MikeyZBT

I am really getting annoyed with seeing all these non-PTV 757s on SAN-ATL... What is the deal? I mean, I know Delta has a ton of these PTV 757s... so why don't you give it to the routes that need it most (i.e. the 4+ hour routes)?!?!

Seriously, Delta, you try to advertise these TVs and if you don't put them on the long routes, what's the point?!

It's like we're stuck in a "catch-22"...

Either (a) we are on a very popular flight and there is no room in first, so we don't get upgraded, but at least we have TVs in the seats... OR (b) we get on a flight that isn't full, in first, we get upgraded, but Delta DOWNGRADES the plane to the 24F, non-PTV version and we lose out on the TVs...

The other terrible thing about losing out on the PTV, 757s are the power outlets in first... the non-PTV 757s don't have these, do they? That REALLY sucks for people traveling that actually want to work on the 4+ hour flight... Hello, Delta? Anything?

WBurcham

Hopefully they also downgraded them to the ones with less F seats.

MikeyZBT

Hopefully? What do you mean by that?

It was changes from the 26F to the 24F... Just sucks losing the PTV 2-days before the flight.

And really, it's the power plugs in first that I was REALLY looking forward to.... darn.

GBadger

PTVs and power are a bigger deal to some than others.
Personally, I can do without either. Not to say I may not enjoy them when they're there, but generally I'm not disappointed if they're not.

MikeyZBT

They are a pretty big deal to most people I talk to that fly SAN-ATL... The TVs make the flight go by SOOOO much faster.

And the power plugs allow you to work the entire time, if you need to... Just annoying that Delta would screw over this "long-haul" flight yet AGAIN!

MikeyZBT

Interesting response from Delta:

I wonder when this plan is supposed to be implemented to install on-demand entertainment on "on all flights over four hours or greater than 1,750 miles"... Interesting...

mersk862

You're not going to see widespread fleet improvements during the busiest summer months - the planes are up in the air flying. A lot of that work is done during the quieter fall/winter months, when demand is lower. Last winter, Delta had their hands full of more pressing concerns, such as repainting the NWA fleet and updating the interiors on those planes to Delta standards. Wi-Fi was also added at that time, as it's an overnight process, rather than a week-long process as adding TVs is.

Given that Delta is a for-profit company and doesn't have money to just throw all over the place, AVOD on all domestic planes fell a bit on the totem poll after updating the NW planes, as well as some of the improvements on the 767-300ER fleet. Hence, things like adding AVOD to domestic planes, new BusinessElite seats on the 777-200ER fleet, etc. get pushed back down the pipeline.

As for aircraft scheduling, it's a complex process. There are 48 or so 757s with AVOD (in the domestic configuration). There are about twice that many that don't have it. In your case, a plane might have broken down and they needed to use another 757 (in this case a non-AVOD one) as a sub. There are a lot of pieces in play, and that's why you might see some of these planes on shorter routes - a plane might do ATL-MCO-ATL-SFO simply because of utilization purposes - that plane can't do a transcon in the time it can do a ATL-MCO-ATL turn. When you're dealing with a large fleet of equipment that can break down and it's the time of year where everything is busy, decisions have to get made, and at the end of the day which is better - getting on the plane without AVOD for a 3h30 takeoff-touchdown flight, or canceling it? 99.9% of people would choose take the flight than cancel it due to no AVOD.

WBurcham

Whoops, guess "haven't" went missing. It would suck for you and the wife to be #1 & 2 on the upgrade list if 2 F seats were lost!

WidgetKid

One of the things that has to be remembered is that DL has maximum utilization of their domestic 757s right now. While a good amount of them have the AVOD, an even greater amount don't. At least right now they don't fly the PMNW 757-200's transcon that don't even have the overhead monitors.

I won't deny that loosing the PTV's sucks! I use them greatly. However, if you want to wait for whatever happened to be fixed or go on a slightly less nice aircraft...

DLNYC

I wouldn't classify SAN-ATL as "long-haul." Far from it. Personally, I find updating the 763/4 and 772 fleets to be of far greater importance than installing PTVs for a relatively short (and cheap) flight.

Nugget_Oz

Presumably you got one with overhead monitors.

DL now has a number of transcontinental flights - OAK-ATL started last night - so if it has a limited number of ships there are only so many to go around. I would think they are putting the PTV planes out of JFK and then just rotating the other markets.

WidgetKid

Yes, i believe that is accurate. However all of the LAX and SFO flights out of JFK are the TATL birds with BE in them, so I would think that would free up a few birds. The ATL-LAX also all have PTV's. However there still aren't enough to go around completely.

mersk862

Just wanted to throw some numerical analysis around the situation, using next Monday's schedule (out of the hubs) and making the assumption that those planes return to the hubs:

There are 126 hub-outspoke transcon flights a day (outside of JFK-LAX/SFO, which is a seperate category). Figure about 250 transcon flights a day, as those planes return to the hubs.

Of those, 52 are on 757-200s, so around 100 757 flights/day doing transcon (1750+ mile flights a day, so routes such as ATL/DTW-LAS fall short by under 5 miles). There are 48 757s with AVOD, and not all of these planes are on long-haul routes due to utilization needs as I mentioned above. Either way, they're likely on a good number of these flights, but it's not possible to have them on every single flight.

As a FYI, here are the numbers of ex-hub flights greater than 1750 miles (based on next Monday's schedule):
B737-700 - 4 flights
B737-800 - 32 flights
B757-200 - 52 flights (64 flights if you include the JFK-LAX/SFO BE flights)
B757-300 - 3 flights
B767-300 - 11 flights
B777-200 - 1 flight
A319-100 - 2 flights
A320-200 - 22 flights
A330-200 - 2 flights (ATL-LAX/SEA)

alison11

Let Jerry Brown know about it, like I did. $250 cert in my hands by the end of the week. You can't sell what you don't have...

WBurcham

?