Dang. That's what I get for not reading the whole announccement. It would be nice if they extended the IFE to all prefered seats, or turned it on for any seat with an elite in it. I wonder how that'll work for stuff you stream onto your own device. Will it ask you what seat you're in or something?

Gogo's limitation is the link between the plane and the ground. There are many other threads on this subject, but I believe currently the whole plane shares something like a 5 Mbps connection, which is really small for say 50 users.

Last time I counted (using software), there were about 8 access points (AP's) on a 737-800 carrying the Gogo SSID (among other non-boradcast SSIDs, i.e. the crew's windows phones used for purchases). I couldn't tell what kind of AP's they had, but many new AP's can support many streaming connections simultaneously. Worst case, DL might have to upgrade the wifi AP's. If they've planned this properly, there should be no noticeable difference to Gogo. IMO, Gogo is already way too slow to be usable.

The video won't be streaming from the ground. They'll have a server on-board. :)

The L.A. Times published the list of US carriers with the most penalties from the DOT for a variety of issues including poor service and deceptive pricing practices over the last year:

• Delta – $2.9 million in fines
• United – $1.7 million in fines
• US Airways – $1.2 million in fines
• American – $1.1 million in fines
• JetBlue – $600,000 in fines
• Southwest – $600,000 in fines

I'm not really pro or against Delta, and very new to the DL forum (it looks like y'all have some history! Good reading), but rather than assume there's no source, ask for it.

Thanks for clearing that up for me; it sounded like the programming was coming from the ground.

I don't get how the system knows if I'm in First or coach?

That would make perfect sense. Otherwise one would have to buy the Wifi pass in order to get the programming which then wouldn't make it free anymore.

And if I understand correctly I would connect to the "local" network on the plane to stream rather than connecting to the Gogo network on the ground.

Here's a bit more from Gogo on that part:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/gog...nes-2014-07-28

"To access the content, a passenger can simply launch the browser on their laptop, Android or Apple tablet, or iPhone device and they will automatically be directed to Delta Studio. Gogo's seat selection technology integrates with Delta's flight records through an API that will serve up the appropriate content when a passenger enters their name and seat number."

Enjoy!

Thank you! Yes, you're absolutely correct on that.

interesting....guess when you're sitting in the last row of economy comfort and the guy behind you is standing up and sticking his ipad over your head - we'll know why!

They'll still need a lot of wifi bandwidth on board, if not ground/satellite to plane.

It sounds like seat assignments will be used as a permanent way (that doesn't very from flight to flight) to determine who gets the new service for free. I can envision kids in coach using FC parental seat assignments with permission to log in or even folks discretely (or not!) trading or selling information about names and seat assignments to allow someone else not in a premium seat to get Delta Studio for free.

:confused: is this different from PTV's? AFAIK DL gave free IFE in Y on 738s... this seems odd to me thats all :D

Will the system really distinguish seat locations or just use the name and seat assignment to verify that no payment is owed? I would guess that if passengers swap seats between FC and coach, the one was had been assigned to FC will get to use Delta Studio for free while the coach passenger who is now sitting in FC will be asked to pay.

So I wonder how the final passenger manifest will be inputted to the system on board. If it were to just ask people their seat assignment at log in, anyone could claim to be sitting in FC, assuming that they know just a bit about how seats are numbered on the aircraft.

Just my luck
 

I'm flying on Delta tomorrow...no freebies for me.