I’ve made no secret of the fact that I’m a big fan of seatback IFE (in-flight entertainment). While I typically work on planes, I love having the ability to watch the moving map or kick back and relax while watching a show.
I use a Microsoft Surface Pro when traveling, which can be used as a tablet for streaming when no seatback IFE is available, but I find it to be a pain to have to deal with the tray table throughout the flight.
I primarily fly Delta and United, airlines that offer seatback IFE on the majority of their mainline aircraft, but today I made the decision to book a flight specifically because it was operated by an aircraft with seatback IFE.
Next month, I’m travelling to San Francisco with ATX Jr. to meet Mrs. ATX on the tail end of a work trip. While we’ve flown with him many times before, we were always together. This will be the first time traveling with him solo. He’s flying as a lap infant meaning my tray table will be virtually unusable for the four hour flight.
United and Alaska both operate nonstop between Austin and San Francisco. United uses a mix of Airbus A320 family, Boeing 737-900, and Boeing 737 MAX8 aircraft on the route while Alaska operates Boeing 737-800 and 737-900 aircraft.
Alaska doesn’t have seatback IFE on any of its aircraft while United has been actively adding seatback IFE to its older planes. United appears to be following Delta’s lead here in an effort to become more premium. American on the other hand ripped out seatback IFE in an effort to cut costs.
United’s A319s and A320s are currently going through the retrofit process while its 737 MAX8’s and most 737-900s already have seatback IFE installed, therefore, the choice was simple.
While there isn’t anything newsworthy about this post, I frequently hear from the non-seatback IFE crowd that they don’t care if their flight has an IFE screen and have never used it as a reason to book/not book a flight. To be honest, while I prefer the screens, it never had any impact on my travel plans until now.
Aircraft are always subject to change for a variety of reasons, and with my luck it’ll happen on this flight, but the ability to watch TV while ATX Jr. takes a nap was enough to get me to spend a little bit more on my travels.
Curious to hear the consensus on whether you’re Team IFE or Team Who Cares? Also, if you have any tips on solo travel with an infant, let’s hear them!
Summary
I’m traveling with ATX Jr. solo for the first time next month and, in an effort to make the flight as comfortable as possible, I went out of my way to book a flight with seatback IFE. While I have always been a fan of it, this is the first time I can remember where it was the deciding factor in my travel plans.
I like the convenience and certainly is a consideration, however, not sure I would pay a significant premium for…more important would be loyalty program and general cabin newness…Delta has finally started updating, but those old 737 800s…they may have screens w/ terrible resolution, but also were pretty banged up and dingy. So only goes so far.
It was interesting because, as I mentioned, this was the first time it has ever been a deciding factor for me. I usually book based on timing, followed by fare, but with an infant the hard product factored in significantly. Flying in paid F so the loyalty program doesn’t really matter much. As for Delta, while it isn’t great getting on those planes, it’s still better than no IFE IMO.