Streaming Entertainment on Flights with No Seat Screens
 

Hi all,

The newer B737s, among others, offer an enormous content on seat screens. Most of it is free in F, for payment in Y.

On other planes with streaming entertainment via GoGo, it seems that most anything is for pay, even in F. Correct or am I missing something ?

If true, it does not make much sense.

Thanks all.

You seem to be correct. I do recall that when the streaming IFE was introduced, that it would have a free movie, but that only lasted for a few months or so.

The Gogo router doesn't know where on the plane you're sitting, and its systems almost certainly don't talk to AA's (at least at the level of detail needed to determine who's in F on a given flight). It'd be nice if FAs could offer vouchers or codes for free streaming, but AA has plenty of bigger fish to fry in the customer service department IMO.

As always, the best and most reliable option is BYOIFE.

Delta and Gogo had no problem with this

Delta and AA are not the same airline, last I checked.

Keep making excuses for poor performance and you'll wind up with Smisek's United.

Yet even United offers its entire selection of TV/movies for free on flights equipped with streaming entertainment.

Doug needs to print this out and paste it above his computer screen.

I seem to recall there being free selections on the Gogo streaming service. I think I watched "The Martian" on my last flight via the Gogo app.

AA is terrible with streaming service. Very very few options and you have to pay. I thought I read that July 1 they were going to make it free, but on my flight yesterday they wanted like 2 bucks for years old tv shows. Delta studio blows AA out of the water.

Really? I hadn't noticed :rolleyes:

The point here is that the technology is there to recognize seat and available entertainment, yet AA does not offer it.

It is a couple of bucks to watch a movie over wifi. A couple bucks is de minimis for just about everyone. You're right in that you post doesn't make much sense.

AA is turning into the new United. I switched from 10 year 1K to become a 7 year EXP up until next year. Now I'm gonna be a free agent.

Asking people to pay for movies on a flight when your competition doesn't is very poor form.

Although it takes some searching, you can usually find NBC/Universal streaming programming for free. There were 2 selections on my last flight. They generally contain at least one episode of a prime time program.

No one seems to be arguing that AA shouldn't do this, but unfortunately sometimes reality gets in the way.

We're comparing Delta's next generation entertainment system paired with their long-term reservation system, against AA's legacy WiFi system that is out to bid for replacement (and in a somewhat hostile relationship with their current vendor) plus their reservation system that they are currently committed to but have had a tentative relationship with for the last decade.

Tayloring an API with Sabre is something both Sabre charges a lot of money for, and given its complexity, something that wouldn't be cheap for GoGo either. That would all make sense if both were going to be around for a long time, but who knows where AA's relationship with GoGo is going to be in 2 years, or Sabre in 5-10. Delta is in a whole different place.

Again, that's not a justification for it being a poor offering, just a reality that needs to be considered. It still needs to be made competitive at some point in some manner -- the current system is by far the worst of the three.