threepoint

Many airlines have cameras (found primarily on A345/6, A380 and 773 aircraft) installed for passengers to watch on the IFE screen. QF, EK and SQ are among the carriers offering this perspective. UA is the only I am aware of that offers live ATC audio.

why fly

After 3 flights with AC this week 777 and 767, I am in shock! both 777 didnt have maps working.. I made the In Charge right up the error in the hope AC might fix it.. on the 767 15% of the planes IFE crashed and could not be rebooted. In Charge said the log book was full of notations this was happening on this plane all the time..

So $100 in Y and $250 in J might be a better amount of money and this is still much LESS than UA pays.

28isGreat

Roll fuel "surcharge" into base fares. To present fuel surcharges as something in the same category as taxes + fees is dishonest. To pretend that you must add a surcharge instead of adjusting the base fare is dishonest (you change the base fare all the time anyway). To advertise fares without the fuel cost, as if it were possible to get an aircraft from A to B without fuel, is dishonest. To charge amounts on different routes that are obviously unrelated to the actual distance flown is dishonest.

Force Aeroplan to get rid of their fuel surcharge. To say that XX,XXX points gets me a free flight when it doesn't is dishonest. Barring that, to have Aeroplan charge a fuel surcharge that is different than AC on the same route, is also dishonest.

FF_Consultant

It's interesting as I've been on 67 AC flights so far this year and I've only undergone an IFE reboot 3 times. The map never works, but frankly I never use this feature anyway.

I do find the following points about the IFE frustrating though:

1.) Touch screen slow to respond
2.) Lack of content relative to other airlines (As much as I hate United they have decent content and many of the Asian / Middle Eastern airlines have hundreds of channels / things to watch)
3.) Commercials are vastly annoying, especially when you travel a lot
4.) It is rarely activated on the ground. When in J this is frustrating as you frequently have 20-45 minutes while the remainder of the plane boards.
5.) Why can't AC set up the system so individual units can be rebooted? I don't see how this is technologically impossible or a major investment?
6.) Audio volume is very inconsistent
7.) What is up with the music selection? Does AC have a blind 80 year old man throwing darts at CDs in HMV to select their music? Let's try and actually get a few artists into the system that people will listen to
8.) Why does the games feature never work? This games feature should be integrated with the other IFEs so you can plan competitive games against other passengers while flying (Hold 'em, bridge, mahjong, etc.) would all be great games if you could link to other passengers
9.) Not that I am a parent, but looking through the kids section there is frequently only 1-2 movies. Kids / parents are likely the people that need this system the most as it makes the flight much more enjoyable for all when a parent can simply plop their kid in front of a TV and watch movies for 5-6 hours on a long-haul. It also makes everyone elses flying experience more enjoyable when kids aren't getting restless.

Overall, I'm grateful that AC is one of the few NA airlines to offer IFE on domestic flights. However, the system is definitely lacking in terms of design and sophistication. It could be an incredible addition to the flight experience and right now it is not.

Clipper801

Modify OLCI programme to allow entry of Aeroplan no. for reward travel so that status could be recognized for inflight service.

acysb87

Has never been an issue for me personally.Status has always showed on reward(s) travel.I reflect on 2 BGI flights to date this year,all was good.

jarusoba

The status will show if you use your AP points to issue a ticket for yourself. If my wife (SE) issues me an AP ticket with her points, my SE status won't show.

chromo

56,000 miles in the air since January and I have had the map work on one of my flights, just the most recent one, I actually ended up with the opinion it was a disabled feature because of USA/Homeland Security stuff.

IFE on my last flight was rebooted three times. I gave up watching the movie I was on because fast forwarding is really bad on these things. A lot of other people in J just turned the screens off after the third reboot.

Flight before this my touchscreen was dead.

I am a software programmer by trade. The software in the IFE is an example of some really bad programming. I'm aware though that they have to make some decisions based on size and weight of the systems, so the units in the middle are probably overtaxed. There's no excuse though for the software to be consistently unreliable and requiring rebooting after many years of deployment.

The developers of the software have to be held up to aircraft software standards. God forbid that the rest of the software that flies these planes is of the same quality as the IFE... yikes.

CdnFlier

Since a lot of the ideas being put forward sound great but expensive for AC to implement I thought I'd throw a easy and simple suggestion out there...

Andrew (or any other AC folks around) - would it be possible to post the J class meal outline that Andrew posted a while back on the AC website somewhere? Or even just distribute the info to the call centre and concierge staff?

It drives me nuts that no one at AC seems to have any idea of what meal you get on a particular flight. It's not always convenient to run back to FT and look for AY's posting with the information And ticket wise.. they seem to report a random meal that may or may not have anything to do with the service.

This got my just the other week.. the call centre, a concierge, the check-in counter and then the gate all either didn't know or said dinner..asked once I got on board and the SD told me all they had was breakfast. In the end he scrounged up some dinner for me but it's a pain that no one seems to know.


Just hoping that the cheap and easy suggestions might happen quicker than the more elaborate ones!

compsys68

Have all AC staff "display in person" and "inform you on the phone" their ID#. this would allow for some accountability when dealing with people who so obviously should not be working with the general public.

I think that GA and reservation agents would start to think twice about mouthing off to the people who are paying their salary, if they could be easily Identified and written up. Over the long run this would improve customer service and the over all perception of AC staff. Hey you might even find that customers are friendlier if they don't think they are going to be treated like dirt because the staffer can so easily get away with it.

scapaflow

I would like to suggest that GAs be required to make an announcement 15 minutes prior to boarding on the status of upgrades. Every time I get to a gate there are usually ten or so Es and SEs milling around wondering if they have won aerolotto. Why not just let everyone know how many seats are likely to be available (and if none just say so) and give the time the upgrades will be announced.

maradori

As a corollary to that suggestion, why not do what Eewnited does and put LCD monitors at each gate that displays the u/g and standby lists.

The displays could easily be flexible enough to display additional information too....i.e. "Currently boarding F/J/*G" ... "Currently boarding rows 20 and higher" ... "SIT BACK DOWN YOU Y PEONS" :P

airbus320

Some stations have slow luggage delivery . To wit, the following thread

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-c...-delivery.html

GJS - yow

Star Alliance Upgrade Awards

Participate fully in the Star Alliance Upgrade Awards program. 17 of the 28 *A member airlines do, and it is embarassing that AC is not on this list. Air Canada is in with Adria, Croatia, Blue1, and Aegean, small regional airlines with a few aircraft each. Even Brussels Airways is a member of the program.

From the program page:

JimYUL

Please consider at least a rotating menu in J. I can't stand to even see the cheese plate anymore.....