PhillyPhlyer40

Sitting in PAID F on 1644-fa just announced upon entering "direct tv is broken and we will not be giving you anything for free in place of it, so don't ask!"


I am so tired of IFE NOT working on co planes. Wonder if this will be a free 25 miles???


And all of you co apologists-I booked co paid f over us paid f DUE TO IFE!!!!!!!!

qukslvr619

I guess I am one of the few people who really find it absurd that people make it a point to indicate it was paid F as if somehow that makes the complaint more worthy.

Whether you were in Y or F, whether it was on an award or you paid for it, the fact is you expected an amenity that wasn't offered and didn't recieve it. You could make the same justification that you paid a $10 premium to fly CO vs US for that matter.

Bottom line, it sucks and I think more often than not we've all got on a plane prepared for one thing and something else comes up. It would be beneficial that a gate agent would have announced they swapped planes at the last minute and now I'm on a plane without power; would have allowed me to charge up my phone or ipod.

So is it sympathy, is it a rant, or is it waiting for someone to chime in and say "read a book"? This isn't to single you out, it's just what would you expect the F/A's to do? I was on a EWRSAN flight where the woman next to me made it a point to complain to the F/A everytime he came by how it awful it was the TV's didnt get installed. Did she expect that by rant 25 something would change?

channa

I would expect the FA's to be polite, at a minimum. The part about not giving you something so don't ask is pretty rude, IMO.

I understand that the FAs have a tough job being in the front line, especially when there is a service failure such as this (compounded moreso by a rigid culture at CO that doesn't provide anything for impacted customers).

qukslvr619

Yes, I agree that the F/A's could deliver a more scripted line. Perhaps a "Ladies and Gentleman due to techincal difficulties we are not able to offer our direct TV service, and while we are not able to offer any compensation, you will be satisfied to know that are flying with the most professional men and women in the industry" would be better?

Not defending either side here. I have my own gripes today....like why my UA reservation doesn't show upgrade status at all online but the res agents swear I'm on a list.

channa

While the "most professional" rhetoric has been gone for about a year now, I agree that a canned apology would at least be more polite than what the FA's said on this one.

Critic

Two thoughts:

1) You really paid for F on CO simply for DTV? HAHAHAHAHA. You do realize it's only $7 in Y, right? Regardless of how you feel about paying for IFE, I have to imagine a Y seat + $7 is less than the F seat you paid for. Hell, a Y seat + the cost of an iPad is probably still less than paid F on that route.

2) Boy, I'd hate to see how you'd have reacted if you ended up on a 737 with the temporary (non-Kioto) seats and no IFE at all...

iceman77_7

The OP's point is that he was booking paid F no matter what, but chose CO over US specifically for the IFE. If CO would like to use its IFE as a means of driving marginal revenue, which I would assume is true or else it wouldn't have installed it, it's pretty reasonable to expect working Directv in F.

PhillyPhlyer40

No, I was buying the f flight. 2 choices. US or CO. BOTH the same price. As this was a last minute booking, I went to the PDA site. On it, it stated direct tv.

Well, that didn't happen. CO wants to sell dtv as a feature-and they should assure it works.


As a note it had a piece of tape over the on/off controls that said inop. Why not just fix it???

star_world

Because it doesn't make any sort of good business sense to pull the aircraft out of service in the middle of the day to fix non-safety-related items like this. Most likely it was fixed that night if/when the aircraft arrived in a CO hub for the night, or the following night if it was ending the day at another airport.

It's not like these things are left flying around the network for weeks on end without being fixed.

And before I get accused by some posters of sympathising with CO I agree that the FA could have announced this in a more professional way.

cv11nyc

So ground the airplane and cancel the flight is your solution? Great idea in a business with razor margins! I've been on both JB and Virgin flights where the satellite was garbage and thus no service the entire time. It happens.

qoodoo

I've had three flights from EWR without IFE and it was the whole plane not just F. Sent in emails for all three about checking in on it. Two of the three I was comped 2k miles each time for the inconvience.

Often1

And people complain about FF programs being devalued. This is part of the reason why.

rjque

Broken equipment is the reason why FF programs are devalued?

star_world

No, giving miles out like candy for nonsense is why FF programs are devalued.

channa

CS miles are a pittance compared to the credit card miles generated.