CO: New plane sorry no entertainment system
 

It was different to have the Cap. come on the PA after boarding on 2/17 and apologize to the passengers that the plane was two weeks old and that there was no entertainment system installed yet. Sure enough no monitors, no sounds system nothing. The poor FAs had to the safety briefing manually!!

I know that seats and engines are chosen by the companies buying the aircraft but you'd think that the entertainment stuff would come together with the seats but perhaps seat based equipment isnt part of COs plan -- I'm not normally a CO flyer.

The 739ERs will not receive an IFE system until CO starts installing DirecTV in early 2009. I suspect the 739ERs will be slotted among the first aircraft to receive the new systems.

Yes and yes. On the LiveTV announcement thread CO Insider indicated that they expect the majority of them to be online with the IFE in January or February '09.

It does stink that they'll go a year without, especially if they start rotating on to the transcon flights. At least the power @ the seats is supposed to come online sooner than that.

You'd think they'd make some sort of service directive to the flight crews so they say "apologies for no inflight entertainment, but we are rolling out direcTV across our fleet starting January." Plug the enhancement instead of just pointing out the negative.

Or say nothing. Plenty of midcons IAH-SFO/LAX or IAH-NYC have run with 737s and no entertainment system.

I had the same experience on CO397 on 2/15 IAH-LAS Nice brand new plane smell (haha) and great new seats in FC...sucked not having video, but one thing they did have were power ports which I never see on the usual aircraft to LAS.

What happened to reading a book,or knitting a nice sweater? Airlines usually get lambasted for showing crummy movies anyway,so now you'll actually be forced to talk to your neighbor....if that screaming child 10 rows away doesn't drive you over the edge.:D

It's no fun to be without when we're all used to having it...but its actually a good thing. They chose not to install the old system on these new planes because a newer, better system is just around the corner. Video systems are quite costly to install, so it made no sense to put the old ones in just to overhaul the whole thing in just a few short months.

why? i don't really care as long as they activate the power soon. If you can't get by for 6 hours without watching movies, learn to read.

while airlines are under no obligation to offer entertainment, this certainly does put continental (CO) at a distinct competitive disadvantage vis-a-vis other carriers which offer rich entertainment options for monotonous transcon flights (delta, jetblue, virgin america, etc.).

CO, of course, has one distinct advantage. it flies its transcon routes from newark (EWR). as has been discussed here before (ad nauseum), transcon competition from EWR is pathetic.

and, its not just transcon competition. has anyone checked out prices on EWR-Florida routes lately? with jetblue basically waiving the white flag except for some limited service, CO has felt free to substantially jack up prices on these routes.

what is CO's "magic bullet" against low fare competition? other low fare carriers (LCC, as they are known) have invaded hubs to wonderful success. but, every time a LCC enters EWR, it withdrawls with its tail between its legs.

how does continental do it? :confused:

no inflight entertainment = discussion about EWR pricing?

new thread? i don't care either way.

ATL and DEN come to mind as the true 'invaded' fortress hub airports. hard to argue JFK is a genuine hub as no single airline has the number of nonstop destinations as they do at the fortress hubs.

Neither ATL or DEN has as much international outbound traffic as Continental has at EWR. Thus, easier pickings. CO can fill more incremental seats with overseas high yield intl traffic from more secondary markets on both ends.

Not the only reason, but probably a major factor.

ummm...okay.

and, ever hear of philadelphia?

It is called predatory pricing. NW is even better at it than CO.

Maybe you should move there -- save $100 on airfare to florida. or maybe not -- easter weekend nonstop ewr-fll is $438 vs $500 on southwest out of phl -- with stops.

But if you want to go to Delhi, Hong Kong, Beijing, Tokyo, Sao Paolo, Bogota, Panama City, Berlin, Stockholm, etc. nonstop -- or London, Paris, and Amsterdam more than once a day on a US carrier you're going to have to drive to Newark.

its obvious you have heard of PHL but havent flown out of there at least on CO.

CO flys to CLE & IAH only. The CLE flights are all on RJs great entertainment system if watching the lone FA serve drinks is ones kind of entertainment.

As for IAH I believe its served with only 1 flight being on a 737-700 or 800 the rest are 733 or 735 , the advantage over an RJ is there are more then 1 FA you get to watch, otherwise the same exact entertainment as on the CLE RJs.

However the advantage PHL has over EWR is most likely depending on where ones final destination is, most likely the connecting flight will have some reg entertainment system.

Now having flown in from HKG yesterday on CO on a 777, I can tell you that both myself and my associate that was traveling with me didnt find a single movie worth watching. It will be nice when CO puts AVOD on all their 777s with the choice of some 295 movies.

Yes

CO saved a bundle by not putting IFE on the 737-900ERs. Now Direct TV will take the entire investment and they will of course be fitted with IFE early next year