtitles, it might not be as simple as I think.
KLM's IFE does include language lessons, so I suppose I could try learning other languages, but I am not that smart (especially at low oxygen) and there are a lot of languages to cover!