jackal

I think some of the earliest on-board Internet solutions (post Airphone modem but pre-Gogo) were wired Ethernet. IIRC I've even been on some aircraft recently that still have (inactive) RJ45 ports...

beckoa

Wirelessly posted (beckoa's BB: Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9810; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.11+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.1.0.694 Mobile Safari/534.11+)

Same era as empower?

jackal

Hey, you never know what you're going to encounter. I brought my Empower adapter, just in case.

beckoa

Wirelessly posted (beckoa's BB: Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9810; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.11+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.1.0.694 Mobile Safari/534.11+)

Debated buying one...but by the time AS added power...technology evolved

WhIteSidE

Actually, to the best of my knowledge, part of the future overhaul process on these planes (along with power) is an upgrade to the onboard server(s) which power Gogo to include a local streaming server on the aircraft. The idea is that rather than spending the money (and carrying weight) to fit screens into the seat back, passengers will be able to connect to the WiFi and watch videos from the local server without needing to connect to the wide internet.

Ripper3785

So I flew one of these planes with power yesterday from SEA to SAN. During the briefing they did indicate the additional raft, which I barely noticed.

After the briefing I noticed a lot of discussion among the flight attendants. A few minutes later they amended the briefing saying that the seat bottom cushions are not to be used as floatation and that your primary floatation would be your life vest. I thought that a bit unusual. Is there something about the new Recaro seats that prohibit the cushions from being used as floatation? (I thought I heard them mentioning something amongst themselves about them being too thin) Further, the aircraft safety card still indicated they can be used for floatation.

Is it an important regulatory thing to have the cards updated? Not attempting to make a mountain out of a molehill here. I figure my chances of being in a situation where it matters if the cushion floats or doesn't are infinitesimally minute.

(and a pleasure meeting you in AUS, beckoa)

Putzy

Yes, the method in which the cushion is attached precludes its use as a flotation device. That and its so thin it probably would be useless anyway.

PDXPremier

So are the streaming movies/audio totally free for the time being?

United757

Flew a re-configured 739 yesterday morning (2/23) from LAX to SEA with the new Recaro seats that have power. However, there was no divider or curtain between F and Y. It was quite strange to see, and the flight attendants really did not enjoy it. They mentioned that it made it hard to serve with so many people coming up to use the F lav (even though they did a great job policing it), and it made it awkward to give personal F service because everybody in Y was just staring the entire time.

They also made a comment that AS is testing out a "cool" (hard) plexiglass divider between Y and F, however they were worried about how it would hold up in a crash.

PDXPremier

No streaming movies?

United757

I didn't look. I just used Gogo for wifi.

gaiusbaltar

This is spot on. Sort of like unintended consequences, right? On my last weekly flight to DFW, I sat in 1A. There was a non-stop stampede from people in coach going to the bathroom in First Class. There was even a line of people waiting at Row 6 for a chunk of the flight. At one point, the FA told a coach passenger waiting at Row 6 to go to the back because the pilot had to use the potty.

I found the constant commotion of people going to the forward lavatory irritating and interruptive to my work. On some flights the FAs will tell the passengers that only F ticketed passengers can use the forward lavatory, but not always. This particular flight had an experienced flight crew, but they obviously didn't care.

Did I mention how irritating it was??? It was like I was sitting in 33D.

Speaking of potty...here's a question I've always wondered. At what point do the FAs allow you to go to bathroom? Obviously not at takeoff! But I have seen people going to the lavatory at various times from right after 10,000 feet to only after the captain allows us to take off the seat belt. On the non-stop potty flight (pun intended) to DFW last week, some dude be-lined to the lavatory almost immediately at the double chime. I guess it was a sign of things to come. Anyway, I'm just curious...Is there a rule about this?

Putzy

No streaming movies yet. That modification is something that should hopefully be coming along later this year.

PDXPremier

But someone reported being able to watch streaming movies on a ATL-PDX earlier in this thread so at least one plane is already equipped.

Putzy

Unfortunately that post referenced a pilot announcement about what is to come, not what exists today.