Has anybody ever wondered (like me) why United Airlines for over 20 years has offered the ability to listen to ATC on channel 9 when no other airline has?

At one time I thought it might be a patent thing, but that should have expired.

Also, why does United offer in-flight entertainment on *most* of its aircraft when other airlines do not.

All A-320's are wired for in-flight entertainment, yet I think United might be the only ones offering in-flight entertainment.

Could it really cost that much to pop a couple of CD's in the player? Most airlines already have the in-flight entertainment programmed for their bigger airplanes -- which they list in there in-flight magazine.

FCFree,

I can remember in the early to mid 80's American definitely, and I seem to recall Delta also allowing you to hear tower-cockpit conversations during departure and arrival. This was on their DC10's and L1011's respectively.

Not sure why they don't do it anymore. Probably just another channel to maintain/fix if equipment fails????

Also, with regard to United offering enterainment on most flights....have you seen the new minivans that offer dvd players to the kids will "tune in" and not bug their parents....it may be something along those lines

LLZ:

Never knew DL to offer ATC or tower communications as part of their IFE during the nearly five years I worked for them (1978-83) and, later, as a revenue passenger on their flights. AA definitely had the cockpit video cameras (and possibly tower communications on audio) on their DC-10s; perhaps on other aircraft as well. The system was activated for take-offs and landings so passengers could watch the cockpit crew and see the runway ahead. Sadly, after the crash of one of their DC-10s at ORD, in May of 1979, the cameras were removed.

FCfree:

To my knowledge, UA offers inflight audio on every aircraft in their fleet except the 737-200s (and I hope there are few of these remaining!). I have always regarded UA as a leader in inflight audio - not just because of "Channel 9" but because of the superior audio quality offered, especially on their CD-equipped aircraft. Audio quality on UA's 777s, A319s and A320s is absolutely superb for an IFE system. And, if you bring along a good pair of noise-canceling headphones, you really have it made! UA's 747-400s also have excellent CD audio, at least in "United Business" with the noise-canceling headphones they provide.

If memory serves, NW offered audio on their A320s when I flew them in 1991 but perhaps they no longer do. (?) Can't say about other operators of the A320.

(edited for clarity)


[This message has been edited by bbinchi (edited 04-05-2001).]

FCfree: US Airways' Airbuses offer 20 audio channels programmed by AEI Music. United offers about 12 channels (out of 18), programmed by Disc Marketing. Although US maintains the "barbaric practice" of charging $5 for headsets, their audio selections are much better than UA's.

bbinchi: United has 24 737-200 aircraft, and no immediate plans to retire them.
http://biz.yahoo.com/e/010405/ual.html

Air Canada also has audio on all of its A320 and related planes--the only ones that don't have it in their fleet are the DC9 and the CRJ.

NW has good audio programming on the DC-10's both domestic and international. I actually heard the Grateful Dead on NW recently!

But NW has stopped showing movies on domestic flights. At least the LAX-MSP run. They used to have movies a couple of years ago, but no more.

I've flown on two NW A320s, a 757, and a 727 DEN-MSP and DEN-DTW over the past few months. The A320 and the 727 were not equipped with an entertainment system; and the 757's system remained dark and silent for the duration of the flight - they didn't even use it for the safety briefing.

United and Air Canada are definitely the winners when it comes to entertainment on short to medium-haul flights.

[This message has been edited by bikenski (edited 04-06-2001).]

This is why I'm flying most of my Trans-cons on CO, NW has no in-flight entertainment. I was stuck on a DTW-SAN flight for over 5 hours with nothing but the book I brought on board!

That very situation has been the bane of loyal AA customers for years with the MD-80 having been the backbone of AA's domestic fleet. We have endured them from ORD to SAN, LAX, SFO, PDX, SEA and, of course, there is no IFE on any of them. Thankfully, they are steadily being replaced by the 737-800s, which do have IFE albeit inferior to UA's in my opinion.

I like the MD-80 (and 727, 737-200, etc.) for that very reason.

Movies on planes, window shades, etc., have been discussed before. I'll be happy to join another discussion in this thread, but I'm not going to start it.

I can vouch that NW does NOT have IFE on their A-320's.

I have seen NW have IFE audio only on their 757's. It might depend on the length of the flight.

I haven't flown AA since I was a very small child. A front view would be fantastic, but even I would want to turn it off if we were going in nose first.

I have been on at least one UA 727 that didn't have in-flight audio. I have also been on at least one UA 737 flight that must have been one of those 737-200's without audio.

On a UA LAX-NRT, the pilot wouldn't turn on channel 9 to listen to ATC. I always wanted to hear ATC in Tokyo and my one chance I didn't get to! The pilot back didn't turn it on until the end of the flight -- just over LAX. Sort of gave me the impression that the 747 pilots don't want the passengers listening.

A few other UA pilots also have refused to turn on channel 9. It is their option, but it makes you wonder why they don't want you to listen.

I sure wish more of the airlines would add IFE and ATC.

Deleted -- Duplicate posting. Did not appear to post the first time.

[This message has been edited by FCfree (edited 04-06-2001).]

Deleted -- Duplicate posting. Did not appear to post the first time.

[This message has been edited by FCfree (edited 04-06-2001).]

Yet another dup -- kept timing out but apparently posted.

[This message has been edited by FCfree (edited 04-06-2001).]