Forced in-flight DirecTV ads need to stop
#16
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Isn't UA getting $$$ for the ads even if no-one scans their card?
After a 6 plus hour flight I'm ready to scream after seeing the same thing over and over, and even if I turn mine off the other screens are constantly doing their redundancy! This is worse than being waterboarded!!!
#18
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On that note I like the DirectTV, and purchase it many times. Great way to catch up on the news, or stupid gameshows, or sports. Of course I spend a lot of time in some remote oil fields where I might not hear from the outside world for a few weeks.
Last edited by WineCountryUA; Jun 25, 2017 at 12:16 am Reason: OT content removed
#20
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I hate PTV screens that come on during flight, repeatedly, after you've turned them off. I have experienced this on United as well. Eyeshades are an ok solution, but it should be a simple fix to make the default setting of the screen "off", i.e., make the passenger press a button or tap the screen to turn it on, rather than the other way around. Especially for night flights where 90% of pax are sleeping but somehow 80% of screens are on, flooding the cabin with artificial light.
#22
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I can't read with eyeshades on (unless there's now a Kindle app for my Google DayDream? I should check). I have no problems with people watching TV if they want, but if they don't, the screens should be turned off instead of flickering advertisement. Unfortunately UA (or CO...) has made it too darn hard to actually turn the screens off.
#23
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Of course they should, but UA's not going to fix this. So the only real solution from the pax perspective is Bose + eyeshades. If I'm not trying to sleep, I don't really care that much if the screen flicks on.
#24
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I don't remember the Ads automatically playing mid-flight but it could definitely be that I haven't paid close attention. I've done red eyes on 737s with DTV and haven't been woken up. Did they have to reset the system maybe? That would drive me nuts if I was happily sleeping/napping.
While I agree the ads need to stop and this is something within UA's control, the system itself is great and was well used and appreciated by countless CO customers over the years. It was a brilliant decision by Larry K to introduce a useful IFE system at the time it was implemented.
Seemingly? Meaning your opinion that no one bought it? Lots of people bought it, but granted a minority on each flight. It's a brilliant decision because Continental was able to offer a state of the art IFE feature on most of its domestic fleet with little to no infrastructure or maintenance investment of its own - the bulk of the cost and revenue went to DirecTV, while Continental was able to market the benefits of the feature and draw customers. While the technology was innovative only for its time, the business decision was brilliant.
The decision to use the system today for loud-blasting obnoxious credit card ads - not brilliant, but we're dealing with new management who doesn't really care how customers feel.
Certainly during key sporting or news events, purchase volume went way up and probably still does. I would much rather watch live TV inflight vs hunting through a limited collection of movies I already watched, or have no interest in watching, on my iPhone.
The decision to use the system today for loud-blasting obnoxious credit card ads - not brilliant, but we're dealing with new management who doesn't really care how customers feel.
Certainly during key sporting or news events, purchase volume went way up and probably still does. I would much rather watch live TV inflight vs hunting through a limited collection of movies I already watched, or have no interest in watching, on my iPhone.
Don't know how much AA is doing these days, but Pre-merger US was the worst - not just announcements but FAs walking down the aisles with applications, and tray tables which had advertisements for this on them.
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#26
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Don't know how much AA is doing these days, but Pre-merger US was the worst - not just announcements but FAs walking down the aisles with applications, and tray tables which had advertisements for this on them.
#27
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Over the past month I've seen those dudes saw down and drop the same tree in the middle of the road about 50 times. It was all practice just in case it really happened for real sometime, and the mountain men just happened to be off huntin' up some grub in another area of the wilderness. Believe it or not, every single time, the story miraculously ended the same. Kept my eyes glued to the tube all the way from BOS to SFO and, I'll be dogged if them people didn't manage to move that dad-gumed tree out of the road for the women folk. Didn't even need to scan my card as they messed up and played it over and over about every 29 minutes for FREE!
Hee, Hee, Hee!!!
Hee, Hee, Hee!!!
#28
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#29
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I agree, it doesn't bother me when I'm awake and just don't want to watch. I often forget to turn mine off in fact. On my last flight, the woman in the middle seat kept her elbows on both her controls and my controls the entire flight. The screens were either scrolling through the menus, or the volume control was going up and down, or something was happening on the screen, which I found distracting and annoying for some reason. I've also paid to watch a football game on a Sunday flight and all of a sudden hear the volume spiking in my headphones, thanks to the middle seat passenger.
#30
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I don't think that discussing something on FT is necessarily a "Complaint!" People can certainly mention that they don't like ad's in their face, for the duration of their flight, without requiring them to make a BIG deal out of it. Besides, a letter written to UAL regarding this matter will most likely end up in the round file, anyway!