seat back entertainment

Tag Archives for seat back entertainment.

Report: American Airlines Considers Restoring Seat Back Video Screens

by Gary Leff

airline cabin
Jul 01 2020

Just before the pandemic grew out of control, American Airlines data revealed that frequent customers represented a declining share of airline revenue.

It seemed that a combination of award chart devaluation (higher prices for the best awards), product devaluations (less space per passenger on domestic narrowbody aircraft) and making status harder to earn (minimum spend requirement and taking away the ability to earn as much towards that via credit card) had in fact pushed frequent customer share of wallet towards competitors.

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Can’t Look Away: On This Flight Every Seat Back Television Was Tuned to the Same Thing

by Gary Leff

Nov 16 2019

This is much better than the olden days when everyone on a plane watched the same thing because there were just overhead monitors, and one thing playing on all of them. On an American Airlines flight from Sydney to Honolulu to Dallas back in 1991 they kept playing John Goodman’s King Ralph over and over – and I wanted to impeach the airline’s Vice President of Inflight.

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United Will Put Seat Back Video Screens on Some New 737s, Could Force American to Do the Same

by Gary Leff

airline cabin
Aug 14 2019

Delta continues to double down on passenger entertainment not just for international flights but across its domestic fleet. They’re now over 700 aircraft offering seat back entertainment screens.

United and American have been moving in the opposite direction. They have eschewed screens to save money – about a million dollars per aircraft – offering streaming content that customers can view on their own devices. In most cases this means passengers watching movies on phones.

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American Airlines is Right, Passengers Don’t Deserve Seat Back Entertainment

by Gary Leff

airline cabin
Jul 16 2019

Many customers think that American is wrong, watching entertainment on their phones isn’t the same as a seat back screen if they even know they have to download the American Airlines app prior to takeoff in order to do so. Planes with seat back video look newer and fresher, while even brand new aircraft without screens look old and cheap — there’s a reverse halo effect that can drag down premium revenue too.

However I’ve finally been convinced that American was right. Passengers don’t deserve seat back entertainment. And all it took was one short video going viral on twitter to show me that was the case.

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