LarryJ

The entire 737 fleet has the new slimline seats. The airplanes that had DTV kept DTV but now also have PDE as well.

Miggles

Because those DTV screens are a total nuisance. The sooner they are phased out forever, the better.

bocastephen

Well, as I said upthread, if the glare bothers you, use eye covers. Some of us like watching DTV and will continue to do so.

Are you going to ask nearby customers with tablets and laptops to turn those devices off because of the glare? What about the new MAX seats with fold down holders for tablets and phones that place the screens in the same position as today's DTV screens?

raiachat

two things that would be helpful -
- Train FA to understand in flight WiFi and how to reboot system when everyone says that they cant connect
- Get rid or upgrade their in flight entertainment so that those who use an iPad don't constantly have troubles with 'downloading additional software'

love DirecTV. wish that they had it on all equipment.

bocastephen

It really depends on the crew - in the past I had some really proactive crews who contacted the flight deck and had them pull and reset the circuit breaker for the wifi system to force a hard reset which usually did the trick vs a normal reboot, but lately when it's not working I've been hearing nonsense gibberish such as last week when they announced Wifi was not working because we were flying over the Gulf of Mexico - when we were still over land along the Louisiana coast and they wouldn't contact the flight deck even though they said they would.

There really needs to be a standardized troubleshooting policy and plan that is published in the ops manual so every crew is expected to follow the same procedure without any arguments or nonsense gibberish explanations.

LarryJ

We are not allowed to pull/reset circuit breakers inflight unless directed to do so by a non-normal checklist.

On the 737 we have a switch which will depower the internet/wifi/PDE system. That's what we use to reset when part of the system isn't working (usually the internet). Unfortunately, there is no way to reset just the internet without also resetting the wifi and PDE so a reset means everything will be done for seven or eight minutes while it reboots.

I believe that the F/As have the ability to reset the system themselves on the Airbus but I don't know the details. All fleets should have a way to do this without pulling any circuit breakers.

The F/As don't really have a way to monitor the aircraft's position to know when we're overwater or otherwise outside the CONUS coverage area. If they're ambitious, they can check it on their Link on the UA App but that will only work while the internet is working. Geography knowledge isn't really a requirement for their job, though, so some will be a lot better than others at understanding when the internet will, and will not, work.

HNLbasedFlyer

I'm not a pilot - but that makes total sense.

JohnneeO

I have purchased DTV on flights when I wanted to see live sports; once, to watch the NFL ST RZ Channel on a Sunday afternoon, another time to watch some live matches on the Tennis Channel. I will always watch this if available.

phkc070408

When the DTV contract is over, why wouldn't UA leave the equipment installed and just add non-TV content? Is there a way to hook the content on the PDE system into the DTV monitors? I haven't been on a DTV plane in years, and when I was, I never checked for this, but isn't there already non-TV content on the system for traveling outside of the CO-US? Isn't this what is done on the GUM birds???

If this is possible, it would seem to me it would be more benefical to go this route than rip everything out. At least wait until the next generation ultra-paperthin-slim seats arrive.

Xyzzy

IIRC the equipment is wned by DTV.

clubord

bocastephen

eng3

I often watch the same channel for the whole flight so I would find an auto-off pretty annoying.
The button does say OFF and I suppose it is "one press" if you hold it down long enough. But I agree, a dedicated off button would be better.
Sometimes, I do hear the FA's make an announcement.
Perhaps if it was made more like the regular on-demand screens. Have a home screen (like the tv guide). Let that have an auto-off. But if you go to one of the TV channels, leave it on. They could also default the screens to off after the safety video and for the passenger to turn it on if they want to use it. However, I assume they didn't want to do this to entice people to actually use the system and allow them to make the ad revenue.

I've seen passengers that can't figure out how to turn off a light that was left on (they press directly on the light as if that will do something) and I've found the light bothersome when trying to sleep. I've seen passengers who don't understand how to close the air vents and instead redirect them (sometimes at my head). That is bothersome because it gets cold. I don't expect the airline to remove all lights and vents. Some people don't like window shades being up, that doesnt mean they should remove all the windows. Some passengers can't figure out how to open/close their tray table or unrecline their seats.

In all these cases, I don't see passenger ignorance as a reason to remove something. It is easy enough to ask the FA.

garkster

It's almost hard to believe (almost!!!) that UA could posture a liability (weight of the DTV equipment, low % of usage, etc.) as a perk. But it does offer a new reason for passengers to complain -- I'm flying a 737 and there was no free DirectTV!

skidooman

Well, at least they are trying. I am a bit apprehensive about what will be taken back because if something was pretty consistent during the Munoz era it is the inconsistency. At times United wants to become more flyer-friendly, in an effort to become a more classy airline, and at other times the focus is on low prices at the expense of everything else.

Somewhere, I guess I understand where we are heading: a really segmented world, just like the real one, with a few lucky guys sitting in front in ever more comfortable seats, and a bunch of poor souls behind in a true "cattle class" - that is a cattle car where each bovine is sandwiched against one another. In the US seems to be the norm.

But even inside these cabins, United has been inconsistent. Remember the wine tasters? Made it unique AFAIK and... ooops, nevermind, gone!

Somewhere this will haunt them one day or another because you just cannot be everything to everyone. You cannot be SQ and Frontier all at once. At some point, you must pick one.