Removal Of Personal Device Entertainment?
 

I’ve been on four different Gogo equipped Delta Connection (Skywest and Endeavor) flights since last week and noticed the only video content loaded was a few Delta promo videos.

I chatted with Gogo support and they said that Delta requested they removed personal device entertainment. To verify this, the Delta twitter team confirmed the same and only Seatback entertainment seems to be referenced on the website. Any idea whats going on?

I would guess this saves Delta a few 1000's of dollars. Seems like a cost cutting move, which should shock no one given the current state of the industry.

If thats the case, it just seems like an odd cost cutting move to make. Seems like costs could be cut in areas that have less impact such as there really is no need for the water/snack bag on short flights like TYS/ATL or SLC/TWF.

My opinion is that anyone that Relies on any airline IFE is behind the times. It doesn’t take a lot to have a tablet and/or an external drive to bring all the entertainment you need for a
domestic flight. This will probably be the future.

There would be people on this forum who would shout and scream if that water/snack bag was removed. Different folks value different amenities.

Might want to tell that to the ~50 percent of passengers who I see regularly using the seat back screens. The death of AVOD was predicted years ago and yet here we are. I find it to be one of the biggest advantages of Delta over other domestic carriers.

There are many of us , me amongst them, who do not care for IFE

This cut was also recently made. No more snack bags or any catering besides emergency water on flights 250 miles or less.

It has been this way for at least a month--on one of my flights there were only two videos on the GoGo On Demand content yet the setback IFE was replete.

Seems to make sense as a cost cutting move if they are paying some flat licensing fee to get rid of it, especially with passenger volumes being down.

That’s great. You have the option to not use it. Conversely, those who like IFE are SOL if it’s not offered.

there's plenty of cases where IFE is better. like when you are are using the tray table. or when you want to look straight ahead instead of craning your neck to look down

I hardly think delta would allow a division to create a new way of delivering IFE to passengers if they had any data showing it was 'behind the times'

And on the other side of the coin, AA removing IFE was part of my impetus to finally apply for a Delta status challenge (along with the "project oasis" cabin densification). I was based in PHX at that time and DL meant adapting from nonstop to connecting flights.

I had a stint in 2019 splitting between DL and WN and really missed the IFE. My neck and device battery life both suffer using a personal device.

Phone glitch, ignore double post.

This.

Furthermore, on domestic routes, IFE is actually a feature which distinguishes DL from UA/AA.

I'm not in the fraction of regular IFE users, either. But there are def flights on which it's very nice to have. I might usually bring newspapers, magazines, a laptop with work to do, a tablet loaded with my recent favorite series. But sometimes I forget to bring something to read or forget to load new stuff on my devices. Or I'm not in the mood for what I brought. Then it's def nice to be able to watch an episode or two of light entertainment on the IFE.

so don’t care. But don’t take it away from those who do care.

Reality however doesn’t appear to match that. i’ve been on four different flights in the last 2 1/2 weeks that are under 250 miles and they all had the snack bag.

I agree Delta has been hit or miss at implementing its own changes. However a FA on my short flight this week announced that the change in service standards went in to effect 10/15. Sometimes I think there are just extra bags left over from a longer previous flight.

IFE also comes in handy for families with kids, I think. It's easy for adult individual travelers (such as myself, to be upfront, but also I imagine a large proportion of posters on this board) to make sure they are equipped with enough personal entertainment, whether that's books, movies, podcasts, shows, whatever. But if you are a parent with kids I have to imagine it's nice not to have to carry a dedicated device for each child, especially when (for younger kids) you may not even have enough devices to begin with.

Wonder how much they save from not having the streaming movies for delta studio and only the seatback screens. I can't imagine it is that much.

By all means, they can rip out the IFE if it means the weight and balance will be corrected in a way that allows them to carry ice again.

I personally don't care for PDE. I don't have a tablet I can use so that leaves my laptop or phone. I like to have a full battery when I land somewhere but I can't charge and use headphones. IFE is nice to have.

Yeah, I'd much rather use IFE than stream the same stuff to my own device. I like to turn on a movie on the IFE and then play a game, browse a forum, or do whatever on my device. Or just have the trip map running while I try to take a nap without having to hold anything or have the tray table down. I get that some people aren't interested in IFE but I've never understood why a small set of people seem to actively want it removed.

This may explain why the Delta website is only showing movies from April for Delta Studios.

I wonder how many people actually use the streaming IFE, in particular if there is seatback AVOD available. I've toyed with it a couple of times, but usually end up using my personal device for something else (work, email, whatever) while playing content on the seatback unit. If streaming uptake is minimal, then why not cut the licensing costs even if it just saves enough to keep one person employed?

On DL Connection flights (like the OP), streaming is the only option. For ATL-TYS, it's not a big deal to not have IFE. But ATL-YUL in a CRJ is a long flight to have no IFE. I never use the streaming on mainline flights, but on those longer Connection flights, I def want to be able to stream. And it IS a differentiator from AA/UA/WN etc.

I don't think there has been any change to safety videos, series, movies, etc. in the entertainment systems since March. Even the boarding music hasn't been updated. Delta is in major cost saving mode.

I haven't even heard boarding music recently.

Just don't touch live TV. I need to watch CNBC during Market open.

Another stealth change. It never would have occurred to me to check that DL Studio is still available for flights using smaller aircraft, including CRJ-900s, etc.

Still is available, it's just a series of videos on how Delta is keeping you safe during the pandemic. That stuff must be cheap to license :)

Wow, this is yet another major devaluation and shows DL is doing anything it can to save money. Personally, I very rarely used IFE on my own devices when flying DL. I always preferred (and continue to prefer) using the seat-back screens. This is a more comfortable viewing angle, allows me to use my own device for other purposes if needed, and helps to save battery life. I usually only watch a movie from my phone when traveling on AS or AA.

Agreed I love having Live TV available in the seat back screens especially when there’s a sporting event going on or major news story. When DL was first getting all of their new A321s and doing aircraft mods, live TV wasn’t installed at first. I guess DL got a lot of complaints about it as it was added a year or two later.

Possible licensing issue? I recall a few years ago UA had an issue with royalty payments for their IFE music and dropped it for a while.

How is this a major devaluation? I'd be surprised if more than a dozen people per flight use streaming IFE. Sure, it's a service cut, but it's a pretty minor one (especially compared to, say, F&B). And I'd expect DL to be doing anything it can to save money at this point so they're still in business when travel recovers in the next year or two.

Agree, but not all DL aircraft have the seat back screens.

Perhaps "major" was a bit strong of a term, but I don't think I would call it "minor" either. I guess I will split the difference and just call it "significant." Don't get me wrong, I would gladly sacrifice streaming IFE to resume normal F&B service.

Very true. Thankfully the majority of DL aircraft I'm on have seat back screens. Usually when I am on a non seat back screen aircraft (formally an MD, but now probably a 717) the routes are usually less than an hour. Still, these planes do occasionally operate longer runs (I seem to remember being on a 717 SEA-LAS last year) and the streaming will be missed.

IIRC MSP-BDL has no screens and I've taken PSC-MSP in a CRJ-700, at about a thousand and fifteen hundred miles respectively. There certainly were not one hour flights.

PSC-MSP is one of my staple routes, 1250 miles and can be over 3 hours westbound with a headwind. Used to be a CRJ-900 but a year ago or so moved to E-175. Last week upgraded to A-319 for the first time in the route’s history to have mainline service. Pre COVID was a good flight to book if looking for VDB. It was a long flight with no Streaming IFE.

But according to FlyerTalk no one uses seatback screens anymore 😆

Interesting I flew on a flight during one of the 2016 presidential debates (ironically also from DTW) and many pax didn’t even know that the flight had Live TV (I had a few asking me how to find it within the screens).