long haul flight without in flight entertainment

[sh1066]

have been stalking this site for years now and have found some very useful information which has helped me on my travels so today decided to join up as i need some info from all of you experienced airline travellers. -so here goes...........my son has just boarded an etihad aircraft from abu dhabi to london after a very fast transit there from sydney.
his etihad flight from sydney was delayed for nearly 3 hours-2 hrs 55 to be precise due to problems with the entertainment system-they sat in the aircraft on the tarmac for the whole 3 hours plus boarding time prior to takeoff and then flew the 15 or so hours to abu dhabi without inflight entertainment! then ran to the connecting flight which was waiting for them. can anyone advise if my son will be able to claim any compensation for this as it has been a very difficult flight for him-and me as i have to listen to his complaints lol!.

 

[simongr]

The contract of travel is point A to point B not the IFE.
Saying that I did get sent a $600 travel voucher for IFE not working on a QF flight - HKG-SYD.

 

[oz_mark]

The contract of travel is point A to point B not the IFE.
Saying that I did get sent a $600 travel voucher for IFE not working on a QF flight - HKG-SYD.

IFE is part of the advertised product offering, and is an inclusion in the price paid. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect that it would be provided.

The OP would need to contact Etihad, and explain the situation, and see what they will do. $600 may be a bit over the top though!

 

[sh1066]

thanks for the info simon-wow you were lucky!-thought it would be the case that compensation would only be a given out as a public relations exercise rather than an obligation-will contact etihad and see what they say but dont like his chances!!

 

[Anna]

thanks for the info simon-wow you were lucky!-thought it would be the case that compensation would only be a given out as a public relations exercise rather than an obligation-will contact etihad and see what they say but dont like his chances!!

I was given A$400 in travel vouchers by JAL for IFE not working on a flight SYD - NRT.

I didn't have to ask for it, the cabin crew came around the J cabin and took our details so JAL could send the vouchers, which they duly did about 10 days later. I don't know what happened for the Y passengers.

 

[TonyHancock]

I was given A$400 in travel vouchers by JAL for IFE not working on a flight SYD - NRT.

I didn't have to ask for it, the cabin crew came around the J cabin and took our details so JAL could send the vouchers, which they duly did about 10 days later. I don't know what happened for the Y passengers.

I would consider $400 and $600 to be reasonably generous.

I would be interested in seeing what compensation for Y passengers has been.

 

[simongr]

IFE is part of the advertised product offering, and is an inclusion in the price paid. Therefore, it is reasonable to expect that it would be provided.

The OP would need to contact Etihad, and explain the situation, and see what they will do. $600 may be a bit over the top though!

I agree that $600 was OTT (though it was a travel voucher and eventually was used for business travel). I have also received $50 and $100 on board. I was also in J and OWE.

 

[ozmille]

only received 300 for no IFE in J class LHR to BKK (didn't even notice as I slept the whole way )

 

[JetLagged]

I don't know what happened for the Y passengers.

My educated guess would be, based on other experiences, that it would have been $200 for Y, $400 for J and $600 for F - an incremental scale based on revenue to encourage you to try again.

Similar things happen with forced layovers: different hotel standards for passanegrs in F, J and Y; different transport - buss for Y, taxi for J and F, etc.

Makes sense, overall.

 

[Timba-Jet]

I was given A$400 in travel vouchers by JAL for IFE not working on a flight SYD - NRT.

I didn't have to ask for it, the cabin crew came around the J cabin and took our details so JAL could send the vouchers.

Thats very impressive pro-active service by JAL. Turn a negative into a positive experience.

 

[SeaWolf]

As a curiosity, what did he do to keep himself busy during the flight? I'm always quite careful to ensure that my book and laptop always board the flight with me, but I have been on one QF flight where the entertainment failed and quite a number of passengers spent five and a half hours browsing the in-flight magazine. :shock:

 

[TonyHancock]

As a curiosity, what did he do to keep himself busy during the flight? I'm always quite careful to ensure that my book and laptop always board the flight with me, but I have been on one QF flight where the entertainment failed and quite a number of passengers spent five and a half hours browsing the in-flight magazine. :shock:

Could have been worse - an impromptu game of eye spy!

I travel with iPad with 40 hours of TV/Film, iPod with 25,000 songs, and iPhone with 36 hours of podcasts and radio!!

 

[sh1066]

funny you should ask that!!!! i asked him that question and he told me that because we kept him so long after check in at sydney before he went through security and immigration he didnt have time to buy the book he planned to purchase and his computer was not charged so all he had was his ipod to listen to and ,as you said,the in flight magazine-for 15.5 hours!!!! he then had to run to connecting flight to london which waited for his flight from sydney(-instead of him having 3 hrs in abu dhabi) then another 7 hrs flight-with entertainment! he has never had this happen before so was not prepared-has done a LOT of overseas travel-and HAS learnt a lesson! he did say he managed 3 hrs broken sleep in the 27hrs it took him to get to london. DIG day!

 

[sh1066]

oops-BIG day lol!

 

[trippin_the_rift]

The norm is 15-20% of the base airfare for that segment (excluding taxes).

So a $2k return SYD-LHR for example (4 segments) would be something like this:

$2k gross airfare
$400 'taxes'
= $1600 / 4 segments
if IFE isn't working on 1 segement, that's 20% of $400 = $80 compensation

Most airlines round it up to the nearest 100 though

 

[pauly7]

The norm is 15-20% of the base airfare for that segment (excluding taxes).

So a $2k return SYD-LHR for example (4 segments) would be something like this:

$2k gross airfare
$400 'taxes'
= $1600 / 4 segments
if IFE isn't working on 1 segement, that's 20% of $400 = $80 compensation

Most airlines round it up to the nearest 100 though

Um.... Norm for who, just normal passengers?

 

[sh1066]

normal-do you mean economy??? lol!

 

[haydensydney]

God... i'm flying J on Etihad to London in a couple of weeks - if I don't have IFE I will turn ferral! :evil::evil::evil:

Your poor son!!

 

[sh1066]

surely it will be fixed by then!!! take lots of big boys toys just in case-good luck!!

 

[RAM]

Similar problem with Lufthansa. The five of us flew Syd/MUC/Syd. Online talked of wonders of IFE. On flight of 15+ hours Sing to MUC (& Rtn) no IFE - 747 with one screen per cabin aisle. One movie - not suitable for children.

Needless to say our 3 children were unhappy after having spent several weeks planning what movies to watch on outward (late Dec 2010) and inward (late Jan 2011) to get maximum new release movies.

Given it is the longest flight done by Lufthansa it is a major fraud on passengers to advertise IFE, show movies available (on each leg) and not provide it.