Capedoctor - 08/07/2011 12:09 GMT
Must preface this by saying that the on demand choices on BA are really excellent.
HOWEVER. Just flew LHR to ATH on BA. Outward bound they showed DIARY OF A WIMPY KID. Yes, a kids film of little or no relevance. Look, this isn't a flight to Saudi, but to the home of Oedipus Rex, for goodness sake.
Could they do worse on the inbound? Outdid themselves with GNOMEO AND JULIET which caused headphones to be destroyed.
Even the ultra sensitive AA showed ( a language censored) version of THE KINGS SPEECH.
Any reason for this dumbing down of the movie choices? Anyone have a possibly worse choice of films?
VintageKrug - 08/07/2011 12:21 GMT
It's actually a rather sensitive choice; UK schools begin breaking up this week and so many families will be off on summer hols to Greece; I would imagine this is the reason for the children's film being shown on that route.
Swissdiver - 08/07/2011 12:32 GMT
In it is a short haul flight after all. Lucky you had a movie...
robsmith100 - 08/07/2011 12:33 GMT
Generally i dont have an issue with IFE but hate it when airlines show repeats of old sitcoms, especially British ones. I go abroad to get a away from the UK and dont want to constantly reminded.
Capedoctor - 08/07/2011 12:51 GMT
The flight was about 4 hours long, so is a bit more medium distance. I think also in the US there are films above 3 hours as far as I remember.
Ended up finishing a tortuous book about androids and sheep.
I do see the point about kids and films but the IFE was a single video machine, not one of the more sophisticated systems nowadays. Minimal kids on the flight and mine hated the selection (11 & 13)
If you had to use the BA ATH flights i take it you went on the 767?
You were lucky to get a film that worked on it! - m,y last few trips have either had screens that didnt work, colour films showing in Black & White due to Technical difficulties - and even the wrong film showing than advertised.
But then on a short flight i guess its not top of the list - but when they have constantly awarded Miles in compensation i would rather have the compensation miles than the film!
It's not just the films, the whole CE experience onflights is iffy.
You don't know what seat to expect, 767 aisle, 767 middle, A320 convertible, A320 non convertible.
As Binman62 says, the whole service needs looking at for four hour sectors.
RichHI1 - 15/07/2011 16:19 GMT
All of which (plus equally lousy domestic US ife) is why I carry my Archos PVR, my laptop and my portable blu ray player. Only problem with BA in Europe is the percentage of scarebuses with powerpoints in Business. I do not fly to Europe much but in the last two years I can only recall one 320 equipment with in seat power.
Rich
I can't remember how many 320s have power, think it is somewhere between 10-20, but IIRC none of the 319s or 321s do, so on routes where they use all three, the probablility is quite low.
Air Malta don't have any power in any aircraft, so I invested in a long life battery for my Thinkpad (5-6 hours if you set the power up for batt life) and use that to view films or act as a recharge station for portable devices.
stevescoots - 15/07/2011 19:05 GMT
I tend to have seen just about every movie there is with so many flights, I pretty much always watch something or listen to a spoken word book off the laptop
VintageKrug - 16/07/2011 08:07 GMT
I also always take a laptop with me for longer flights, or use an iPod on shorter hops if I don't need to work.
There are some pretty good movies and TV shows on longhaul this month:
www.britishairways.com/travel/ifeoutavodlisting/public/en_gb
..and an especially good range for children; this is a good thing as they are most likely to get bored on a longer flight, and keeping them entertained means a better trip for everyone.
Swissdiver - 16/07/2011 08:21 GMT
Laptop is always with me and useful for longer SH flights. But I always have loaded on my iPhone a number of TED's podcasts. Enlightening...
VintageKrug - 16/07/2011 08:26 GMT
What's TED?
RichHI1 - 16/07/2011 08:42 GMT
I find it interesting the movies that work best on planes are different to theater or at home.
Obviously spectatculars which benefit from big screen don't work so well but also I can watch shallow frothy movies and dip in and out, fall asleep and rejoin etc whereas when watching elsewhere if my attention is not grabbed in 10 minutes, I walk. Have a horrible feeling this means I am starting to multitask....
Binman62 - 16/07/2011 09:32 GMT
A movie on a shhorthaul flight on BA! Hold the front page,,......
Agree choice was sensitive due school holidays.......but also gnome and Juliet simply fabulous film I have now seen 3 times, and still laugh out loud. Was supposed to be kids movie but contains some brilliant adult one liners.
Swissdiver - 16/07/2011 10:07 GMT
TED.com is a must know site. Basically it is a conference organiser that is imposing one rule: 18 minutes! Whoever is the speaker (Bill Gates, the Clinton's - separately, Bono, and many more). 18 minutes is the time of a sandwich...
My all time favourite is
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
But other ideas are developed. For instance, a realistic way to drastically reduce torture around the world: http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/TEDxZurich-Karen-Tse-On-how-to or how much we are failing to understand motivation in business: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/dan_pink_on_motivation.html
Beware, some of the speakers might be very entertaining!
andrew.gill - 28/07/2011 18:27 GMT
Having done LHR IAD yesterday, I'm going to stand up for Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
I'd seen most movies alreasdy, so watched the preview channel and this, together with Win Win kept me amused and out of trouble
andrew
Danwolf - 28/07/2011 18:36 GMT
Love TED, some great talks on there. Am in galleries lounge now, saw that the film selection for LHR - HKG is stale at best, so have been downloading films/tv shows in anticipation...
RichHI1 - 28/07/2011 19:07 GMT
Danwolf let me know if anything you download is good. Got a flight to JFK end of the month and I have been scouring Itunes and Blu Rays but nothing new gets good reviews although the Conspirator with James Mcavoy looks like it might be OK. Seem to be very few good movies at present. Would appreciate feedback. Could be worse, the Smurf Movie will be on planes about Christmas...
Danwolf - 28/07/2011 19:28 GMT
@RichHT1: depends on taste: have managed to download as follows: flms - kings speech & cars (yes I have a 'serious' job, but , my friend wants to see cars 2, so thought I'd see the first one so the 2nd one made sense)...I downloaded some tv series I wanted to catch up on as well (I struggle to sleep on planes, regardless of whether it's econ, econ + or biz - eventually first?) so also downloaded torchwood and weeds, in case i have an hour of 'non-sleep'
Downloaded these Tv series prior to lounging at LHR...
...actually, even Cars sounds better than the smurf movie...then again I did watch them when I was growing up... :)
