mgcsinc

And it'll cost money in F, too, because we can't make anything free in F unless it was free in F yesterday

twtrvl

Who is "we?"

Were any of the stories UA told the OP correct? If so, which?

LaserSailor

Xyzzy

I find it extremely hard to believe that the system was so overloaded that the outlets were shut off. I've never been on a flight when more than a few outlets were in use. It's easy to see which sets of seats have something plugged in. Just look for the little blue LED sticking into the aisle at the bottom aisle side of each set of seats.

Also, when ready there is a green light on the outlet itself. If you attempt to draw too much powerI it will shut itself off. I've had issues where it took several tries to get a particular outlet to work. I've also had cases where the crew had the system shut off for some reason and they turned it on at my request.

All in all, the excuses given the OP by the crew strike me as cmplete BS.

TRAUAMICURN2000

it happen to me on my flight from SFO to SEA. I inquired to one of the flight attendants that their was no power from the outlet. The flight attendant indicated that the power should have been on prior to take off and during inflight. I asked again because the there was no power during inflight. The flight attendant responded to me by saying that the flight is less than 2 hours. I should just wait till I arrive in Seattle

drewguy

When I read the title I was expecting this to be a battle among 3 Y pax over the two outlets on the seat stanchions.

LASUA1K

Same here. Seems odd that this is an issue on the airplane. How many people can actually use it at once is my question. With wifi and streaming video, power will be important.

zrs70

Flying a 757-300 earlier this week EWR-LAX, I was happy that the lane was equipped with power ports. After take off, I noticed no juice was coming out.

I asked the FA, and she responded that these planes don't have power ports. I pointed to the unit, and she then said that the captain is the one who decides to turn it on.

I asked her if she would ask the captain. She responded, "He'll only turn it on if he wants to."

Ten minutes later, it still was not working. I asked her about it once again. She said, "no one else of the flight is complaining."

(Didn't realize I was complaining!)

We then said that my unit must be broken. She did not check to see if the other unites at other seats were on. Nor did she offer any insights to help.

A few minutes later, power came to the unit.

mgcsinc

1K Voice, tell the story very concisely. You'll get a little bunch of miles.

DaviddesJ

I notice a general pattern that when I report problems on the plane that may well be outside of the crew's control, they often get very defensive rather than trying to help. I don't know how to overcome this. I agree it's really annoying.

LASUA1K

They need more training. I'm still suprised about the, too many people are using the power answer. That still amazes me, if that's the case.

DaviddesJ

Who said "too many people are using the power"? Was that in a different thread?

I agree that better training on the technical aspects of the aircraft could help with some problems. But airplanes are complicated, there are always going to be issues that are complex and beyond the immediate knowledge of the FAs. The question of how they respond when those things come up is an attitude issue rather than a training issue.

zrs70

The power answer?

SJOFlyer

from an electric design view:

- In conventional buildings 10 outlets make up a circuit that is protected by a 20A breaker. In those 10 outlets you can have 20 electrical appliances that as long as the 20A are not exceeded it will not trip.
- Assuming this is applied to an airplane electrical distribution then every 10 rows should have a fuse/breaker to protect from any short circuit.
- from reports it seems that the captain can decide whether or not the power outlets have energy (main interrupter).
- once enabled this interrupter if no power is on a set of outlets then most likely it would be a burned fused due to a short circuit that has to be replaced.

It is not logical that it goes by a first come first served, rather than a set of outlets not working due to a burned fuse not enabling energy to go to the set of outlets.

DaviddesJ

It's very logical. The system is designed so that if the available power is in use, those people keep getting power and other people can't get power, rather than tripping a breaker that cuts off power to everyone. That's both better for the people currently using the system and it also means that when the load is reduced other people can start using the system. And all without having to reset any breakers.

Such a system would be too complex and expensive in a home, where you can just go down to the basement and reset a breaker if it trips. Also, the source of the limitation in the home is different: it's the risk of fire from drawing too much power through the wires, rather than the limit of the amount of AC power that the available inverters can supply. If the in-seat power system were overloaded, it wouldn't cause a fire, it would just mean that people would get insufficient voltage.

That said, I don't think most accounts of people not getting power have anything to do with overload situations.