I thought i remember reading somewhere that AC was going to start installing PTV's in their E175's fleet this month. Does anyone know when we should expect to see them in service with the PTV's active?

The reason why i'm asking is because i'm booked on an E175 in early Feb and i was wonder what were the odds of getting an E175 with it's IFE installed.

All the E175's come with VOD installed. They've been on every one I've ever flow (did 180,000 miles last year which included a bunch of these.)

And every single flight has had these VOD's covered by a paper sticker : "Coming Soon etc etc."

I don't know when AC plans on rolling them out. I flew ATL-YYZ once and my seat mate was with the company that did the programming and installation. He really didn't know why they weren't turned on; seemed kind of mystified.

Maybe they are waiting for some department in AC to issue the authorization or something and the paperwork has gone missing. In any event, it's been many months now they've had these, and it just looks plain dumb on their part.

I'd imagine its a regulatory issue with TC certifying the system. Just ask WS how long certifying an IFE system can take.

A reason could be that they just don't have any content to put on the PTVs, and no means to widely distrubte it across all of mainline.

From todays Daily:

New IFE system for Embraer fleet set to be launched. Starting next week, we will begin launching the new state-of-the-art Thales i4500 in-flight entertainment system on our fleet of Embraer 175 and 190 aircraft. This in-seat entertainment system, which is being introduced fleet-wide, features 8.9-inch wide digital in-seat monitors and touch-screen controls offering audio and video on demand programming at every seat. The units will be installed on a progressive basis. Look for more updates on the progress of the IFE introduction as we roll it out across the fleet. ^

So they would spend all of this money on blank screens? Forgive me, but that's a tad ridiculous.

At least AC's seats have the screen installations. What I couldn't figure when on one of my WestJet flights is why they would take delivery of a new aircraft with seats that had no cut-out for the screens that were going to be installed at a later date. Would it not make sense to have factory installed videoscreens, or at least the cut-outs? The backs of these seats were smooth leather that would have to be cut open for screen installation.

I see I have a 175 on my flight to EWR in late March, so maybe there'll be some IFE by then.

Same with the AC CRJ-705s I've flown recently. They have a sticker on the seatback saying "Watch this space" or some such.

That's cool. Since they're rolling them out next week, i think the odds of me getting one for my early Feb flights are pretty bad.

But you never know......

Did anybody already had a flight on E190/E175 with working PTV's and would like to comment?

rollout was delayed as the question as to who would do mtc work on the system ( ac mtc or inflight canada ) went to arbitration.

the system is finally going to be turned on feb 13th !

Can't wait, AC's inflight entertainment on the screens during transcon is really well done.

Doesn't appear to be activated yet...but then again...the E190 I was scheduled on yesterday spent an hour at the gate with us on it and then went mechanical. The plane was apparently only 10 days into it's AC service. In seat TV was blank the whole time.

On the plus(?) side, there were 2 SE's sitting directly in front of me loudly talking about how great they were, and that they were gaming the system for free tickets/upgrades/etc.. Apparently they make themselves as annoying as possible to concierge's, SE Desk, and reservations by complaining about perceived slights of one stripe or another, and then threaten to take their massive volume of business elsewhere. According to their self-aggrandising, this results in free tickets, upgrades and other various perks.

If I was as petty as they seem to be, I would report their names to AC. I'll just wait for karma to get them.

Obviously not FTers. Probably CanFlyers.

On the AVOD: Is it really "on demand" in the sense that you can switch the video off? I never watch the IFE, because I use the time for reading, and I'd find it very distracting if I had an illuminated screen in front of my eyes the whole time.

perhaps it is on demand, as in paying.. like some westjet movies.