"Some even charge for in-flight entertainment."
The only airlines I've seen that don't charge for entertainment are the ones too cheap to have it installed...
Near field communications (NFC) readers can now be baked into in-flight entertainment devices, making it possible to offer contactless payments in the sky. Panasonic Avionics, a dominant provider of in-flight entertainment units and the back-endery required to make them fly has announced its NFC readers are ready to take off. …
This post has been deleted by its author
Due to risk of interference with the cockpit instruments, all electronic devices must be switched off during all phases of the flight.
Due to flammability, no books, newspapers or magazines are allowed in the cabin.
For a fee the cabin crew can supply airline approved reading material or in-flight entertainment.
Reminds me of the captive market for outdoor concerts where they force people on the way in to discard all their bottles including water, then the concessions inside sell bottled water for a hugely inflated price (and remove the caps before they hand them over) and to stay H&S legal they have a dirty old bowser with one tap and a 60 minute queue. On the hottest summer days.
A free market honestly is a good thing, but for the humans involved, because they will take the piss.
Can't wait for the flight attendants to tell people they need a newer phone that supports Apple Pay or Android Pay in order to take a piss.
"Sorry, we don't support Windows Phone, you'll have to hold it until we land in five hours".
"Enabling the reclining feature of your seat costs $2/hour, and disabling the reclining feature of the seat in front of you costs $5/hour".
I'll just have to bring my own entertainment for the long flights. Books, a tablet loaded with movies. Playing cards. A boombox for when I'm tired of the movies. A frisbee. I wonder if I can get some people up to a little friendly in-flight soccer game. Maybe they'll allow us to bring hockey sticks and pucks?
And if these devices are installed, will a screen pop up stating "there are X minutes left in this flight and this film is Y minutes long plus adverts" or will they just rip you off. I look forward to the 1st arrest because someone paid for a film 5 mils before landing & won't disembark until the film ends.
Great, even more "incentive" for arsehole airlines to foist (noisy) adverts on you from point blank range. Want to turn this shitting, annoying screen off sir? Just pay $.
I've suffered on a few of these flights and despite repeated thumps, yanks and many, many button presses the bloody things just keep on going unless you wave your credit card at them. Packing in-flight material around them to obscure the screen is frowned upon... I must remember to bring a sheet of cardboard and tape next time (ideally, plastic and superglue but those are harder to get through and even more frowned upon).
getting the programming supplied by Google, Netflix or Amazon and being able to use your existing account (commission to go to the airline).
HOWEVER, I'd expect the quality to be seriously better than the crap screens available atm.
Ideal use for in-flight VR headsets?
(however, on the budget airlines: pay-and-display seating. coin-operated oxygen masks [Oh, you'd like to /breathe/ during the flight, sir?] )
I flew from Atlanta to Malaysia last year. We had the usual horrible Delta cattle cars to New York and back from Los Angeles. HOWEVER...
We flew China Southern for the long haul. They did everything possible to make 14 hours in a flying tube a pleasant experience. Real food, which was actually very good. Entertainment? Totally free. It took me over 15 minutes just to browse through all the offerings in the system. TV shows, current films, art films, in various languages with your choice of subtitles. Incredible variety of music. All this on new Airbus planes with tons of legroom. On Delta my knees hit the seat ahead. on China Southern, I had eight inches of freedom, and I'm six feet tall.
Air Asia had roomy planes as well, but they were short hauls not needing entertaining.
Most of my recent flights have been long haul trips so food and drink has been inc, but just out of curiousity I had a look BA you can actually book a gourmet meal for your flight for extra cost. I'm assuming a £15 airline breakfast is just going to taste of dissapointment though, not sure how great Loch Fyne Salmon might taste several hours of being kept warm into your flight either.
Anyway they can lose the screens if they want just keep supplying free wine.
TBH last flight was 16hrs and while the food was adequate, after having all of your meals on the plane it was a pleasure to drop my kit off and eat something proper.
The problem with eating on a plane is that it will never taste the same.
The pressure is different, the air is recycled, there are many more people in much more proximity to you, your ears will pop, your throat is drier, the lighting is imperfect, and so on. You could eat a restaurant-fresh Gordon Ramsey special up there and it wouldn't taste the same, and would quite likely smell overwhelmingly offensive to all those around you eating something different.
Hence, it's just much easier to pack a cheap sandwich in hand-luggage and buy a drink past security and have done with it.
Yep, it's rarely going to taste great. I tend to break up long flights now by booking ones where I have an hour or two off the plane, give's me a chance to stretch the legs out from cattle class, and grab a McDonalds or simialr (yeah I know this ain't great food either I rarely eat it though so if anything it's like a guilty treat).
My wallet's going in the overhead storage - I'm not paying for Nobby's Nuts (or whatever the bloke sat next to me is called).
Although, I can see the announcement now: "RyanAir to introduce contactless payment locks on the overhead storage facilities" - takes a quid every time the locker is opened.
If airlines are going to upgrades their IFE kit with this contactless gubbins I hope they take the opportunity to fit screens where the colours don't invert if viewed >5 degrees from the optimum and send the picture to them using something which looks like a digital signal rather than an analogue terrestrial broadcast picked up by a coat-hanger aerial.
I shouldn't complain really...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFsOUbZ0Lr0&feature=youtu.be&t=73