Boeing's Connexion announcement

Sun Oct 15 08:56:34 UTC 2006

On Oct 14, 2006, at 9:04 PM, Todd Underwood wrote:

>> I disagree.
>
> i disagree with your disagreement.

You are welcome to your opinion.

>> Seat power is ubiquitous on some airlines (e.g. American), and
>> available in all but coach on others (e.g. Virgin, Luftansa).  It's
>
> "all but coach"?  seriously?  hilarious.
>
> "democracy is available to all but the majority"
>
> "wealth is available for all but the middle class and poor"
>
> come on.

In Virgin, BA, etc., there are frequently -four- classes on an  
international flight.  You can get "premium economy" just by having  
status on some airlines, or buying a full-fare coach ticket on others  
(e.g. BA).  It really ain't that hard, or expensive.  Especially for  
biz travelers who can't always make plans a month in advance.

That said, yeah, I mostly fly coach.

> seat power is not ubiquitous on american, either.  it's on every 3rd
> seat or some nonense and there's no way to figure out whether you are
> in such a seat.
>
> i identified this early on as one of th emajor factors causing this
> service to fail.

Interestingly, I fly over 50K miles per year on AA on average and  
have very, very rarely not had seat power.  Guess I've been lucky.

BTW: Jet Blue, whom I love otherwise, says they will not install seat  
power.  Something about the cabling for the TV.  They were very nice  
about my request, but very firm about not having any plans for seat  
power any time in the future.  I guess TVs make more money than laptops.

>> AC power is not required.  Bigger seats might be. :)
>
> bigger seats may not be required.  ac power is.

This is where we disagree.  My G4 PB gives me 4 hours of use with a  
new batter, and over 2 hours with a 3 year old battery.  I hear the  
new Intel ones give 5+ hours.  How much do you need?  SJC <-> IAD is  
only 5/6 hours, and you can't use your laptop the whole time (take  
off, landing, snacks, toilet breaks, etc.).

However, that same 12" PB (not a large laptop by any definition) on  
Luftansa is close unusable in coach if the person in front of you  
leans back.  I had to contort pretty horribly to use it.  (Which I  
did, 'cause I -had- to send e-mail from the plane. :)  Lack of seat  
power was not an issue, I just had two batteries.  And this was BOS - 
 > MUC, which ain't a short flight.

Using a 15" or larger laptop on that flight is essentially  
unthinkable.  I could not have opened the laptop enough to see the  
screen.  During meals, the flight attendants made everyone sit up,  
otherwise the people behind them wouldn't have been able to eat.   
Yes, it was that bad.

Summary: Bigger seats are required, seat power may not be.  Maybe  
this is how they get you to upgrade so you can use seat power. :)

>> P.S. I used it for > 4 hours on Luftansa in coach, without seat
>> power.  And would happily pay $27.95, perhaps more, to use it again.
>
> /me too.  the price is well-worth it.

At least we agree on something.

-- 
TTFN,
patrick