Flying Your Friendly IPhones

In this day-and-age of airline bankruptcies following each other with domino-like rapidity and skyrocketing oil and gas prices triggering skyrocketing air fares, it's nice to see that airlines (or at least one, that is) are still trying to come up with new ways to do good by travelers. In this case, the carrier in question is United Airlines and the improvement in service is in-flight iPhone and iPod connectivity.

Long, boring, and uncomfortable, flights are always made better by entertaining distractions (thus the now-ancient advent of in-flight movies, for one example). But in our modern era of On Demand HD television and TiVo, etc., merely providing any old entertainment just doesn't cut it anymore. We've grown accustomed to having everything "our way", especially our entertainment, and the iPhone and iPod are just tools to filling that need. That's why United Airlines has announced that passengers will now be able to hook up their iPods or iPhones to the plane's in-flight entertainment system, making them able to view their own content on a personal 15.4" television screen, all whilst their devices are charging. Thanks to Panasonic Avionics Corporation, United seats will now feature a cable with a 30-pin connector that supports both Apple devices. This on top of United's existing 150-hours of on-demand programming plus games and XM radio. The first passengers to enjoy this new perk will be business-class travelers on international flights. But over the next two years, all wide-body planes in the United fleet will be reconfigured to features this iPod and iPhone connectivity and other on-demand entertainment, as well as seats that lie back flat. June 16, 2008 marked United Airline's first flight with this benefit offered, United flight 936 from Washington D.C. to Zurich, Switzerland. United is the first U.S. carrier to offer iPhone and iPod connectivity, but not the first airline worldwide; that credit goes to Singapore Airlines. Apple Computers had indicated a couple of years ago that it was in talks with six major airlines - United among them, as well as Continental Airlines and Delta Airlines - regarding the integration of iPod docking stations into airplanes. United's announcement couldn't have come at a better time for the airline as consumers are still reeling from its recent decision to charge all passengers for all checked luggage, including their first bag. This move to integrate Apple's consumer-friendly technology in with United's services may be enough to get prospective passengers to forgive them the offending per bag fee, but it will no doubt be the overall ticket price of one's itinerary that will still be the final determinant in which airline to fly. Whether or not United can successively siphon off some of Apple's goodwill with consumers still remains to be seen.