DENVER, CO – OCTOBER 9: Oscar Munoz, CEO of United Airlines speaks to flight attendants in a cut out cabin in the emergency procedure training room during their scheduled reoccurring training in the new $40-million flight training center in east Denver on October 9, 2018 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Joe Amon/The Denver Post via Getty Images)Getty
Chicago-based United Airlines is opening its seatback entertainment powered by DirecTV to all customers for free. Previously, the seatback-based satellite streaming service was offered to domestic business class customers for free while economy passengers had to swipe a credit card and pay a small fee to scroll through the spectrum of channels. As of January 30th, however, the service is now free for all passengers.
The updated service applies to all of the carrier’s 211 Boeing 737 fleet with seatback entertainment. All told, roughly 30,000 seats will be affected by the change.
United’s announcement comes in the midst of a transition at American and United to move away from integrated seatback entertainment screens and towards digital, streaming entertainment built for bring-your-own devices. As part of that move, carriers have been quick to offer digital solutions to passengers for free as a distraction from the physical changes happening in the cabin.
Last July, United confirmed to Runwaygirl Network that it was removing seatback screens from a selection of its 757 fleet. At the time, a spokeswoman told Runwaygirl that “as part of a retrofit program, we are updating some of our 757s, including adding our new first class narrowbody seats. During this process, we will be removing DirecTV from nine of our 757s, and will continue offering hundreds of hours of complimentary entertainment via personal device entertainment.” Other narrowbody aircraft that the company has ordered in the last year have been missing seatback screens.
Over at American, the transition has been more aggressive. Many aircraft are in the process of being retrofitted to phase out the seatback screens in favor of digital alternatives; other new aircraft orders are coming in without screens at all.
Unsurprisingly, American has also been aggressive in sharing news about its new streaming capabilities. Just this week, the carrier issued a release together with Apple to share that Wi-Fi (and Apple) users on the carrier could now access streaming music for free. And in September, American launched its own campaign around free television operating through Gogo’s satellite feed.
Though United’s situation is similar to American’s, it’s only complication has been its relationship with DirecTV, which runs the TV satellite service feeding part of its fleet. Last April, United announced that it would offer free streaming entertainment on top of the paid service offered by DirecTV. By now opening up the seatback screens to passengers, the carrier may be acknowledging that its era of satellite-powered seatback televisions is about to be over – and that for this last chapter, passengers can enjoy the ride.