June 30, 2008 12:00 PM Filed in:
Travel | Airlines
So I'm on the plane as I write this. I got a
window seat right by the wing. Thus, if that monster
William Shatner saw were to land on it, I'd be the
first to know. I have been flying almost ten hours.
Luckily for me I slept through most of it. Now being
awake I decided to really take a look at this plane.
There are some very big differences between this tube
and the flights I took in times past, especially
concerning on-board entertainment. For example, I am
listening to a J-pop station at this very moment
through the in-flight entertainment system, which I
will discuss at length in a moment.
I don't know much about plane models and numbers. I
think everyone knows the Boeing 747 and some may know
that there's a 777, but that's about the extent of my
knowledge. I do believe, though, that this plane is
smaller than the one I took to China in 2002, which
was operated by China Eastern Airlines. The seats in
this plane seem smaller too, then again, I was
probably a bit thinner back then.
This plane is operated by Cathay Pacific, who I must
admit I never heard of before buying my ticket. While
spaces on board may be a bit tighter than flights I
took in the past, the plane is considerably more
advanced in other ways. For example, when I flew to
China in 2002, a story I will relate in detail on
this blog one day, the in-flight movie was on a large
screen centered in our area of the plane just like it
was a movie theatre. Basically everyone watched the
same thing, and they watched it when the airline
decided to play it. Things have changed quite a bit
since then.
On this modern airline, in-flight entertainment
and information rises to an entirely new level with
the impressive system they have installed, including
screens on the back of every seat. Upon activation,
the user is given a great information screen which
displays the time remaining to the destination, a
simple map of the route, and a way to access the
entertainment section of the system. Notice how it
currently shows 4 hours and 46 minutes remaining.
That's after
9 hours of flying
already!
The entertainment section is even more
impressive. Gone are the days of everyone watching
the same movie when
they say you
watch it. This system gives each passenger an iTunes
type of entertainment system where they can choose
what they want to watch, and it's all on-demand. Even
fairly recent movies are included. The lady next to
me is watching
Bucket List right now. It
doesn't just stop with movies however, included are
dozens of TV shows from America, China, Japan and
other Asian locales. There is also an extensive music
selection. There are individual CD music style
choices across multiple genres and countries, and
there are also radio station type selections. As
mentioned earlier, I am listening to the J-Pop
station right now. Makes me wonder who the target
audience is, though, as a large number of the musical
selections are from anime. Still, I brought my
laptop, my iPhone, and even my Sony PSP to entertain
myself on the long flight, and it turns out, they had
plenty of entertainment prepared. Although I haven't
tried them yet, they even have games on this system.
While they seem to be up on the latest movies and TV
shows on this in-flight system, sometimes I think it
would be nice if some slightly older movies were
available. Now would be an ideal time to watch
Snakes on a Plane!
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