Perhaps the MPAA and the airlines had a revenue guarantee that promised the
studio X-bucks, recooped from headset rentals. If they airline doesn't rent
enough headsets (admission), then they have to pay the difference.

Don't forget, showing those crappy films on the airline does cost them
money, and probably a lot more than you think it should. You know how greedy
the MPAA is.

--
Ron Larson

In a world where nearly everyone (at least those that can afford airline tickets) has an ipod and/or a laptop, why would anyone want to be at the mercy of the airlines to decide what crappy movies we get to watch while stuck on a long flight. I get about 3 hours of battery time on my laptop and 6+ of video on my ipod - I fully load them both before international flights,

pretty soon it will be more econ to just ship our luggage a few days to the location that we are going to be at. or overnite it there as we fly lol. this gas price thing is affecting so much its unreal.

I just wish I could bring my sewing on board, but I didn't want them to confiscate my needles for fear of embroidery-based terrorism. Next time... the DS, definitely.

"Ooh headphones. I can use these elsewhere!"

Or maybe everyone, like me, just brings their own.

@Orv: Yes, Southwest has been very successful, but it has taken a LONG time for it to get to where it is today...

@Orv: You are correct that regulation is needed in these situations- but the real problem is HOW the finite resources at these airports are distributed. Gaining gate access is a huge barrier to new airlines. In an ideal world, if a new airline with cheaper service and a better product were to enter a market, it should shortly have a control over the market. Gate restrictions pretty much guarentee that couldn't happen in the real world. Only after a legacy's gate lease ends, which can be years, and the legacy chooses not to renew the lease (which it might not do, even if it doesn't really need the gate, to avoid the new competition) do new gates become available.

I get through a half page and I'm nauseous.

in one of the my flights, i actually had one of those old bulky entertainment systems right above me in the luggage compartment. i first thought it was the black box for the plane and i'm thinking to myself, why would it be there? and why are the flight attendants messing with it. then i realized it was the entertainment system. when looking up close, i found out it was using betamax! my god that's old.

Now, I'm not sure that's really true. Southwest has had great success pushing its way into the market. A lot of the problems US Air is having now are due to them having to compete with new budget carriers such as Southwest.

@ClevelandCub: stupid fingers... pretty soon they'll figure out a WAY to charge you for that too!

@mrmysterious: Sure, we'll be happy to give you access to the power jack (assuming you're on a place that has one), but pretty soon they'll figure out a why to charge you for that too!

@Kanti_V2: the problem is this isn't really a free market. First, its very very difficult to starty up a new airline. Look at all the hoops Virgin America had to jump through before its service started. Second, even if you get an airline started, you have to be able to fly somewhere. The legacies control most of the slots at major airports, meaning many newer airlines have problems even getting access to the market. This problem could be alleviated if we actually upgraded our air traffic control systems or built new airports or runways, but again this hasn't happened. Finally, the airlines know the government will bail them out, and they make decisions accordingly.

All of these problems are not the "free market," and indeed are problems directly caused by the government's ineptitude. The last thing we need is more regulations to "fix" the system.

I agree with your last sentiments: "Well tough shit, how about we force YOU to eat the loss." That would be a great first step to getting back to a true free market, where people who wanted great service would pay more for it, and people who like the nickle and diming could choose that option instead.

Airlines still have movies? Really?

For years I've been using my MP3 player and PDA with a half dozen ebooks, games, and a few movies or TV shows as MPEG files. The stuff I take is infinitely more entertaining than the crap airlines offer.

I can't be bothered with (and don't want to be bothered by) third rate movies and endless promotions. And as others have mentioned, the damn announcements on their systems are usually twice as loud as the "feature" they interrupt.

The only good thing about movies on a plane is that nobody has a cell phone turned on.

Can we have our passengers bill of rights now please? And maybe some regulation so these assholes stop externalizing their costs on to us.

Oh, you made stupid business decisions, and now you need a government bail out, and then to jack up your prices, bringing tourism and travel economies all over the country to a near stand still? Well tough shit, how about we force YOU to eat the loss, and maybe keep the economy strong enough where people can still afford to fly (vs a rise in "staycations", and other stupid euphemisms for being too poor to even take a vacation).

I will fly in a US based air line only for domestics flights, that also because there are no international carriers operating domestically.

No shit!

Instead of just increasing prices, they are annoying their customer base and then they wonder why they have irate passengers.

@Raignn:

"Ouch, this is definitely the nail in the coffin for me. Flight longer than 3 hours without in-flight movies? Fuck that. I'd rather pull out my toenails with pliers."

That's a good idea, but I don't think they allow pliers through security.

@Ash78: I recently took a trip flying on Aeromexico, LAN Chile, and Delta. The foreign airlines hat GREAT service, the plane cabins were spotlessly clean, and the booze and on-demand movies were free for the whole flight. Delta, on the other hand, charged for food, drinks, and movies, and the planes were pretty grubby. The flight staff were still friendly though.

@NameGoesHere: I love to read, but for some reason I can't read on an airplane, gives me air sickness, which sucks

@sharkd: As a kid, I used to stick my head down by the port and try to hear the sound without the 'air tube' headphones. It sort of worked.

Good service breeds loyalty, moreso than those near-useless neutered frequent flyer programs the airlines have now.

I'm with loganmo. I fly JetBlue exclusively now. Fortunately I'm just doing FLNYC flights so JetBlue's NYC-centric view of air travel works for me. Unlimited drinks & food ('though alcohol is still $), DirecTV+XM and actual legroom makes the flight enjoyable. Now if JetBlue could just rid themselves of the TSA...

For every person that complains about having to pay for checking their over-sized bags, lack of snacks, drinks and movies I should hope there's one that worries that if the airlines keep losing money they may fold and cut air travel options to their local airport. I'm one of the latter.

In fact, this is probably a good thing...

On the older planes without seatback screens, it always bugs me how they make you pull down your window shade and sit in the dark even if you don't want to sleep or watch the movie, and the movie invariably stinks anyway.

And even on newer planes with individual screens, the move video/audio quality is usually not so good, and even though you have choices, it's still choices between several sucky movies. The screens usually do offer other distractions like games and shopping, but the games tend to be lame and the shopping's pointless.

Folks, we're talking about flying buses here and the companies that run them. When it costs $300 to fly cross country then the airline that sells you that $300 ticket is going to charge you for baggage, drinks, and probably in the future the air you breath. If you want a pleasant traveling experience than save your pennies and lease a private jet.
One way or another, stop bitching.

Things just got less worse with future experiences such as a canceled flight at LGA, but we have one at JFK and we won't pay for the cab. Your luggage, well you'll get it eventually.

And of course the logic of going from St. Louis to LaGauardia via Charlotte. TWA was around at the time and the person who made the arrangements knew nothing of air travel and how TWA would have meant a direct flight.

Sometimes I think the wrong airlines went out of business.

@theblackdog: Airtran doesn't sell headphones, they are free.

@teapartys_over: 2 WORDS.. Sky Mall. Okay that may actually be one word.

Hey, that business model worked for People's Express....er, uh.....

@crabbyman6: The article says they'll remove them when they do other maintenance. It makes sense. The actual cost of running the system is almost nothing, but 500 extra pounds per plane adds up to a significant amount of extra fuel burned.

@DrGirlfriend: Same here. I read almost every night, but for some reason I can't pay attention to a book while on a flight.

I dunno, it could be worse -- American bombards you with "CBS Eye on American" and infomercials for DVD-based board games, hosted by Kristin Holt. The only thing worse than watching a year-old episode of CSI is watching a year and a half-old Entertainment Tonight "Special" about the year-old episode of CSI that's coming up Next! Of course, that presumes that the 1950s-era "entertainment system" works, as it, the air conditioning, cabin lighting and #2 engine invariably are in need of maintenance, which was scheduled to happen last week, but was deferred for six more months. (Oh, and don't try to lean your seat back, it seems they frequently forget to bolt the seat back to the seat bottom -- as was my wife's seat coming back from our honeymoon -- so, you essentially have a stool, and no seatbelt.)

I don't really remember ever enjoying the horrible movies they ever offered during a flight anyways. From what I remember, they were most commonly romantic comedies, or a movie that was equally annoying or edited to oblivion to make it G/PG rated.

@teapartys_over: What? Read?! Screw that!

No, in fact I always take a book with me, but even as an avid reader I can only read for so long before I start to want something else to do. And no, I don't have ADD.

Gee, business is bad. Here's a great idea: let's reduce the quality of our product. Yeah, that'll work!

I'm guessing this is the total weight of the system which would be the video player + all TVs + all cabling to bring audio to every seat + amplifiers for those.

The cabling is not to be overlooked as a significant source of system weight. It seems like just a few small wires but multiply that by something like 10-20 feet for every seat on the plane and it adds up fast. Plus I'm sure there's some shielding requirements to prevent interference from/with flight electronics.

I've flown dozens of times. I always bring a game, or movie, but if I have the window seat, I could stare out the window for days, even when it's cloudy.

@backbroken: No kidding. I was thinking of bringing a DVD player with me on my flight anyway because, really, staring off into space is infinitely better than staring at Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey act like wide-eyed morons for 2 hours.

After flying on Jet Blue for the first time a couple of weeks ago, I decided to try not to fly the regular airlines much anymore if possible. As much decent free food and soft drinks throughout the flight as I wanted, free DirecTV, free XM radio (I prefer Sirius but can't be too picky...) and friendly staff. As long as they dont incarcerate you on a tarmacked plane for hours, how can you go wrong (and it was cheaper than the legacies for non-stop from IAD to SAN). Oh yea- bigger seats too :)

The way Delta used to have it, with Song (and I guess JetBlue has), everyone had their own display, and you could pay $5 for a movie from a varied selection, was the best. It keeps everyone occupied (kids included), which made the flight quieter, people were less stressed (and bored), and it was just a much more pleasant experience.

Guess those times are gone...

So I won't be able to watch last year's romantic comedy flop that got 1.5 stars from every reviewer in America? How will I survive the 2 hours from Pittsburgh to Atlanta?

What's next, pay-per-use for the on board lavatories??

I liked being able to use my headphones with the radio, the problem was that whenever an announcement was made over the speakers, it also came in through the headphones, and their volume was much louder than the radio. I had to take my headphones off (they're in-ear styled) just to avoid the ear blasts.

so wait they charge for my first bag and they say it's due to weight, but they keep a 500lb movie system that i'd never watch?

US Airways has become "the city bus" with wings.
No amenities, hyper-inflated pricing and adversarial attitude towards customers.

The Lack of in-flight entertainment could be a big deterrent to a lot of travelers on 2+ hour flights.
The pervasiveness of iPods and like mean most travelers will have a set of headphones with them, modeling your entertainment profit strategy on the assumption they wont is pointless.

Flights that have individual entertainment systems at each seat and charge per viewing are a MUCH better model. On a 6 Hour flight, I purchased 2 $5 movies on one of these systems. Used my own iPod Headset and enjoyed it quite a bit.

I had a choice in what I wanted to watch, and even had "free" TV programs as well as in-flight status with GPS navigation over a map with Airspeed and ETA at my finger tips, all on a 7" screen in front of me.
Beats having your head cocked sideways watching the 20 year old TV hanging down in the middle of isle.

Ouch. This is painful. My parents just flew Austrian Airlines from Dulles to Vienna, using United Airlines points.

Coach class: Free alcohol (all you want), personal large video screens, video games, personal movie selection (10 movies), and according to my frequent-flying dad, the largest coach seats he had ever seen. Not to mention a staff that didn't hate their jobs.

/plug over
//subsidies, etc

Do airlines really still try to sell you headsets? When I'm on an airplane, damned near everyone has--at the very least--their own iPod earbuds. And a growing number of people have noise canceling headphones. You know, so you can actually hear the movie. The days of people wanting to wear someone else's skanky headphones are long gone.

Apparently, US Airways' answer to this reality is "Fine, we'll take our ball and go home."

Good to know, as I will be flying them next week. I am already only taking carryon luggage and bringong food with me. Guess now I'll be borrowing a DVD player, too.

Pretty soon we'll be needing carryon bags devoted just to carry stuff with you to occupy yourself on the plane. Which of course means you have to check your actual bag and cough up $15. Curses!