New Flight Information Screens, Coming Soon to All AAirports
 

Just walked into DCA C Club to see this:

Bet the club is quiet today.

Just now it was totally dead. But evidently around 7:45-8:15am the lounge was hopping and the security line was half a block long. Bartender said he had poured 17 vodkas this morning before I arrived.

I doubt it’s coming soon to all airports as most airports control their own FIDS. Coming soon to most clubs is probably more accurate.

Anyways it uses the same design as their GIDS. I quite liked their old GIDS, as it showed more information about the destination (had an image of the city, local weather, etc).

Are the GIDS changing again?

It’s less information dense than the old screens were, but that might be okay because most people look on their phones.

It is easier to see a flights status now and the assigned gate, which is good. I wonder if they will show partner airline logos in airports with other flights (e.g. AS, BA, B6, JL).

Doesn't look bad for a smaller station like DCA but they're going to need to triple the number of monitors installed at big hubs to cover all the flights when each row is that high.

At least the rows are legible. The idiots who run the DFW airport changed the format of the airport-controlled screens that show all airlines and made the text for destination city smaller and harder to read while making the airline logo image more prominent. Of course this is the same airport board that wasted your PFC money by frivolously changing its logo and color scheme from blue to orange.

LOL-- for a minute I thought they were having the (totally true) flight information screen like they have at some airports in China where you walk up, it scans your face, and then shows you your flight and gate info along with a map and directions. Quite shocking the first time I saw it...

Hey, I'm just the messenger! (Zoom in under "Departures A-Z" and it says coming soon to "all"...)

But yeah somehow I doubt this will be fully ubiquitous

I agree. Too few items on a single page. They will need a lot of screens, or will have to limit the timeframe to the point where your flight may not show up. Also, the choice of colors is odd. Why is "Departed" green? If you're looking at your flight and it says "Departed" you're in trouble. They should make On Time green, delayed yellow (as they have), cancelled red, and maybe white for departed.

Departure time probably needs to be bold.

The more prominent and readable gate number is a plus.

A unfortunate trend that seems to be becoming more and more prevalent in other areas also (e.g. flight search results).

Or it could cycle through multiple pages. Pretty sure I've seen it set up this way in a few lounges already with the current display. Can be annoying having to wait for the screen to display your flight.

I don't like the new layout because the data are so spread out. I'd rather see MORE text/flights per line, so I don't need to stand there waiting for the screens to cycle to show more flights. (I don't care about seeing the AA eagle artwork on each flight line.)

On the topic of the website, I also wish there were a "power user" version that were not as "pretty" but displayed more data at once.

I literally have been sitting in the Phx Admirals club above the B gates years ago and learned a lesson that most you already know. If it is a holiday season travel period and bad weather with bunch of IROPS do not trust those displays and get your butt down to the physical gate to see what is actually happening.

Agreed. Based on a quick eyeball, looks like these screens show roughly half as many flights as they did before? :td:

All AA Airports? Are you sure? There are plenty of airports which seem to have different displays than the main AA Airports.