Major downgrade to VX entertainment system
Mar 14, 2018, 10:28 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2017
Programs: Hyatt Globalist, AA Executive Platinum
Posts: 37
Major downgrade to VX entertainment system
Flew from SFO-DCA today on a new VX A321 which the pilot said was only two months old.
Seats were super comfortable and it was great to have an electrical and USB plug so easily accessible by the tray table. It was the Virgin America experience we've grown to love with one major exception -- the Red Entertainment System now only offers movies and a handful of recorded TV shows (plus the ability to order food and drinks). The live TV is gone, the music is gone and the games are gone.
This was hugely disappointing, particularly since this was a cross-country route and the planes are brand spanking new. Obviously, Alaska ordered this downgrade. But why???
Seats were super comfortable and it was great to have an electrical and USB plug so easily accessible by the tray table. It was the Virgin America experience we've grown to love with one major exception -- the Red Entertainment System now only offers movies and a handful of recorded TV shows (plus the ability to order food and drinks). The live TV is gone, the music is gone and the games are gone.
This was hugely disappointing, particularly since this was a cross-country route and the planes are brand spanking new. Obviously, Alaska ordered this downgrade. But why???
Mar 14, 2018, 10:36 pm
#2
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Mar 15, 2018, 8:12 am
#3
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Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: BOS/ORH
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Flew from SFO-DCA today on a new VX A321 which the pilot said was only two months old.
Seats were super comfortable and it was great to have an electrical and USB plug so easily accessible by the tray table. It was the Virgin America experience we've grown to love with one major exception -- the Red Entertainment System now only offers movies and a handful of recorded TV shows (plus the ability to order food and drinks). The live TV is gone, the music is gone and the games are gone.
This was hugely disappointing, particularly since this was a cross-country route and the planes are brand spanking new. Obviously, Alaska ordered this downgrade. But why???
Seats were super comfortable and it was great to have an electrical and USB plug so easily accessible by the tray table. It was the Virgin America experience we've grown to love with one major exception -- the Red Entertainment System now only offers movies and a handful of recorded TV shows (plus the ability to order food and drinks). The live TV is gone, the music is gone and the games are gone.
This was hugely disappointing, particularly since this was a cross-country route and the planes are brand spanking new. Obviously, Alaska ordered this downgrade. But why???
Mar 15, 2018, 10:09 am
#5
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Mar 15, 2018, 2:52 pm
#6
Join Date: May 2010
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Flew from SFO-DCA today on a new VX A321 which the pilot said was only two months old.
Seats were super comfortable and it was great to have an electrical and USB plug so easily accessible by the tray table. It was the Virgin America experience we've grown to love with one major exception -- the Red Entertainment System now only offers movies and a handful of recorded TV shows (plus the ability to order food and drinks). The live TV is gone, the music is gone and the games are gone.
This was hugely disappointing, particularly since this was a cross-country route and the planes are brand spanking new. Obviously, Alaska ordered this downgrade. But why???
Seats were super comfortable and it was great to have an electrical and USB plug so easily accessible by the tray table. It was the Virgin America experience we've grown to love with one major exception -- the Red Entertainment System now only offers movies and a handful of recorded TV shows (plus the ability to order food and drinks). The live TV is gone, the music is gone and the games are gone.
This was hugely disappointing, particularly since this was a cross-country route and the planes are brand spanking new. Obviously, Alaska ordered this downgrade. But why???
Mar 15, 2018, 3:03 pm
#7
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Mar 15, 2018, 5:37 pm
#9
Join Date: Mar 2014
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I'd wager Alaska gets it just fine. VX was in the business of a Silicon Valley startup: Building a company that someone, likely a larger and more established company, would want to acquire for more capital than what initially went into it. AS is in the business of a 20th-century industrial: Making a product that you can sell to customers for a profit, and continue doing so through the foreseeable future. VX performed its task well, put itself up for sale, and succeeded. AS has succeeded in the profit game for the last couple of decades, and I suspect will continue to perform its task for the foreseeable future.
The tasks are different, so the players will behave differently. It doesn't mean that anybody doesn't understand that people like streaming music or expensive-to-carry-around-and-maintain seatback screens.
The tasks are different, so the players will behave differently. It doesn't mean that anybody doesn't understand that people like streaming music or expensive-to-carry-around-and-maintain seatback screens.
Mar 15, 2018, 8:02 pm
#10
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: SF Bay Area
Programs: United, AA, KrisFlyer
Posts: 179
I flew SFO-LAS on Monday and then returned today. No "live" TV, no music and no games. Other than a 30 minute ground hold in Vegas because of low ceilings and ugly weather at SFO, it was a pretty good flight, although the head flight attendant announced about 20 minutes into the flight that we were beginning our descent into SFO. LOL. Uh, not quite. We hadn't even crossed the Sierra Nevada yet. So that kind of made the flight seem a lot longer than the 1+ hour hop it usually is.
Mar 15, 2018, 9:43 pm
#11
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: NYC
Posts: 280
I'd wager Alaska gets it just fine. VX was in the business of a Silicon Valley startup: Building a company that someone, likely a larger and more established company, would want to acquire for more capital than what initially went into it. AS is in the business of a 20th-century industrial: Making a product that you can sell to customers for a profit, and continue doing so through the foreseeable future. VX performed its task well, put itself up for sale, and succeeded. AS has succeeded in the profit game for the last couple of decades, and I suspect will continue to perform its task for the foreseeable future.
The tasks are different, so the players will behave differently. It doesn't mean that anybody doesn't understand that people like streaming music or expensive-to-carry-around-and-maintain seatback screens.
The tasks are different, so the players will behave differently. It doesn't mean that anybody doesn't understand that people like streaming music or expensive-to-carry-around-and-maintain seatback screens.
But hey, let's check those numbers down the road once the screens and onboard ordering get yanked out in exchange for those fantastic Microsoft players.
Mar 15, 2018, 9:56 pm
#12
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: SEA
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Posts: 2,036
Uh, who other than AA? Not that I mean to understate the impact that that partnership drawdown, but other than that... the DL divorce might have happened a little sooner than otherwise?
I poked around VX's music selection on my first flight with them. The selection was... okay? They had only two tracks from the most recent Andrew Bird album, and they'd actually swapped the titles/files.
I'm the kind of tech-oriented millennial who was in VX's target market, and I have no idea of why I'm supposed to care so much about IFE for domestic flights. I have much of my music library synced to my phone, I can download much of Netflix's content to my iPad, and there's nothing preventing me from bringing a book or my Kindle onboard.
I'm the kind of tech-oriented millennial who was in VX's target market, and I have no idea of why I'm supposed to care so much about IFE for domestic flights. I have much of my music library synced to my phone, I can download much of Netflix's content to my iPad, and there's nothing preventing me from bringing a book or my Kindle onboard.
Mar 15, 2018, 10:02 pm
#13
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Just in the last few months, DL/AM/AF/KL to name a few.
As for the entertainment system, it sounds you like flew VX under AS ownership. The Red system has been in decline since the day AS bought VX. Premium music, TV shows, indie movies, etc have been disappearing bit by bit for nearly two years now.
As for the entertainment system, it sounds you like flew VX under AS ownership. The Red system has been in decline since the day AS bought VX. Premium music, TV shows, indie movies, etc have been disappearing bit by bit for nearly two years now.
Mar 15, 2018, 10:05 pm
#14
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: SEA
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Just in the last few months, DL/AM/AF/KL to name a few.
As for the entertainment system, it sounds you like flew VX under AS ownership. The Red system has been in decline since the day AS bought VX. Premium music, TV shows, indie movies, etc had been disappearing bit by bit for nearly two years now.
As for the entertainment system, it sounds you like flew VX under AS ownership. The Red system has been in decline since the day AS bought VX. Premium music, TV shows, indie movies, etc had been disappearing bit by bit for nearly two years now.
And that flight was in October '16, so before the VX deal had even been approved.
Mar 15, 2018, 10:10 pm
#15
Join Date: Apr 2003
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I'd wager they don't have the slightest clue what they're doing, and considering all they've managed to do is lose their AA route network, bleed money in California, get evicted from their JFK terminal, lose a ton of partner airlines, pay $10mil/yr for a (much more valuable) brand they don't use, eliminate their product differentiation, and have the bottom fall out of their formerly lucrative transcon PRASM, call it more than a hunch.
But hey, let's check those numbers down the road once the screens and onboard ordering get yanked out in exchange for those fantastic Microsoft players.
But hey, let's check those numbers down the road once the screens and onboard ordering get yanked out in exchange for those fantastic Microsoft players.