hedgehog

I am currently researching multi-destination flights from London to the East Coast and AA and UA are coming back with the most competitive offers. We have only ever travelled scheduled long haul with BA and Virgin who both have great economy class in-flight entertainment for children - a couple of dedicated TV channels etc. I have checked the United and American Airline websites for info but I can't really ascertain whether their selection of kids TV is comparable with, say, BA. Can anyone help me out with any information. Thanks.

CarrieK

Not sure about the entertainment, but check out seatguru.com for seleting your seats. It helps show the seats with the most room, how the plane is laid out, etc.

AAFrequentFlyer

I'm not sure which city you are flying out of but if it's New York or Boston, then you will be on 777 if you choose AA. All 777s have individual monitors in the seats. There are few movies as well as specials (not sure about children programing, but most movies are PG). Just remember that these are NOT on demand. Each channel replays about 2-3 times during the flight. AA does offer MRTC (More Room Throughout Coach) on these flights. You get an average of 34-35" seat pitch as opposed to UA which has about 32-33" pitch, UNLESS you get the Economy Plus section, but that's usually reserved for their elites. The food and service should be comparable, so if the fare is about the same I would go with AA.


Here is a link to their September lineup:

http://www.dmxinflight.com/american/movies/uk.html

paula1470

We just used AA for our trip to London and Paris. We connected from San Diego at DFW and flew a 777 to London Gatwick. Leg room was pretty good and we had the individual TV monitors. However, on our return trip which was from Paris CDG to DFW, we were on a 767 so did not have the TV monitors. My daughter (17) was disappointed because she was looking forward to the movie selection for the westbound flights on the 777. (Funny how even a 17 yr old thinks that's important).
The movie selection on the 767 was OK but the best part was the plane was almost empty. We each had as many rows as we wanted to spread out and sleep.

missypie

Don't know what kind of plane we were on on our AA flight to Paris, but there were only monitors every 8 rows or so and the seat backs were so high that the kids really had to sit on something or strain to see them (so did I for that matter). So really check out the type of plane and number of monitors.

AAFrequentFlyer

All AA flights to Paris are 767. No individual seatback monitors. Only "communal" screens.

hedgehog

Thanks for all the info so far. The UA flights are 763 LHR to JFK and 777 return. The AA flights are LHR to BOS, JFK returning to LHR both flights on 777.

Curious

hedgehog,

Since I fly AA, with children I stongly recommend you fly United.

Curious

here_today_gone2Maui

I flew United to Paris last year and each seat had an idividual monitor. I can attest to the children's programming, as I was seatedf next to a child who obviously had consumed way too much sugar and spent the entire night jumping up and down in her seat and switching channels and then sharing each new find with everyone around her. They had a Disney channel, complete with cartoons--cartoons with which same child felt compelled to loudly sing along sporadically throughout the flight.

paula1470

Based on heretodaygone2Maui's experience of having the children's programming, I would check with United to see what they offer. As AAfrequentflyer said, the shows are on AA are not on demand. They played several movies you could choose from and ran some NBC shows. I think we saw a million "Everybody Loves Raymond" episodes. They definitely did not have children's programing to choose from although the movies were PG. One of the selections was Shrek 2 which I am sure your children would enjoy. I would imagine they have at least one movie of this type each month.