2010 US Airline In-Flight Entertainment Guide

For my fellow world travelers.  In flight entertainment is essential at times in our purchase decisions.  For me, I only fly Virgin America when possible.  I’ll even adjust my route patterns to fly the airline.  That is how much I love what they do and what they offer.  Here is a lineup on In-Flight Entertainment Guide put together by Jaunted.com.

Ten years ago, back when JetBlue launched, In-Flight Entertainmentwas forever changed. Gone were the days when airline passengers expected screens to drop from the fuselage and play one movie followed by a couple episodes of “Everybody Loves Raymond.” Instead, the norm became $99 flights each way between SFO and JFK and on each airplane, leather seats with personal music ports and seat-back TVs showing live satellite television.

Flash forward 10 years and while no airline this side of Virgin America has really been able to come close to JetBlue’s LiveTV experience, the IFE gap between Jetblue and the rest of the pack widens, thanks to advances with in-flight wifi. Airlines who’ve been quick to join the Gogo WiFi party are working to now make internet-connected planes just as accepted and expected by passengers as in-flight TV.

All of this means that, in 2010, the IFE game is changing once again and the race is on to see who can provide the best domestic IFE package. We have packaged up the right now of IFE into a handy guide for you to look at on the web, or take with you.

Air Canada
· Internet: Canadians can have in-flight wifi too, and Air Canada proved this when they introduced Gogo* WiFi service onboard flights between Montreal/Toronto and Los Angeles. Oh wait—the wifi only works over the United States. Bummer.
· TV: Like Jetblue, all of Air Canada’s planes feature seat-back TVs throughout. You’ll be able to tune into 300 hours of free entertainment including international movies and television shows in a range of languages with their enRoute system. There are 3 767s without TVs, but we doubt you’ll end up on one of these.
· Music: Air Canada’s systems mainly go by pre-loaded CDs for international travel, so be prepared to listen to “Devo’s Greatest Hits” and “The Finnish Brass Ensemble.” You will find Satellite XM radio on many other flights, such as in Executive and economy classes in North America.
· Games: Yes, there is a small variety of games available on the seat-back TVs, but they only seem to work about 70% of the time, so don’t put all your hopes on playing in-flight trivia.
· Bottom Line: So long as you don’t end up on a commuter Air Canada Jazz jet or one of the 3 767s without TVs, you’ll be flying in style with some of the best international IFE out there. Their North America services aren’t so bad either.

AirTran Airways
· Internet: AirTran is only one of two airlines with fleet-wide WiFi (Virgin America is the other), and they use Gogo* in-flight as well.
· TV: Nope. AirTran is a low-cost carrier through and through, and they’ve not done anything about television or movies.
· Music: Although there’s nothing to watch, there’s plenty to listen to. AirTran has 100 channels of digital commercial-free music, news, sports, talk and entertainment with XM Satellite Radio onboard every plane.
· Games: None aside from whatever crossword book you impulsively bought at the airport.
· Bottom Line: AirTran severely lacks on entertainment options, but they’re hoping you’ll overlook that since they’ve added WiFi. It also helps that many of their flyers are vacation-bound and not exactly thinking about watching CNN.

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http://www.jaunted.com/story/2010/7/19/225037/299/travel/2010+US+Airline+In-Flight+Entertainment+Guide