Entertainment

Inflight entertainment is mostly pretty bad. That is, unless the airline has either invested in retrofitting their jets or outright bought new jets.

If you are the unfortunate many that prefer to travel with "legacy" carriers like Lufthansa or United, you will no doubt know that most of their jets have a central projector and the choices of entertainment are non existent.

However if you happen to travel with a broader set of carriers, then you must have seen the newer systems.

The best system I've experienced is on Singapore Airlines, but that was in First Class so let's exclude them.

Within the US, the best coach class entertainment system is with Delta. Virgin America, a new entrant, may have a better system. I'll fly them later this month and report back.

JetBlue is second best. Both Delta and JetBlue have live TV as well as movies, games and music. However, Delta's selection is better.

Alaska has done a smart job of introducing Digeplayers - digital entertainment systems that you can rent and place it on your seat back table to watch. It has a variety of movies, TV shows, games and more. However since it isn't attached to the seat, you have to close it down if you wish to use the seat back table for anything else. American Airlines is following suit, though only on their transcontinental flights.

The only system better than Delta's is Continental's on their 777-200. Only some of their jets have them. The system is very similar to what's found on Delta, only with far more options. More movies, more music and more games. It also appears to have been prepped for INTERNET access.

This all makes a lot of sense. The systems used by JetBlue, Continental and Delta run on a version of Linux, a computer operating system. Without digressing, I'll say that Linux is a powerful, yet cheap alternative to more traditional systems and thus allows an airline to experiment more freely with their options.

The ideal entertainment system, next ...

To upgrade or not to upgrade? That is the question ...

Upgrades are the wild card in the airline industry. Be nice when checking in, and you just might get upgraded.

In the airline industry, the available business or first class seat is often used to upgrade an economy class passenger. This is typically done because the freed up economy class seat can be re-sold to someone who is willing to pay a higher fare for that seat.

The person receiving the upgrade is chosen from amongst many factors, namely, frequent flyer status, the ticket class and how sold out that flight is.

In my experience, I've been upgraded because I am a frequent flyer. I've also used stickers for upgrades.

Now this needs an explanation. Different airlines have different methods that they utilize to define their upgrades. American Airlines uses stickers. After you fly a certain number of miles, you are awarded 4 upgrade stickers. Each sticker is worth 500 miles and so a trip of 1600 miles would need 4 stickers. You can also buy stickers and use them for an upgrade, if seats are available. Even there, it depends on the ticket class.

On other airlines such as NorthWest and Continental, so long as seats are available and you are a frequent flyer with status, you get upgraded for free.

Automatic and complimentary upgrades on international flights don't happen. This is mostly because international travel is generally more expensive, less competitive than the domestic market and not really open to scrutiny by the general public.

There is, however, the option of spending miles on upgrades. This, however, required you to hold a Y or H class ticket, meaning that it's a full fare refundable ticket. In this case, capacity allowing, you can spend some of your hard flown frequent flyer miles to move up a class, and the reward is worth it.

Let's think about this - a complimentary upgrade on a 4 hour flight feels good. Business class in a bed you can actually sleep on over a 15 hour flight - good sense. The only thing is the cost. That, unfortunately, boils down to your wallet.

Hence the dilemma ... To upgrade or not.