BA is scrapping seat-back screens. They might be onto something
This month, British Airways is trialling a new system on selected long-haul aircraft that allows travellers to stream the airline's entertainment selection to their own devices. Dubbed a 'BYOD' – or 'bring your own device' – model, it is being offered in addition to the airline's existing seat-back screens, but other airlines are already taking a harder line. In June, Qantas revealed new screenless seats on its short-range routes, joining the likes of American Airlines, BA Euroflyer and selected Etihad services.
Travellers' tastes are changing, too. More than 80 per cent of us consider inflight entertainment (IFE) important or very important when choosing long-haul flights, according to research by management consultancy Kearney. And yet, the same study showed that most 18- to 35-year-old long-haulers prefer to watch their own content and devices than the airline's. According to a report by Sita and Air Transport World, 97 per cent of us were flying with a smartphone, tablet or laptop as far back as 2014, so it's hardly a behaviour change to use them.
Are you team IFE, or prefer to BYOD? Here, we examine the perks and pitfalls of each approach, and quiz industry experts and frequent fliers: should seat-back screens stay or go?
Why the screen should go
By the time you plonk yourself down in front of the seat-back screen, your patience is probably already wearing thin. Frazzled from the airport, all you want to do is be lulled by a nice Jane Austen adaptation, a Jennifer Lopez romcom or a gently violent Mission: Impossible film – but no, the bloody screen isn't working. You have to beg one of the cabin crew to reset it, at which point it blinks reluctantly to life, greeting you either in Spanish or Mandarin.
Cue the litany of annoyances that a clunky, outdated IFE system inevitably entails: the labyrinth of menus, the dodgy headphone jacks, the 'touch-sensitive' screen that's anything but. Before you know it, you're prodding impotently at the non-responsive panel, twizzling your headphone cable in the socket (why no Bluetooth connection?!) and raising the hackles of your fellow passengers – especially the bloke in front whose headrest you're now punching. It would be simpler, would it not, just to whip out your iPad and watch that instead.
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