Declining levels of IFE

[hobo]

I've just sent this as feedback to Virgin. I wanted to know if other people have had similar experiences. When I started flying Virgin, I was super impressed with their IFE offerings. However it seems like the maintenance of it has been neglected. :



I've been flying Virgin quite frequently lately and I have seen the in flight entertainment levels drop considerably and have been very disappointing. My wife and I have flown a few times in the past few months and been very disappointed.


We flew back from Sydney to Perth in June on the A330, and we were seated in Business Class. Our screens were not working properly and there was constant "static" running across the screens. The flight attendant advised that they knew about the issue, and noted that a few other passengers in business class had the same issue. The positioning of the controller for the IFE is abysmal. As the controller is right up against your thigh, every time you move, the buttons are accidentally pressed and resulted in the video either stopping or pausing. This became extremely frustrating and in the end I gave up. Combined we used 20,000 points to upgrade to business class, and were very very disappointed. We did not feel like we got value for our points at all in this instance.


I'd like to say that we'd also flown business class to Sydney on the A330 just 6 weeks earlier and it was brilliant. The configuration of the seats were different and the fittings seemed a lot newer.


We then recently flew to Brisbane - again on an A330. This time we were seated in Economy. We had the bulkhead seats and much to my dismay, I discovered that our pull out screens were incapable of staying up by themselves. They needed to be supported with our hand for the entire journey, otherwise they would flop back down. The couple on our side also appeared to have a similar problem.


On our return flight, we were on a B737. We were sitting in the second row, and did not have built in entertainment. We were advised we would get Galaxy tablets. When the attendant got to us, we were advised they had run out of Tablets as some of them are not working.


Whilst I realise these things happen, it would seem the last 3 flights i've had with Virgin have resulted in no IFE. This is quite disappointing, and the first two instances seem to be due to a lack of maintenance.


We also flew Virgin from Sydney to LAX and back in May and June, and despite there being a 6 week difference between going there and returning, we were disappointed to see almost the exact same selection of movies/tv shows available on the return leg. Considering it's a very long flight, we had practically watched everything of interest on the way up, and there was nothing left on the return.


IFE was a big reason we switched from Qantas to Virgin, and we were very pleased with Virgin's offerings, however as of late our experiences have been very disappointing to say the least. I hope Virgin are not losing focus on these things, as I believe IFE plays a huge part in making flights more enjoyable. Particularly long flights.


I certainly hope our past few flights were just an anomaly, and that Virgin will return to the level's we have come to expect over the past years.

 

[lovestotravel]

IFE was a big reason we switched from Qantas to Virgin, and we were very pleased with Virgin's offerings, however as of late our experiences have been very disappointing to say the least. I hope Virgin are not losing focus on these things, as I believe IFE plays a huge part in making flights more enjoyable. Particularly long flights.

I have no idea why anyone would switch from Qantas to Virgin for IFE, with the exception of East-West coast flights and even then it seems like they are having troubles (based on your report above)

Their IFE has been a joke for many years now and will continue to do so. Tablets/WiFi are not an IFE solution

The updated Qantas A330's will have a terrific IFE product and the new 737's have a great product as will the 787's going to JQ and later on QF

My advice is to buy your own tablet/laptop, pre-load what you want to watch and then fly with whoever is cheaper

 

[hobo]

I have no idea why anyone would switch from Qantas to Virgin for IFE, with the exception of East-West coast flights and even then it seems like they are having troubles (based on your report above)

I'm located in Perth, so the majority (if not all) of my flights are East-West. I was flying Qantas flights with a shared screen for every few rows, and Virgin had their new A330's with excellent big screens and plenty of content. To me, the important things are seats (ie. not tiny), and IFE. Virgin won on both counts, and I made the switch. I still fly Qantas for work as I don't have a choice there, but all my personal flights have been with Virgin.

Their IFE has been a joke for many years now and will continue to do so. Tablets/WiFi are not an IFE solution

The updated Qantas A330's will have a terrific IFE product and the new 737's have a great product as will the 787's going to JQ and later on QF

My advice is to buy your own tablet/laptop, pre-load what you want to watch and then fly with whoever is cheaper

Agreed that Tablets/WiFi are not the final solution, but hey, it's something. Judging by the other people using it, the tablets seemed to work well.

The Qantas flight's i've been on (and i've flown them as recently as last month) have had poor IFE, and even the individual screen ones have tiny screens. I guess I haven't been lucky enough to be on a new A330.

I do own my own tablet, which I pre-load but i'd still prefer to use the IFE if it's working.

 

[lovestotravel]

Fair enough, I much prefer IFE that stuffing around with my own tablet/charger etc etc

Not sure how well Virgin will do over the next year or so, they are bleeding cash so my opinion is the little things will start to show!

I just hope QF would improve their A330 offering now instead of starting in 16 months!

 

[Strongarm]

My parents flew BNE-PER yesterday in J on the A330 and the IFE wasn't working, they were handed the tables instead. This is going to get frustrating, if you pay for Business Class standards and they advertise in-seat IFE, then that's what should be provided!

 

[Moopere]

Seriously folks, the best way to get this type of thing addressed is to write and phone VA with a reasoned argument based around non fulfilment of expected travel amenity and ask for some compensation. I've done this previously on several occasions when VA dropped the ball on J class 737 food and got a cheerful and prompt response along with a credit note.

The idea for me is twofold, it placates me to some degree, that at least the airline cares a little bit about its customers, enough to not simply tell me to get stuffed in any event, and secondly, if enough of these credit notes start being written up then it forces the issue towards maintenance because it starts to rise up the flagpole as an issue to the bean-counters.

I switched airlines from QF to VA almost 2 years ago now - the 767's and their coughpy seats/shared IFE and laughable J class were a big part of the reason - other reasons being no priority boarding, pricing, arguably worse lounges (certainly the standard QF lounges are not _better_ than VA's) and constantly degrading FF program.

 

[markis10]

Tablets/WiFi are not an IFE solution

The updated Qantas A330's will have a terrific IFE product

Have to laugh at the blinkers on in that post, iPADs are not the solution, A330s will have a great solution:

all A330s will be fitted with Qantas’ Q-Streaming technology, which gives customers access to an extensive entertainment library streamed to devices like iPads.

The A330s coming back to QF without the current Pana system will get......iPADS!

The 717s coming into the fleet with J will get....iPADS!

 

[lovestotravel]

Have to laugh at the blinkers on in that post, iPADs are not the solution, A330s will have a great solution:



The A330s coming back to QF without the current Pana system will get......iPADS!

The 717s coming into the fleet with J will get....iPADS!

Laugh all you want

717's fly routes of about 45mins. What about the Virgin E-Jets.....?

Pretty sure ALL QF A330's get full Pana IFE though ?

Even if they don't the A330's are OLD aircraft, yet Virgin are receiving brand new 737's with no IFE at all, not even audio.

Now that is hilarious!

 

[markis10]

Laugh all you want

717's fly routes of about 45mins. What about the Virgin E-Jets.....?

Pretty sure ALL QF A330's get full Pana IFE though ?

Even if they don't the A330's are OLD aircraft, yet Virgin are receiving brand new 737's with no IFE at all, not even audio.

Now that is hilarious!

The fantastic new IFE you crow with the A330 conversions is just streaming, exactly what Virgin have in terms of capability in all their new aircraft, with the addition of adding internet if required. Its clearly the way of the future, like it or lump it, for good or bad.

 

[toowongman]

Even if they don't the A330's are OLD aircraft, yet Virgin are receiving brand new 737's with no IFE at all, not even audio.

Now that is hilarious!

Pretty sure the VA IFE mantra from the near future will be "bring your own device and stream from the wifi".

 

[lovestotravel]

The fantastic new IFE you crow with the A330 conversions is just streaming, exactly what Virgin have in terms of capability in all their new aircraft, with the addition of adding internet if required. Its clearly the way of the future, like it or lump it, for good or bad.

But new QF aircraft are coming with a FIXED IFE, both 737's and 787's for JQ

So it doesn't appear to be the way of the future at all

You are also saying that the A330's with the new J class will have iPads ???

 

[markis10]

You are also saying that the A330's with the new J class will have iPads ???

Correct. Seat Back IFE is rapidly going the way of the dodo, going by what all the airlines are doing with new builds and refits, there will always be standouts from the crowd like the middle eastern airlines, but airlines with tight finances have little choice.

 

[lovestotravel]

Correct. Seat Back IFE is rapidly going the way of the dodo, going by what all the airlines are doing.

Hmmm well then that's cough, and my glasses are off

A330's with iPads in business class is far from idea, and more than laughable.

I am still not sure you are correct though, as I fail to see why QF would spend hundreds of thousands of $$ on a new J class only to put an iPad there

Do you have any links/reference to this ?

I still have faith that while brand new aircraft come with IFE that this tablet rubbish will stop...... Maybe I am dreaming

 

[notzac]

I still have faith that while brand new aircraft come with IFE that this tablet rubbish will stop...... Maybe I am dreaming

The only thing that's rubbish about a tablet IFE solution (whether BYOD or airline-supplied) is that neither QF nor VA have quite worked out how their customers can watch something and eat a meal. I reckon it could be solved fairly easily with modifications to the seats, so it surprises me that neither airline has done anything about it.

Once that's solved, I don't see a problem with wireless IFE at all.

 

[Fruitcake]

The only thing that's rubbish about a tablet IFE solution (whether BYOD or airline-supplied) is that neither QF nor VA have quite worked out how their customers can watch something and eat a meal.

Something like... this?
B767 Refurbishment | Qantas

 

[aupirate]

I have finally got my act together and downloaded a heap of movies onto my laptop and my phone which has a large screen. Now I`m not concerned when the crew come around to collect the tablets 1/2 an hour before landing as in our DWN to SYD flight a couple of weeks ago which was especially frustrating to my wife who was 10 mins before the end of a movie. However today I did view a not too bad doco today on VA on the way home from Townsville on the wifi. So mixed feelings about IFE, best as a previous poster stated to have your own movies then choose from there depending on whats available and what mood your in.

 

[straitman]

I fly both Qantas and Virgin and have to say that the new wifi that is being rolled out on the VA 737 aircraft is by far the best domestic IFE in Oz. The QF 767 wifi setup is also good and to be honest I'm not even sure why I prefer the VA offering.

yet Virgin are receiving brand new 737's with no IFE at all, not even audio.

Now that is hilarious!

They are having the wifi IFE fitted (which is much better than the QF offering on most a/c) within a very short period of arrival.

 

[grubbidok]

The only thing that's rubbish about a tablet IFE solution (whether BYOD or airline-supplied) is that neither QF nor VA have quite worked out how their customers can watch something and eat a meal. I reckon it could be solved fairly easily with modifications to the seats, so it surprises me that neither airline has done anything about it.

Once that's solved, I don't see a problem with wireless IFE at all.

My biggest issue with the iPads was never the meal, but the glare you just can't get rid of. It's rather unsettling seeing yourself in every movie or TV show you watch. Even in that shiny Qantas promo it looks like the guy can see far more of his reflection than he can of any IFE

 

[esquire]

Flew PER-SYD on Monday (sadly an old EY 330 bird) but the IFE was appalling. It actually reset itself every hour on the hour and was poor quality. The J cabin was only 3px but there was one very annoyed passenger in front on his first VA 330 experience trying to watch a movie... (along with having to move because his seat controls were broken).

Food from new menu was very average too ...

 

[Noob]

Virgin Australia Wireless IFE has over 300 hours of content

100 hours or 1/3rd more content than:

- Qantas QStreaming at 200 hours
- Qantas 737 seat back at around 200 hours

That's a possible extra 40 feature-length movies or an extra 300 TV episodes

QF 737 seat back 'hours of content' calculated using the Qantas website description of their content options (e.g 20 movies x 3 hours etc)