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Enhanced customer service commitment including free DirecTV on all DTV A/C.

Enhanced customer service commitment including free DirecTV on all DTV A/C.

Old Mar 1, 2019, 12:54 pm
  #91  
 
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: YYC
Programs: AC SE
Posts: 2,333
Not sure if this has come up elsewhere, but I was on a 737-700 last night with the new J seat/new slimlines in Y, and it had NEW direct TV screens installed. I did a double-take when I saw them on the back of the seat, as I wasn't expecting that on the refurbished narrowbodies. It was a pleasant surprise to see UA actually installing new screens in narrowbody aircraft.
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Old May 7, 2019, 10:06 am
  #92  
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I was on a 739 with rare (yes, rare) DirecTV yesterday, and was looking forward to some live TV...until I got to my seat and realized that there were only movie channels available, and the moving map was "temporarily unavailable at this time."

Sigh.

UA continues to be far behind even AA on the ability to see live TV.
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Old May 7, 2019, 1:31 pm
  #93  
 
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: SFO
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Originally Posted by DenverBrian
I was on a 739 with rare (yes, rare) DirecTV yesterday, and was looking forward to some live TV...until I got to my seat and realized that there were only movie channels available, and the moving map was "temporarily unavailable at this time."

Sigh.

UA continues to be far behind even AA on the ability to see live TV.
I had this out of Denver a few weeks ago. The FAs and I surmised that maybe it was because the plane had come from Mexico. They reset the system to no avail. LiveTV came back like 90 minutes into a 2 hour flight.
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Old Jul 7, 2019, 7:40 am
  #94  
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Originally Posted by JAaronT
I had this out of Denver a few weeks ago. The FAs and I surmised that maybe it was because the plane had come from Mexico. They reset the system to no avail. LiveTV came back like 90 minutes into a 2 hour flight.
Happened again DTW-DEN yesterday. DirecTV was fully functioning before pushback. At some point during the one-hour mechanical delay (!), the system dropped all live TV and showed only channels 1-1 to 1-11 - including a moving map that said "temporarily unavailable". For the entire flight.

This continued into drink service, when I asked the FA to reset the DirecTV. His response? "But if we do that it'll reset everyone, not just your screen." Um, yes, that was the point - EVERYONE'S DirecTV was down except for the nine movie channels.

The combination of never-working equipment plus FAs who don't know squat about how to operate it equals frustration, poor service, and poor ratings on customer service surveys.

And. United. doesn't. care.
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Old Jul 7, 2019, 8:24 am
  #95  
 
Join Date: Jun 2004
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Originally Posted by DenverBrian
Happened again DTW-DEN yesterday. DirecTV was fully functioning before pushback. At some point during the one-hour mechanical delay (!), the system dropped all live TV and showed only channels 1-1 to 1-11 - including a moving map that said "temporarily unavailable". For the entire flight.

This continued into drink service, when I asked the FA to reset the DirecTV. His response? "But if we do that it'll reset everyone, not just your screen." Um, yes, that was the point - EVERYONE'S DirecTV was down except for the nine movie channels.

The combination of never-working equipment plus FAs who don't know squat about how to operate it equals frustration, poor service, and poor ratings on customer service surveys.

And. United. doesn't. care.
I assume the FAs point was that a reset would disrupt those who are watching movies. Assuming that a reset takes the movies back to the beginning, it would be extremely disruptive to those passengers.
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Old Jul 7, 2019, 10:49 am
  #96  
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Originally Posted by BrianPhill


I assume the FA’s point was that a reset would disrupt those who are watching movies. Assuming that a reset takes the movies back to the beginning, it would be extremely disruptive to those passengers.

Which means that any time the system glitches, you can't do a thing in flight. That is appalling.

United gleefully markets this as "200+ channels." I just want what they claim to provide. Consistently.
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Old Sep 3, 2019, 7:25 pm
  #97  
 
Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: EWR, SFO
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Hi all -

I have almost weekly flights on United, mostly from EWR to SFO, including this Thursday and Sunday. As NFL season descends on us, I am considering flying certain days on Delta instead to take advantage of DirecTV and watch the NFL games during the flight. Before I book my flights for this week, I just want to make sure I'm not missing a workaround on watching these games on United, as that is my preferred airline. I've tried streaming NFL games in the past couple years with mixed success, but wanted to see if anyone has had better experience recently? Thanks for any help
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Old Dec 19, 2019, 11:51 am
  #98  
 
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Getting a little tired of the Directv systems that are still in some aircraft. It was pretty good in its day, but that was a long time ago now.
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Old Dec 19, 2019, 12:29 pm
  #99  
 
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Originally Posted by Long Zhiren
Getting a little tired of the Directv systems that are still in some aircraft. It was pretty good in its day, but that was a long time ago now.
I'm the opposite, I'm a huge fan of live sports/news/other programming when flying on the mainland as an alternative to PDE.
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Old Dec 28, 2019, 9:14 pm
  #100  
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
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Direct TV

Direct TV was free on my flight last week. Is this permanent on all flights.

Last edited by WineCountryUA; Dec 28, 2019 at 9:19 pm Reason: moved to consolidate thread
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Old Dec 28, 2019, 9:15 pm
  #101  
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Originally Posted by buckeyefanflyer
Direct TV was free on my flight last week. Is this permanent on all flights.
Yes, it has been since earlier in the year (Feb 2019).
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Old Aug 8, 2021, 4:20 am
  #102  
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
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Trying not to go into OMNI/PR territory here, so a simple answer will do.

Yesterday, 738 equipped with DTV, my neighbor noted that CNN and MSNBC were available,, but Fox was not. Fox purposefully blocked or just a malfunction?

(I noted a few other popular channels were also not available.)
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Old Aug 8, 2021, 4:38 am
  #103  
 
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I’m quite sure it’s nothing nefarious, just a random glitch
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Old Aug 8, 2021, 6:44 am
  #104  
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
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Originally Posted by lamphs
Trying not to go into OMNI/PR territory here, so a simple answer will do.

Yesterday, 738 equipped with DTV, my neighbor noted that CNN and MSNBC were available,, but Fox was not. Fox purposefully blocked or just a malfunction?

(I noted a few other popular channels were also not available.)
It's not uncommon for one or more muxes (block of not necessarily sequential channels) to be unavailable on specific aircraft for a a variety of non-nefarious reasons. Most typically related to the inability for one reason or another to pick up a particular transponder on a particular satellite (dish positioning/tracking alignment seems to be the most common cause, and I've been on some aircraft where some channels are only available when the aircraft is pointed in a particular direction). If a channel were intentionally dropped it wouldn't be listed in the EPG.
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Old Nov 13, 2021, 6:39 pm
  #105  
 
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: ICN
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Im on a EWR-LAS late night flight and now there is no way to turn off the DirecTV. First flight Ive had where you arent able to turn it off nor watch anything other than a 3 minute cycle of United ads. None of the buttons work.
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