Experience 056. In-flight entertainment. Sit Back and Pass the Time.
Release Date: 01/28/2022
Experience 082. Island Hopper & Round-the-World. Wrapping up 2024 Experiences.
The Seat 1A Podcast
The podcast is back, and Geoff is flying solo for the first time in 6 years. Thanks Vinod for everything you brought to the podcast. Geoff takes a look back at his 2024 round-the-world trip and other Canadian aviation experiences. Geoff checked the Island Hopper off his bucket list, travelling from Honolulu to Guam via the Marshall Islands and Micronesia. He forced a long layover in Honolulu to allow a visit to the city before heading out on the Island Hopper. The Island Hopper planes are old with some of the oldest Inflight Entertainment Systems Geoff has seen in years. Majuro airport and The...
info_outline
Experience 081. Summer Travel Plans With a Chance of Turbulence.
The Seat 1A Podcast
In this experience we review some recent travel along with a overview of our summer travel plans. Severe turbulence has been in the news recently in various locations around the world. Turbulence is always there and always has been there and always will be there. Remember the words that Vinod would tell passengers concerned about turbulence "The people flying the plane have families they need to get home to tonight." If you are concerned about the wings during turbulence, there are numerous wing flex test videos for all airplane manufacturers. . We want to give a shoutout to the Layovers...
info_outline
Experience 080. A Special Interview with a Six-Million-Mile Flyer
The Seat 1A Podcast
In this experience we are happy to bring you a special interview with senior leadership advisor Marco Villa. Over three decades Marco has flown more than 2800 flights and 6125000 miles. Geoff and Marco flew together in 2022 on internal flights in Mozambique complete with a crazy trip to Nampula (listen to experience 64 for more details). We ask Marco about his alliances and statuses. With all of these flights, Marco has almost achieved lifetime gold status on British Airways. He holds status in three different alliances along with Emirates. It all started for Marco in the mid-1990s when flying...
info_outline
Experience 079. Furry Fliers. Flying with Pets and Animals.
The Seat 1A Podcast
We’re happy to be back after a few months of hiatus. In this experience we examine pets and other furry fliers, and Vinod shares a couple of trip reports. We have talked about animals as cargo in previous experiences. Airlines should know that there is an animal in the plane. Vinod remembers a dog that escaped out of the plane in Edmonton and went missing for weeks. Geoff remembers a poor dog that made a mess of itself in the kennel. Vinod remembers a massive dog that took up a row of seats with a passenger flying from St. John’s to Toronto. Animal kennels on board need to be able to fit...
info_outline
Experience 078. Swiftly Getting Through Airports. Why is This Airport so Busy Today?
The Seat 1A Podcast
In this experience we look into the reasons why airports may get much busier than normal. We start out the podcast with a trip review of Vinod who recently flew to London-Heathrow. It was his virgin flight on an Airbus 350. There was no free seat selection with the ticket that he purchased. When Vinod flew out of Vancouver the British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Plaza Premium lounges were all under renovation. This led to an interesting temporary lounge in Vancouver’s International departures. The flight was quiet and uneventful with a landing at Heathrow Terminal 3. It had been decades...
info_outline
Experience 077. Can anyone help me? Issues with customer service.
The Seat 1A Podcast
In this experience we look into the world of customer service and examples when the experience goes sideways. We review the situation of the passengers who were flying from Paris to Singapore with a farting and drooling dog in premium economy. Singapore airlines finally got the issue resolved and credited them for their experience. In days gone by, your travel agent would have been your point of contact. Now you’re mostly on your own. Over the last four years, airlines lost many individuals who were extremely proficient in high-touch customer experience. Even more than ever, airline agents...
info_outline
Experience 076. That's the Ticket. Another Look at Bookings.
The Seat 1A Podcast
In this experience we take a trip into the show’s archives and review tickets and booking. We start out with a review from Vinod about his flight in the summer with Porter from Toronto to Vancouver. As people are looking for good fare prices, this is a good lead-in to a discussion about ticketing. We talked about ticketing in our very early experiences and are revisiting it in this experience. The moment that you purchase the right to travel on an aircraft, you get a Passenger Name Record. Every airline has their own PNR. Make sure you don’t share pictures of your PNR online. But airline...
info_outline
Experience 075. Celebrating 75 Episodes in Person. 2023 Summer Travel – The Analysis.
The Seat 1A Podcast
In this experience Vinod and Geoff are both in Toronto, recording in person and celebrate the milestone of 75 episodes. We proceed to do an analysis of travels in July 2023. Geoff had a trans-Atlantic adventure, with flights to Germany, Austria, and Turkey. Geoff's trip was from Toronto to Frankfurt with a premium economy ticket that had been booked early in the year but wanted to try for an upgrade. ExpertFlyer helped to figure out the load factor and Geoff tried the Air Canada bid upgrade system. Forty-eight hours in advance the upgrade was accepted. Remember that Air Canada does not have...
info_outline
Experience 074. Summer Skies. 2023 Plans for Vinod and Geoff.
The Seat 1A Podcast
In this experience we take a look at our summer 2023 travel plans, and also look at trips we took in June. It’s a very different summer than that of 2022. We’re getting closer to how things were pre-pandemic with higher amounts of staffing, however now we have to really search again for cheap fares. Vinod and Geoff had travels in June in Canada. Geoff flew to Yukon and did a large road trip from there also through Alaska. Geoff flew with Air North which had a terrific Connector Fare deal to Whitehorse from Calgary. There were a few adventures on the way - including waiting on the tarmac in...
info_outline
Experience 073. Flew to a Room. A Deeper Look at Airport Hotels.
The Seat 1A Podcast
In this experience we take a deeper look at the world of airport hotels. Sometimes hotels can be the best thing but can also be the most horrible desolate places on the planet. We’ve discussed many different types of hotels in previous experiences, from the incredible to the incredibly terrible. Big airports have the big global hotel brands. But there is another tier of just a place to sleep. There are some very neat hotels that are attached to airports – Geoff remembers his visit to the TWA hotel at JFK. There are also some hotels with very cramped and tight rooms. Vinod remembers a hotel...
info_outlineIn this experience we look at in-flight entertainment (IFE). What is its history, how has it evolved, and we share our experiences.
People board a flight with the intent of being entertained while in flight.
Vinod remembers back to his youth and seeing the projector as he boarded the plane – he knew there probably was a movie on a long flight. Geoff remembers watching in-flight edited movies as a kid. As they grew older, they would both look in the in-flight magazine to see what was playing.
Airlines put a lot of investment into their IFE as a key factor to retain passengers.
We go back to 1921(!) to learn about the first ever in-flight movie. Vinod and Geoff remember the stethoscope looking headsets. Vinod shares a memory of flying into Tampa where the flight ended before the movie (which was not a happy situation for one passenger in particular).
The evolution of the IFE continued – monitors attached to the panel above and then LCD monitors that came down from the panel above. Vinod remembers the logistics of running the LCD system and keeping passengers from using certain overhead bins where everything was running.
There was a shift into TV-on-demand with certain airlines. In certain cases it required that you put your credit card into the seat back to pay for extra movies or special channels. Vinod shares his memories of working at WestJet when they were switching from inflight TV to Wi-Fi and were renting tablets. Today many systems are Wi-Fi based.
A common situation that Vinod encountered as flight crew was people coming on-board unprepared and completely dependent on the IFE. Pro-tip – make sure that you travel with some sort of offline tech. Vinod shares the "fun" he had when certain seats had IFE that didn't work.
Remember when flying ultra low-cost carriers, there is a very good chance that you won't be getting any IFE, and sometimes you may be a captive audience to a performing in-flight crew.
The amount of power and wiring for an IFE system famously led to a tragedy with Swissair 111 off the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada. The 787 also saw runaway batteries when it first launched.
Content is regionalized, with cultural sensitivities. Th quality of both video and audio entertainment has come a long way. There are also many different camera views that are now available on many aircraft. Video games are also an option in the IFE – with some airlines offering the controllers.
Remember: Always bring something with you - because you never know when the system is not going to work.
News Items:
- simpleflying.com article "British Airways To Finish Its 777 Club Suite Roll Out Next Year [2022]."
- businesstraveller.com article "Ryanair launches 'Day of Travel Assistant' and new refunds commitment."
If you have a story about in-flight entertainment, or other experiences that you would like to share, please email us at stories(at)seat1a.org or find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. If you wish to support the show financially, we are on Patreon. Show notes are available online at http://podcast.seat1a.org/.