As we all know, American has become a distant third among the “big three” US carriers when it comes to both profitability and passenger experience. The issue is that American has essentially squandered the past decade plus trying to become less premium, focusing on a strategy of “the schedule is the product.” Suffice it to say that the airline has realized that this strategy doesn’t work (as have employees, customers, and investors).
In recent times, we’ve seen American try to become more premium once again, realizing that’s the only way to compete with Delta and United. So along those lines, it looks like American is considering reversing one of its most controversial decisions in recent years.
American may greatly revamp inflight entertainment
CNBC reports that bringing back seat back TVs on most of American’s narrow body mainline aircraft is under “serious consideration,” and a decision could be made as soon as next month. This is according to “a person familiar with the matter,” so we’ll see what comes of this, and this remains highly unconfirmed.
This would be part of a larger revamp of American’s inflight entertainment on narrow body planes. The plans also include discussions with SpaceX’s Starlink, and Amazon’s Leo, to potentially provide higher speed inflight Wi-Fi.
American is also reportedly in talks with Amazon about providing content for the seat back entertainment, which could include Amazon Prime, music, and potentially shopping, allowing customers to redeem AAdvantage miles for purchases (not that it would be a great value). It goes without saying that any project to add back seat back TVs would be costly and take years to complete.
American did recently roll out free inflight Wi-Fi on most aircraft, in partnership with Viasat. However, Delta definitely has the edge when it comes to entertainment overall, while United is currently on track to become the industry leader, between introducing modern seat back entertainment on most planes, while also rolling out Starlink Wi-Fi.
Adding credibility to the concept of this report, JonNYC points out that American’s fairly new Chief Commercial Officer, Nat Pieper, was at Delta back in 2009-2015, and was head of fleet of the airline, and that’s largely when decisions were made to introduce seat back TVs.
My take on American’s potential reversal on entertainment
It’s nice to see American trying to improve its passenger experience as of late, as we’ve really seen the airline make some strides. As I’ve repeatedly said, here’s the issue, as I see it, in terms of this strategy having a material impact:
- American is a distant third to Delta and United when it comes to passenger experience, financial performance, and service, and those airlines are also greatly investing in their experience, so it’s hard to catch up under those circumstances (not that I trust his narrative, and he’s certainly biased, but United CEO Scott Kirby thinks that American is totally cooked)
- The biggest issue is that American has completely squandered the past decade, and the fact that the airline went from installing seat back TVs to just ripping them out years later is absolutely wild to me; the airline literally spent money to make the passenger experience worse
- I actually don’t think that lack of seat back TVs is among American’s top five issues, and I think what’s most important is focusing on customer service, reliability, expanding its long haul route network, etc.
Here’s the thing, and this is something that I’ve said pretty consistently. I understand that in theory seat back TVs are appealing, but I’m actually not someone who cares all that much about them.
I might be in the minority, but the issue is that technology is changing at such a fast pace, and it’s incredible how fast a cabin with TVs can go from looking modern and cutting edge, to just looking terribly outdated.
So yeah, if American introduces seat back TVs, that’s great. I don’t think it’s a game changer, necessarily, and I care more about the airline introducing true high speed Wi-Fi, like Starlink.
Bottom line
American is reportedly seriously considering reintroducing seat back TVs throughout its narrow body fleet, along with adding higher speed Wi-Fi. American has fallen behind Delta and United in recent years when it comes to customer experience, after first introducing TVs, only to then spend years ripping them out.
While I don’t think TVs as such will solve American’s problems, it is a sign that American management realizes the extent to which they’ve screwed up. It remains to be seen if American can actually make up lost ground, or if it’s too late to right the ship.
What do you make of the prospect of American adding back seat back TVs on narrow body planes?
