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The Problem With Seat Back TVs: A Different Kind of Super Poke

June 29, 2009 at 6:39 PM | by | Comments (5)

If you've flown on a flight recently with those glorious seat back TVs, you might have felt some more poking and prodding on your seat back than usual. No, it's not from that little kid kicking the seat behind you. It's actually coming from that little kid who's trying to work the seat back TV behind you.

Or as a recent passenger on Virgin America recently Twittered:

@richardbranson, May want to rethink the seat-back touch screen idea on Virgin America. Nothing like 3 hours being punched in the head...

We've actually had this happen to us on a Virgin America flight last month from LAX to JFK. Except it wasn't a little kid. It was a fussy old grandmother who was so annoyed the RED system wasn't working as soon as she sat down in her seat. She then continued to punch hard on the screen before her son told her that it would work once the plane took off.

When we were in the air, the poking continued until finally Grams had some absinthe and passed out. Ok, we're joking about that last part but she did take a nap for a while. Then the poking started again. Guess you can't have everything in-flight after all, huh?

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Comments (5)

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Return to » The Problem With Seat Back TVs: A Different Kind of Super Poke


Argh.

This is the worst - especially since it's so much more effective to gently touch the screen! So the harder they poke, the less likely the screen is to do their bidding, and the harder they poke... Mark my words: Someone will get arrested after landing for touch-screen-related air rage before too long.
deva on June 29, 2009 at 11:29 PM #Permalink

Agreed!

I almost saw two people get into a fight about this and also about trying to tilt the screen out.
egw on June 30, 2009 at 1:39 PM #Permalink

Poke-a-thon

I just recently flew US Airways and they tested the same system. Not that many people had problems. What would solve this problem? Hmmm. Maybe they should take the "EMERGENCY" seat way, that is everyone has their own flip-TV that comes from the side of the seat.
ecortes on June 30, 2009 at 2:28 PM #Permalink

Poked Overseas

I used Aer Lingus to fly between NYC and Krakow. The damn touch screen pokefest ensued before we even left the gate in New York. At first I did not understand what the person behind me was doing. I figured she was getting adjusted or fiddling with her luggage and happened to hit my chair a few times. But when I got up to use the bathroom, I noticed she was jamming her index finger so hard on the screen. Eventually she stopped doing so, but for awhile it was pretty damn annoying having your chair pushed on while you are trying to take a nap. Andrew TheBrooklynNomad.com
Andrew BrooklynNomad on July 3, 2009 at 6:40 AM #Permalink

a new way to annoy me...

Oh yeah. Been there. It goes along with the lifting yourself by pulling on the seat in front of you (yanking me back and catapulting me forward when you let go, often grabbing a handful of hair in the process), and waking everyone on the aisle by using chair backs for support as you head for the bathroom.
SophiaDembling on July 21, 2009 at 11:01 AM #Permalink

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