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Continental Is Filling Their In-Flight Television With Loads Of Channels
Good in-flight entertainment can make even the most uncomfortable flight bearable. Even if it’s just a loop of a couple movies we’ve already seen, as long as there is something flickering on the back of the seat in front of us we’re pretty happy. That’s why we’ve been pretty eager to follow the progress of Continental Airlines’ installation of DirecTV service across much of their domestic fleet. Now, even before they’ve finished, they are already adding a few improvements.
Apparently not happy with an already awesome amount of channel offerings, they’re upping the ante with nearly 100 different channels. LiveTV, the company that supplies the TV magic, reached a deal with Viacom for some additional channels. That means Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, and MTV will all be yours for the viewing from the comfort of your middle seat. We’ll probably book flights for Tuesday evenings just so we won’t miss the double feature of The City and The Hills.
Tags: In-Flight Entertainment / Technology / In-Flight Comfort / → All Tags
Your iPod Will Become The New Ultimate In-Flight Entertainment
Right along with in-flight wifi, the general range of in-flight entertianment continues to widen. A few months back, we summed up the current choices for IFE (in-flight entertainment) with our 2009 Airline In-Flight Entertainment Status Update, which included everything from full fleets boasting satellite television to those airlines where it's strictly "pack a word search book." Hopefully soon all airlines will have some option for bored passengers, and we think we found the best one:
The newest advance in IFE comes from Rockwell Collins, who have introduced the ability for passengers to hook up their iPods and other such personal media devices to a seat's entertainment system. This would enable you to watch the movies you've downloaded to your iPod via the larger screen on the seatback in front of you.
Tags: Singapore Airlines / Airlines / Airline News / In-Flight Entertainment / → All Tags
Singapore Airlines Adds 1,000 Options To In-Flight Entertainment
Yesterday's Singapore Airlines news was all about that failed engine on their A380, which all things considered isn't the best press an airline can get. Today's Singapore Airlines news is the exact opposite, announcing a bevy of new in-flight entertainment options available to all passengers from first class to coach. As of Thursday, the airline will be rolling out a new version of KrisWorld, their system for providing passengers with on-demand options.
The new lineup is ambitious, includes over 1,000 on-demand offerings, and seems to have been in the works for a while. So it's not as if they're intentionally trying to diversify the Google News search for "Singapore Airlines." They're just lucky it worked out that way, and that the new programs really are worth a mention:
Tags: In-Flight Entertainment / Continental / Airline News / Star Alliance / → All Tags
No Need For SkyMall, Continental Committing to In-Flight TV
There’s still a few months before Continental joins their new buddies in the Star Alliance, but they are already putting their new airline family to shame. US Airways and United are certainly not known for their in-flight entertainment offerings, but Continental is pushing forward to make a name for themselves when it comes to television in the sky.
The airline has finished installation of their new DirecTV service on 19 of their Boeing 737-900ER aircraft, which is a good start, but they’ve still got a lot of other planes to get through. They’re hoping to wrap things up by early 2011 on most of their domestic fleet. Just remember that you’ll have to pony up $6 to watch television from the comfort of your coach seat.
Apparently installing in-flight TV is way more expensive that adding the magic that is in-flight WiFi. The CEO of LiveTV reports that installation costs about $1 to $1.5 million per plane, while WiFi usually only costs between $100,000 and $250,000. The television entertainment system also adds about 1,000 pounds to the plane, which of course, costs more at the gas station.
We’ll keep you updated as to when you can ensure your next Continental flight has TV, but for now, keep last season’s 30 Rock ready to go on your iPod.
Related Stories: [Photo: athomson]
· Continental Installing Live Satellite TV on Planes [USA Today]
· Continental Airlines - Status of DirecTV Installation [Official Site]
· Continental coverage [Jaunted]
Tags: Seats / In-Flight Entertainment / Virgin America / RED / → All Tags
Virgin America is Aware of Super Poking; Recommends 'Light Tapping'
The other day we griped about the "super poking" that often goes on aboard flights with touchscreen seat back TVs, like on Virgin America, where cranky grandmas are nearly banging on the RED system to order their ginger ale and crackers.
But the folks at Virgin America are aware of the situation and are going to begin informing passengers that the "light-tapping" method works the best. Here's what they told Jaunted:
In response, our crews are now including a verbal advisory in-flight which notes that light tapping works best for the Red system interface. This is also included in our in-flight “How to use Red” guide (see attached).
We’re definitely monitoring this and hope as people get more acclimated to the system they can see that only the gentlest touch is needed to change channels, select movies, videogames, zoom your journey on Google Maps – or any of the other activities Red offers at every seatback.
We also have qwerty keyboards and a handset remote in every armrest that offers guests full control over Red if they’d prefer not to use the touch-screen.
Did ya hear that Grams? Light-tapping works the best. We'll even come back there and show you how to do it.
Related Stories:
· The Problem With Seat Back TVs: A Different Kind of Super Poke [Jaunted]
· 2009 In-Flight Entertainment Status Update [Jaunted]
Tags: In-Flight Entertainment / Virgin America / Airline News / Shira Lazar / Travel Videos / → All Tags
The Day in the Cloud Challenge Was Um...Challenging
We were able to fly on Virgin America from LAX to SFO this morning for the airline's inaugural Day in the Cloud Challenge--the first-ever online puzzle challenge that can be played in the air and on the ground. We competed against another Virgin America flight using the GoGo in-flight WiFi (which was complimentary to all guests on VA flights today.)
GoGo's WiFi network was understandably overstressed this morning but once we were able to play the game, things did not get easier. These games are actually quite hard! And there was a very cool prize at stake. The two flights were vying to win a free netbook for everyone on the plane.
So how did it end up? Well, we were on the winning flight but we're still not sure how this game works.
Related Stories:
· 'Calling All Jeopardy Geniuses' For Virgin America's Impossible Trivia Game [Jaunted]
Tags: In-Flight Entertainment / Airline News / Virgin America / Southwest Airlines / Delta / Continental / American Airlines / US AIrways / United / → All Tags
2009 Airline In-Flight Entertainment Status Update
2009 has been the year when the US Domestic air carriers have really begun to step up their in-flight entertainment systems. We are no longer in the post-WWII era where airlines can cling to an occasional projector movie during longer flights. Furthermore, the CRT drop-down world is very close to extinction as well. These days seat back LCD screens and IFEC (c is for connectivity) are all the rage and most US airlines are expanding their offerings accordingly.
Of course, younger airlines with a smaller fleet have a built-in advantage here (fewer and newer planes), but that doesn't change the increasing demand from passengers for better, more reliable IFEC options. It could even be argued that customers are more likely to accept higher ancillary fees for things like extra luggage and pets if they can kick back with a killer IFEC on the flight.
Just this weekend we heard a JetBlue customer comment to her friend at baggage claim:
We sat on the tarmac for an hour at JFK, but by the time I watched three shows I was where I needed to be -- how can you beat that?
It seems in todays world, all delays might even be close to forgiven if you can get caught up on Jon and Kate Plus Eight while you wait.
Click here for our 2009 IFEC Chart and see how the airlines stack up against each other.
Tags: In-Flight Entertainment / Continental / Airline News / → All Tags
Continental Must Think Slow And Steady Wins In-Flight Entertainment Race
While some airlines are declaring their dominance through amenities like in-flight WiFi, other airlines are a little behind the times. One such airline is Continental, which announced a rollout of DirecTV service on its domestic fleet back in 2008. Well, 2009 is almost halfway over, so we thought we’d check and see what’s been done—too bad we’re totally disappointed.
Fortunately, they’ve launched a pretty neat tracker where we can monitor their progress, or lack thereof. So far they’ve installed the seatback monitor service on 4 of 21 737-900ER aircraft, which according to their snazzy bar graph means they are only 1% complete overall. They are claiming these planes will be finished by September, with a couple other models finished by later this year. However, some won’t even be done until 2011, like their 757-300s.
Tags: In-Flight Entertainment / Delta / American / United / Continental / Johnny Depp / → All Tags
Five In-Flight Movies To Avoid Now
Try as we might to entertain ourselves in the air, we occasionally get sucked into the in-flight movie anyway. It's difficult not to feel that childlike tickle of enthusiasm as the pop-down screen descends and people all around you take out their headphones. When we were younger, this was a golden opportunity to watch (an edited version of) the movies our parents wouldn't take us to -- only now do we realize how right they were, when we single out the worst in-flight movies this month.
Tags: In-Flight Entertainment / Virgin Atlantic / Richard Branson / Pitch TV / → All Tags
Would You Watch Richard Branson's Pitch TV?
Hey, this plane is pretty nice, but you know what would make it better? That waking-up-at-3-AM-with-the-TV-on feeling. But Richard Branson's plan to have entrepreneurs pitch their new projects on Virgin Atlantic is not just an initiative to make us feel better rested; it may be the latest in recessionomic entertainment.
PitchTV, which was announced March 31 on Branson's blog, makes every passenger an instant millionaire whose attention is valuable for the would-be Vince Schlomi. Entrepreneurs can upload their pitches and have them compete for votes on the blog, with the most attention-getting video (currently there are five) getting further uploaded to Virgin Atlantic planes to add to the line-up.
There's something a little dodgy about handing your pitch over to a serial entrepreneur like Branson, even though he offers a hand up in the name of helping budding businessmen (as he once was). But is the captive audience provided by Virgin Atlantic or any other plane really the one you want to associate with your brand-to-be? Personally, we are now unable to watch "My Life On The D-List" thanks to a red-eye flight in which it was the only thing remotely interesting on on a Virgin America seat-back TV. (Kathy, it's not you.) So we're asking, what do you watch in-flight?
Related Stories:
·
Calling all entrepreneurs – introducing PitchTV [Richard Branson: Business Stripped Bare]
· ShamWow pitchman Vince Shlomi arrested for punching prostitute [Chicago Sun-Times]
· 'Pitchmen' celebrates advertising as entertainment [LA Times]
[Photo: moonagewebdream]
Tags: In-Flight Entertainment / Airline News / Air Canada / → All Tags
Air Canada Keeps the In-Flight Entertainment Rolling, Gate to Gate
Don't you just hate it when you're up in the skies and halfway through a riveting episode of 30Rock or My Super Sweet Sixteen, and the in-flight entertainment system shuts down because your flight is beginning descent? Starting now, this is no longer a problem on Air Canada flights owing to government approval for them to offer entertainment from gate to gate.
What does this mean? Well, for those with seat-back TVs, it means no more remembering to pack hefty paperbacks or rip out crosswords for take-off and landing, since you can quickly tuck into some BBC News or "first-run movies" from the moment you sit in your seat until you have to fight to retrieve your carry-ons from the overhead on the way out.
Air Canada even likes to boast of their 300 hours of in-flight entertainment on demand so we're pretty sure they will be plenty on offer for even the longest hauls. Still sitting on the tarmac with a delay and crying kids? Why not tune them into some Spongebob while you catch up on CNN, although we totally understand if you peek over at Spongebob.
Related Stories:
· Entertainment From Gate to Gate [Air Canada]
· More Entertainment on Air Canada Flights [AsiaTravelTips]
· Air Canada Coverage [Jaunted]
[Photo: caribb]
Tags: In-Flight Entertainment / Virgin America / Airline News / In-Flight WiFi / → All Tags
Virgin America Promises Oscar Movies and More WiFi
Virgin America, having won our best domestic airline award for 2008, has been having a pretty good 2009 or at least that's what they want us to believe.
With the celebration of their Boston gate behind them, Virgin America announced yesterday they are uploading some new movies to their RED entertainment system just to help us catch some of those Oscar winners. Slumdog Millionaire, Doubt, and Jaunted fav—Flight of the Conchords—will all soon be added to the glowing beauty that is your seatback screen.
