edcho

Probably ... we shall find out when they start flying in a few weeks.

lensman

I think UAs data on DirectTV showed them how many people were willing to pay for a selection 8 movies and a hundred or so TV shows including live sports. Not many.

Add this to the view on the domestic market that people are unwilling to pay more for a better inflight product in their base fare - free checked baggage, food, more room throughout coach (MRTC), etc, and we have the conclusion that ubiquitous in-flight entertainment is on the way out for domestic flights. The question is what's the best way to monetize something that the vast majority of your customers don't want to pay for and the rest only want if it's free but doesn't drive carrier preference.

I think wifi entertainment is going to be an interesting experiment. I don't want to accuse UA of being forward thinking but I do think they might be depending on more people having tablets and such in the future. Maybe people will even be able to buy them onboard or rent them at the airport at the soon-to-be-defunct portable DVD rental places. (do those guys exist anymore?)

Minus: the poor flight attendants will have to do the seat belt and life vest dance all the time
Plus: we don't have to see Mr. Smisek spin the truth on our video monitors

smxflyer

It'll be interesting to see how IFE shakes out over the next few years as airlines have so many different approaches now - AS going like UA with streaming wifi, WN offering free streaming for now, AA/DL with AVOD. Wasn't CO initially going to install AVOD in the 737/757 domestic fleet but LiveTV offered a sweeter deal?

Honestly, I think AA is going to have the best IFE in the (domestic) sky even if the AVOD is for-pay, with power ports and wifi as alternates. The way DL/VX does it is also great, with a limited free selection and plenty of paid options as well.

Hartmann

If you didn't notice any difference in the actual seat, then I have my doubts you were on the one reconfigured Airbus.

Halo117

I wouldn't add this as a plus just yet...they may add his mandatory commerical when you log into the streaming content...more like a poke in the eye cuz you thought you saw the last of Jeffrey

Baze

And if you watch him 4 times in a row you get free streaming for 5 minutes.

UnitedFlyGuy

I was. New seats, no drop down monitors, etc. I honestly didn't notice a difference. Granted it was a 2 hour flight and not a longer one.

I was just sharing my data point.

Sorry! Just saw this post. I was in E+. Row 12. I didn't open a laptop.

It was a 2 hour flight. Definitely not a long transcon. If it was, my results might have been different. Just offering a data point.

Hartmann

Ok, but you're saying you didn't notice a difference in the seat when in fact they are very different, even if you don't find them uncomfortable. They look different, they have different armrests, they have smaller tray tables, etc. There are differences, even on a 2 hour flight.

If you didn't find them uncomfortable on that two hour flight, then ok, thank you for sharing that opinion.

DaviddesJ

I think this is a misinterpretation. I took his statement to be that there was no difference in comfort. Not that there was no difference at all in the seats---of course there is.

Hartmann

N455UA, which I'm on this morning, has the new seats. My added observation is that the seatback pocket is too small to fit anything larger than an iPad mini or Kindle.

If they made the seat bottoms longer (out toward your knees) and made the armrests a little bit larger it would be a huge improvement. The underseat storage is a bit smaller as well. I didn't notice this on my first flight because I only had a rollaboard.

halls120

Which was no doubt intentional. Who needs storage space on a 5 hour transcon anyway?

Hartmann

I don't know if it was intentional, I kind of doubt it. I'm guessing Recaro doesn't offer many (if any) seatback pocket configurations.

halls120

United chose a seat with limited seatback storage. I don't see how that decision could have been anything but intentional.

belynch

Seeing as seatback pockets aren't certified to hold laptops for takeoff/landing I wonder if this was a design evolution to prevent people from doing it anyway.

Are you insinuating that seat back pocket storage space should take a dominant place in the decision making process over performance economics, comfort, and overall functionality?

Hartmann

My biggest issue is that I like to use the seatback pocket to hold my empty cup and maybe an iPad and the pocket can barely do that.

It may have been part of the design evolution, heck, LH may have insisted on it.