6 ms·
As an anecdote, I've flown United and Turkish across the Atlantic and it's a world of difference. In 2016, the United airplane I was in still did not have a se
by et-al 10y ago
As an anecdote, I've flown United and Turkish across the Atlantic and it's a world of difference.
In 2016, the United airplane I was in still did not have a seatback screen and they expected all 200+ passengers to connect to the wifi to try to get in-flight entertainment. Of course no one got on. So all of us were left craning our necks trying to catch a glimpse of whatever was on the CRT in the aisle.
Meanwhile, Turkish Airlines has a touchscreen interface with beautifully done transitions and an amazing selection of movies and music. I remember seeing Radiohead's Kid A on there, along with the Blade Runner soundtrack.
Next month, I'm flying to Berlin via Turkish even though it will take 4 more hours because the price and comfort are worth it. Only problem is, this electronics ban may compromise my electronics.
(And yes, I'm aware of early adopter pitfalls and government subsidies for airlines, but United has no qualms treating non-status passengers like trash.)
- megablast 10y ago> In 2016, the United airplane I was in still did not have a seatback screen This just depends which plane you get. They all have new and old planes, you can get unlucky on any airline.
- linkregister 10y agoDoes Turkish Airlines have airplanes in their fleet without seatback screens? Do these planes fly international routes?
- rtpg 10y agoNot sure about TA, but my experience is that 95% of this is just about when the planes get bought. Entertainment systems solve the "keep people happy problem" for relatively cheap. But it's pretty expensive to replace all the seats just for that. JAL/ANA have very new planes with cool entertainment systems, but they also fly their older planes on some routes with a bunch of stuff that looks like it's powered by VCR. To your question: they probably don't for their major international flights.
- davidgay 10y agoI haven't got "unlucky" on an international BA flight in 15+ years. So no, it doesn't just depend on the plane.
- IceyEC 10y agoI flew Cape Town to LHR in January on BA and my entertainment system was stuck in a loop, booting into RedHat over and over again
- throwaway049 10y agoBut at least it's finally the year of Linux in the headrest.
- ptaipale 10y agoIt's not new. I had a 4-hour wait at the terminal to get to a KLM plane in Chengdu a bit over 10 years ago, this was perhaps 2006. The reason became clear when they informed us upon boarding that "the in-flight entertainment system is unfortunately not available, but it is not connected to flight systems and has no impact on flight security". The entertainment system on the seat backs was Linux in a reboot loop.
- koyote 10y agoI can't think of a single European airline that does not have seat-back IFE on long-haul flights. The same goes for the ME3 airlines.
- mbreese 10y agoIt sounds like you were on a fairly old United plane (CRTs in the aisle). While there are newer planes with seat-back screens, their newest planes eschew any sort of seat-back entertainment completely. At least on domestic flights, it's been a while since I've flown internationally. This is a deliberate decision that airlines are starting to make. If most passengers are bringing a wifi-capable device (ipad, phone, etc), then why go to the extra expense (and weight) to support seat-back screens? Now, my main experience with this has been flying within the US where none of the newest planes have screens. Internationally, there may still be screens included in newer planes, but when screens = weight, and weight = $$$, it's not surprising that they are getting removed. Moreover, screens = depth, which when removed can make room for more rows, which means more money. If this electronics ban takes hold though, I'd expect for there to be a big rethink about this.
- mcpherrinm 10y agoSpirit airlines has the thinnest seats I've ever seen on an airplane. It's a metal sheet with thin foam and leather over it. Certainly no room for any seat-back entertainment. I'll gladly let the airline shove more seats in by thinning them out, than by reducing my leg room any further. https://www.sanspotter.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/las_san_trip_report_spirit_airlines_08.jpg https://www.sanspotter.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/las_sa...
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- et-al 10y agoThe problem was the wifi was incapable of handling all the passengers trying to connect throughout the entire flight from SFO to LHR. Even if I wanted to pay them money to watch a movie, I couldn't. So United saved costs by not retrofitting their airplanes with seatback screens and by offering shit wifi. Of course Louis CK would say: https://youtu.be/ZFsOUbZ0Lr0 https://youtu.be/ZFsOUbZ0Lr0
- joshontheweb 10y agoI'll never fly United again. I had a similar experience for 14 hours. It isn't just the in flight entertainment. In my experience their staff are rude and borderline incompetent. There must be a poor culture in the company as a whole. My wife just flew with them and went nearly 10 hours without a meal while she was flying with our two year old. Edit: spelling
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- kw71 10y agoYeah! I have been flying for decades. Delta seems to have a cycle of climbing to excellence and falling. United Air Lines has always made me miserable reliably.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- linker3000 10y agoDon't get me started on United. I refuse to fly with them (LHR to SFO about 4 times a year) for a myriad of reasons, not limited to: food quality, delays, total failure of in-flight entertainment system and taking an extra 1.5 days to get me home (direct flight cancelled, so shunted via Dulles). I'm a tolerant person, but United excelled at pissing me off.
- foldr 10y agoMy favorite United moment, immediately following a hard landing. Flight attendant (loud enough for a lot of people to hear): "That was the worst landing all year. They really should teach these guys to land the planes before they let them fly them."
- pm90 10y agoAgreed. Nearly every time there will be stewardesses who look like they have some kind of job guarantee or something and they don't even pretend to be polite. So much different from Southwest or even the other dirt cheap airlines (e.g. Frontier).
- kalleboo 10y agoUnited is just a bad airline. I've had better service in Economy class on SWISS than I had in business on United.
- jonesdc 10y agoI flew United frequently before 2016 to Africa, Europe, and Asia and all the flights had full size screens in economy and economy plus. The handheld streaming is common for domestic flights.
- karthikb 10y ago747s are all streaming.
- enraged_camel 10y agoYep. Turkish Airlines is the 7th best airline in the world, and the best in Europe, according to Skytrax: http://www.airlinequality.com/news/2016-world-airline-awards-announced/ http://www.airlinequality.com/news/2016-world-airline-awards...
- RobinDublin 10y agoIn last 2 years Turkish Airlines had 3 serious accidents. In 2015 they have seriously damaged their plane twice during landing in Kathmandu and Istanbul. In 2017 they lost plane that they have been operating which killed all 4 crew members and at least 34 people on the ground when it crashed in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.[1] Also their primary hub Istanbul Ataturk Airport (IST) was attacked in 2016, which left 45 people killed and more than 230 people injured.[2] I am not sure what criteria they use to issue this award, but they do not look safe enough to me to be on the 7th best position in the world. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_Airlines#Incidents_and_accidents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_Airlines#Incidents_and... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Atat%C3%BCrk_Airport_attack https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_Atat%C3%BCrk_Airport_atta...
- et-al 10y agoDead people can't fill out surveys. ;) I knew of the attack at Ataturk Airport and I'm fine with a layover there. I'd even change to a stopover to hang out in Istanbul again, but don't have the time this trip. If you can get over your fears and fly the two airlines, I'm sure you'll find Turkish to be a better experience than United.