Contenintal Airlines may be cutting off it's nose to spite it's face.

[markw]

We've noticed that over the last few years, Continental has been ordering new planes with some pretty nifty in-flight entertainment systems. They have a small screen mounted on the back of the seat ahead of you and offer some TV series, some fairly movies, music, etc, etc... When we would get into the plane and see these screens, we would smile.

Up until now it's been part of the deal. That seems to have changed.

Yesterday, while coming home from our most recent vacation, about a 2 1/2 hour flight, we saw the little screens as we got to our seats. When we got to sit down and read them, we noticed that they wanted $6.00 to access the programming. ...and they sold earplugs to boot.

Me, being a cheap SOB, said no thanks and dragged out my Zune and a book. And, from what I could see in the rows ahead of me on the way out of the plane, all but one person had the "pay up to watch" screen on their display. So, assuming that maybe four people paid for the service, that means they made $24 on that flight.

So, it looks like they might have bought themselves a bunch of planes with a nifty entertainment system that nobody will pay to use.

...and the food sucked, too. Just wait to see what happens if they start charging for that drek!

 

[Audioholics]

For years now the airline industry has been run by bean-counters. There are very few people running those businesses that have any idea how to keep and earn the business of their clients. Southwest does the best and they don't even have assigned seating or any fancy features. Yet they are on-time and they don't take themselves so seriously.

 

[dkane360]

I was on US Air to Paris and the in flight entertainment was free (and had a nice big selection) and the food was pretty good. All the seats had a USB port to charge your gadgets too! Continental might have been charging for the IFE because it was a short flight, but I'm not really sure because I've never been on a long continental flight.

 

[Stereodude]

Don't worry, the next step will be to take out all the in flight entertainment equipment because not very many people use it and it's a lot of extra weight. That's what happened to the whole airphone thing.

The whole merger and consolidation thing in the airline industry is not benefiting the consumer any. There's less competition and if you want to fly you'll have to pay the piper.

 

[darien87]

I fly Southwest all the time, and while it isn't the fanciest airline, the prices are good and that is generally the most important thing to me about a flight. The only time I will splurge on a flight is when it's a long trip. My wife used to work for IBM Global services so she would fly all over the country and racked up TONS of frequent flyer miles. We took a few trips with them and got to fly Business or First-class. I tell ya, going back to coach after flying first-class sucks!!!!

But a year or so ago, I got to fly for business and they put me on a Virgin flight and it was AWESOME!!! They were playing a trivia game at the gate before take-off for drink tickets and of course I won one, so I got a free drink. But everything about the flight was great. The plane was clean, cool and modern-looking on the inside. The seats had TV's that you could watch TV shows or music videos and stuff on. Even the people on the plane all seemed to be young and hot. One of the best flights I've ever had.

 

[jostenmeat]

markw, at least you had a choice in having the programming.

I just flew Jet Blue and American Airlines. I much prefer the former. We get free programming, with a bunch of channels. I even watched some soccer on it. There were three movie channels that do cost $6 per. The terminal at JFK had seats I could sit in. There was also free wifi, and stations with electrical outlets. The stations could be used to order margaritas, beer, whatever, that were directly deilvered to the station.

American had none of the above, even on an interncontinental flight. You have to pay an exorbitant fee to enter the Admirals club if wifi was a must. The very large terminal had NOT A SINGLE seat (I mean before the point of security checkpoint). I won't get into the long story, but I was there 8 hours before my flight, and it sucks sitting on the floor for long stretches at a time, without a single damned chair in sight.

 

[tonygeno]

We've noticed that over the last few years, Continental has been ordering new planes with some pretty nifty in-flight entertainment systems. They have a small screen mounted on the back of the seat ahead of you and offer some TV series, some fairly movies, music, etc, etc... When we would get into the plane and see these screens, we would smile.

Up until now it's been part of the deal. That seems to have changed.

Yesterday, while coming home from our most recent vacation, about a 2 1/2 hour flight, we saw the little screens as we got to our seats. When we got to sit down and read them, we noticed that they wanted $6.00 to access the programming. ...and they sold earplugs to boot.

Me, being a cheap SOB, said no thanks and dragged out my Zune and a book. And, from what I could see in the rows ahead of me on the way out of the plane, all but one person had the "pay up to watch" screen on their display. So, assuming that maybe four people paid for the service, that means they made $24 on that flight.

So, it looks like they might have bought themselves a bunch of planes with a nifty entertainment system that nobody will pay to use.

...and the food sucked, too. Just wait to see what happens if they start charging for that drek!

So you're the guy with the Zune. I always wondered where he was hiding.

 

[dkane360]

So you're the guy with the Zune. I always wondered where he was hiding.

I have a zune, and now im selling it lol.

 

[Alex2507]

Last time I was on a plane this little kid crapped his pants and stunk up the entire cabin.

 

[markw]

Last time I was on a plane this little kid crapped his pants and stunk up the entire cabin.

Are you saying you haven't flown since you were a child?

 

[STRONGBADF1]

Last time I was on a plane this little kid crapped his pants and stunk up the entire cabin.

Are you saying you haven't flown since you were a child?

Stop blaming it on the kid!