Seatback screens are still staying on American Airlines wide-bodies like this 787 — for now. (Image: American)
American Airlines has decided to do without seatback video screens in its newest single-aisle planes, and it is betting that passengers won’t care.
The carrier is due to take delivery of its first four next-generation 737 MAX aircraft this year – it has ordered a total of 100 – and they will come without the traditional seatback screens. American will still offer the screens on wide-bodies used for international routes, for its three-class A321Ts used on lucrative transcontinental routes, and on some other single-aisle aircraft, including 40 A321s and other 737 models due for delivery this year.
Instead of using seatback screens, passengers on the new 737 MAX planes will be able to see entertainment programming on their personal electronic devices, the airline said in a memo to employees.
The carrier said more than 90 percent of AA passengers now bring along their own tablet, laptop or smartphone, and that passengers prefer to use those devices. The airline will allow passengers to access its collection of movies, TV programs and live TV at no charge.
Satellite-based Wi-Fi links will be available for a fee, so that passengers can stream on-demand video entertainment from other providers. All of American’s new 737 MAX aircraft, and several hundred of its other domestic planes, will be getting new satellite-based Wi-Fi technology from ViaSat, the same vendor used by JetBlue.
Direct streaming to tablets and laptops will likely preclude the need for seatback video screens in the future. (Photo: Chris McGinnis)
The new technology will permit much faster Wi-Fi for easy video streaming from sources like Netflix and Amazon. The ViaSat Wi-Fi should be on about half of AA’s single-aisle fleet by mid-2018.
American hasn’t decided yet whether it will extend the “no screens” policy to other aircraft types in the future. But its memo to employees did say that the company expects seatback monitors to be “obsolete within a few years.”
Other carriers seem to be taking the same approach; United’s new 737-900s rely on entertainment streaming without video screens, and Alaska also uses streaming-only in-flight entertainment, although on longer flights it offers rental tablets that are preloaded with movie and TV programming.
Readers: Do you care if your domestic flight has a seatback screen as long as you can stream entertainment directly to your laptop or tablet at a reasonable speed?
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I fly weekly on JetBlue. While I never use the screen (I prefer to read) it appears everyone around me uses them. Since I usually sit in the exit row where the screens are hidden in the arm rests I hear LOTS of complaints about the appearance that there are no screens in that row, until I show them how to pop them out of the arms.
I’m guessing you’re in another country, Kirk. We use BT here at all times in the US. I fly AA and DL.
figure 200 monitors at 1 amp or more each, thats a lot of watts that come from fuel. should be a saving if they are not used. probably more than trying to keep travelers from bringing too much luggage.
I like the seatback screens, especially so on long hauls.
…and, on having read some of the comments below:
Even if I actually rarely view stuff on the seatback screens except for very long flights, the argument that you can watch something there at the same time as having a meal in front of you on the tray table is a relevant one.
Do they put power in the seats??
Which airline do you fly?? The seatback TVs I’ve used had none of those issues that you mentioned (except for the lack of Bluetooth, but that’s a rather silly argument cause you aren’t allowed to use bluetooth in flight anyways, even if you bring your own tablet/laptop)
It’s negligible compared to the fuel required to propel the jet
It should be noted that Delta is moving rapidly in the opposite direction. By next year, the overwhelming majority of its narrow-body planes will have seatback TVs (including every 737, 757, A319, A320, A321). Of course, the entire widebody fleet has had them for years.
I’ve had great experiences with Delta’s seatback entertainment in the last few years. I’d hate to see it go…
I have to disagree. A year ago I would go out of my way to get on the United flights with direct TV. It was the greatest, specially on coast to coast flights.
But United couldn’t keep a good thing, said it weight to much and cost too much so they took them out. The reason it failed, they charged people in coach $7.95 and that was too much. Everyone in first class was using it but only a few in coach.
So United screwed themselves for charging too much money, now we have this crappy internet to Ipad that works only have the time.
I don’t like the screens and find them annoying if I’m not watching. Even if my screen is off, lots of others are on, and it’s hard not be distracted.
Long haul or short, I honestly don’t care about the seat-back amenities. GIVE ME AC POWER because I’m the jerk that travels with laptop, tablet and e-reader. We can go to the moon and back; I’ll be happy as a clam as long as I can charge when power gets low.
The weight & fuel savings must be massive without these displays when you consider the entire fleet.
This will let them get rid of the boxes on the floor that kill leg / foot room on so many seats.
And despite how much love I have for VX, the seemingly constant tap-tap-tapping on the seatback would not be missed.
+1, as long as there’s power at every seat. For flights less than about 4 hours I’m fine with their streaming or my own downloaded content.
I’ve been thinking this for a while especially DL studio. As the airlines improve the speed and power of WIFI (which can be iffy) why don’t want a seat back screen in front of me (or more importantly on the back of my seat!)
I still prefer the seatback screens, partly because I don’t own a tablet (and laptops often don’t fit with the legroom of coach), but mainly because I like to be able to have something other than my video player on my tray table and the angle of the seatback mounted player is better. I don’t want to look down to watch a movie, and I sure as hell don’t want to hold a table for two hours. I also want to be able to watch a movie while eating a meal, which I can’t do if I’ve got my laptop in front of me. When eating on a flight is the one time I can’t be reading a book or magazine, I need that seatback screen!
But, I’m pretty used to them being gone domestically anyway. I mostly hope they keep them on long haul flights.
Totally agree. Too many problems with seat back reliability, including lack of sound, very poor image quality, and not working at all–all recent experiences for me.
These have seemed quite obsolete for some time, and it’s puzzled me why airlines have continued to add them. They contribute heat, take up valuable underseat storage space, and people expect window seat passengers to close the shades so they can view these small screens. They don’t even offer Bluetooth, so people have to plug in headphones! Then anytime someone needs to get up, they have to unplug. And if you didn’t bring your own noise-cancelling headphones, you can often forget about actually hearing the film. And worst of all, it often means indecisive or bored people are constantly tapping on your back. People need power, which AA has been really poor at providing (even on recently refreshed former US 321s). I agree that it’s a cost-cutting measure, but it’s fine as long as they get with the program and offer power at every seat.
If I can stream to my device I much prefer it to a seatback screen. I’m not sure what screens other comments have been viewing but my experience has been bad picture quality, broken touch features, often iffy sound from the plugs, etc. Much better experience and larger screen on ipads. Seatback screens (especially with touchscreens) just can’t be made to withstand the use they’d get on planes. This is a very logical decision to up the quality of personal streaming over seat backs.
I wonder how much fuel is used to run all those screens, might be a major saving.
This is just a sugar coated BS excuse to save AA money. Companies do this all the time: twisting facts to make their decision to cut back a benefit sound positive. Passengers use their own devices not because they want to but because of either the low quality of content or the low quality or non-existence of a monitor, The Next great cut will be the elimination of Airline lounges. The reasoning will be because since the vast majority of passengers don’t use lounges, therefore this means they must prefer spending their time on their mobile devices at public seating areas, therefore the airline will eliminate a feature that only a minority of travelers use. Another smart move by AA to lower their standing from a third class airline to a fourth class airline.
That’s just being cheap on AA’s part. If given an option between watching something on my own device or using AVOD, I will always use AVOD. The AVOD screens are actually at eye level as opposed to watching something on the tray table. Also my experiences on watching something on my own screen pales in comparison to experience in using the seat back screen. So, I just think USdbaAA is being cheap.