Some in-flight entertainment is just too heavy — literally. US Airways says it’s phasing out in-flight movies on domestic flights as a cost-cutting measure; the display system its planes use weighs 500 pounds, and yanking it out of 200 planes could save $10 million a year in fuel costs. Now, this doesn’t mean other airlines will follow suit, or that US Airways won’t come up with a lighter way to show in-flight movies (eventually, though probably not for quite a while yet, seat-back-embedded monitors will become common, allowing each passenger to choose his or her own movies and TV shows). Still, this shift makes me wonder: now that so many people have iPods, video iPods, and personal DVD players (and laptop computers with DVD drives), do we really need in-flight movies anymore?
What do you do, PopWatchers, for in-flight entertainment? Do you still watch the movie you’re presented with, or do you bring your own? Do you buy a book or DVD at the airport, or do you bring them with you from home? Has anyone used those DVD rental kiosks at airports? Tell us how you entertain yourselves when you fly, and please don’t unbuckle your seatbelts until we come to a complete stop at the gate.
Definitely my iPod touch. The wider screen made all the difference, and it allows me to save my laptop battery for writing. Of course, there’s also six half-milligram tablets of Xanax involved.
I should add that the only route I fly regularly is transpacific. you’re crossing half the world and it’s all water. no way out, long way down. your typical 45-minute flight from norcal to socal is on the other hand a matter of the inflight magazine.
the only airline i’ll fly is jetblue, and that’s because of the tv! (okay, and those unlimited blue terra chips). though if that wasn’t there… i probably would get more sleep/work done. it’s hard to get anything accomplished when there’s an america’s next top model marathon on right in front of you for 6 hours.
I actually prefer trying to sleep to watching the in-flight movie, especially if I’m flying to Europe (those flights tend to leave in the evening). Otherwise I bring a book from home and maybe buy a few magazines at the airport.
I load some music and movies on my Blackberry Curve and use that. Sometimes if my plane has those individual monitors, I’ll catch up on some tv series I never think to watch.
I like the ones on the back of the seats where you can pick what you want to watch. Even though the full selection is never totally appealing, there’s always some movie or two that I’ve meant to watch but never made the effort to go see or rent. So I think it’s definitely worthwhile.
I put movies and tv shows on my ipod and i’m there before i know it. Surely, they must be movies about gladiators.
Just flew from Michigan to Portland, OR and had the wonderful screens in the back of the seats. There was tons of movies to buy for $6 or free satellite TV to watch, including Bravo! Three hours of “Shear Genius” was awesome!
YES WE NEED INFLIGHT MOVIES!! ipods and all that never last for more than a movie, let alone an ENTIRE 2 hour movie, and the in-flight movies always offer newer movies that aren’t on dvd yet, which is always nice when you’re flying in the spring and you’d missed a bunch of fall movies…..
It was definitely nice to have Arrested Development, Futurama and Casanova while on an eight-hour flight to London, but on shorter flights I don’t care as much. I usually bring a book and my iPod (my boyfriend and I watched South Park on his on our way to Vegas), or just lots of dramamine because I’m a horrible flyer.
As a frequent business traveler, I say no, we don’t need in-flight movies on domestic flights. I read books (I like how that chain of airport bookstores lets you bring one back for a discount on the next one) or work. But on overseas flights, yes, you need movies. There’s just no domestic flight so long that you can’t figure out something else to do.
I usually try to sleep, failing that I always bring a book or some magazines to read and there’s always my iPod. For some reason I find listening to Beethoven soothing on a plane.
I bring knitting (on wooden needles, no one cares), and when I fly JetBlue, I watch the television stations available…sometimes I bring my vid iPod and watch Heroes or South Park…
I usually have a book or two, a mag or two, my iPod, and I’ve started carrying my portable DVD player and a few movies too. It just depends on what I feel like doing once I’m through clutching the arms of my seat during takeoff.
I travel quite frequently for work so I get quite bored with the in-flight entertainment so I bring my own dvds and watch them on my laptop and I travel with my iPod (i don’t load movies on it) and often a book that I purchase from the bookstore at the airport and that I then return at the destination airport for a 50% discount! That is an awesome program!