tom18

We recently flew round-trip IAD-LAX on United. On the outbound trip, the B737-800 had on-demand entertainment that cost $7.99 - including, I think, audio entertainment as well as video. On the return, the Airbus had free entertainment, both audio and video. To me, it’s ridiculous that you have to pay for entertainment on a five and half hour flight. How can you tell if you’ll have to pay for entertainment on UAL flights? And do other airlines now charge for inflight entertainment on cross-country flights as well?

nyer

JetBlue has free on-board entertainment on almost all flights. Most other major U.S. airlines treat cross country trips like any other domestic flight--pay for food , pay for entertainment. I suppose your return could have been a flight that continues on to Europe. Transatlantic flights usually have free entertainment of some sort and free meals.

BTW, airlines do not guarantee any specific aircraft for a flight, so even if you think a specific type of plane will be carrying your route (with free entertainment, desired seating arrangement, or whatever perk) they can change it at anytime.

doug_stallings

While JetBlue has free TV and audio, you do have to pay for movies, just as on United, but I think it's cheaper.

But even on JetBlue you have to pay for headphones. Those aren't free.

simpsonc510

That TV service on UA was probably DirecTV service. I watched it on a flight and it was great to have "live" TV programming! But it was free in first class. It was the first time I'd had the option of watching DirecTV on a plane.

RodrexMatthew

Almost all airlines provides free of cost inflight entertainment services which includes on-demand audio-video, TV programs, games, variety of food and beverages, good quality in-flight magazines, touchscreen LCDs, international TV channels etc. You need to check with service charges of particular airline by which you are traveling.

doug_stallings

Actually, entertainment options on US domestic airlines vary wildly, so I can't say that "almost all" have free on-demand anything. So that's just not a true blanket statement. It does apply almost universally to airlines that fly 777 and Airbus planes internationally (though not universally to 747s), but not at all to US domestic flights.