I know, I know, I’m back early. Actually, I’m still in the UK until tomorrow, but I have some free time and an internet connection, and I just can’t stay away for too long. So I don’t know if I’ll be back on the normal schedule just yet, but that will happen soon. I’ll also have a nice long trip report for you later this week or early the next.
But today I’d like to catch up on something that Delta rolled out last Wednesday: their new seats with in-seat video on the 737-800s.
Now this is the same seat they have on a good chunk of their 757s already. 
Like the 757 fleet, only some of the 737-800s will actually have the new interior, 28 out of 71 to be precise. And even those 28 won’t be done until May of next year, so it may be hard to find for awhile. And that brings us to the big question . . . how do you make sure you’re getting a plane with the new screens?
Unfortunately, Delta has decided to make it harder for you to figure this out when it comes to the 757. While before they used to have the “752” code for airplanes with the new interior, it seems that they’ve now stolen that code to show if you’re on an international 757 with the new BusinessElite product or not (no difference in coach). If you’re flying domestically, the aircraft code no longer helps you. Fortunately, the seat maps are still different, even though the code is the same. If you pull up a seat map and coach starts with seats in row 20 and ends at row 45, you’re on an old interior plane. If it goes from row 18 to row 44, you’re on a new interior plane.
For the 737, it’s much easier for now. They’ve assigned the code “73H” for the new interiors and kept “738” for the old ones. The 73H is supposed to be used for 737-800s with winglets, and they’re also installing winglets on those planes. So, could it happen that there’s a 73H that doesn’t have the new interior? Quite possibly, though I don’t know how they’re handling it internally. Your best bet is to default back to the seat map. On an old interior 737, coach ends with row 32 but on a new one, it ends with row 33. So as long as you see row 33 on the seat map, you’ll be on a plane with the new interiors (unless they swap it later, of course).
Really, the biggest problem here is that you have to go to these great lengths to find out what is going on. Most people either won’t do it or don’t know they can do it, and so I think Delta is bound to have lots of unhappy customers.
17 comments on “Finding In-Seat Video on Delta”
Sloppy, very sloppy. This makes for an inconsistent product, and that makes for unhappy customers, Air Canada’s approach to make in-seat standard across the fleet is the right approach (even if it is taking so darn-tootin long for them to finish the job)
Is it any surprise it’s so sloppy? This is the airline still flying 75s in Song colors. You can see several each day in SLC.
It’s my understanding that the 757 with seat back TV is listed on the Delta website as 757 TV.
That was my understanding as well, and they have a link to inflight services, but I don’t see it actually being used. If I just missed it, please point out where that is being shown.
Any information on seat pitch to determine if I should book on Jetblue instead of Delta?
JetBlue will still certainly have better pitch. I mean, with 34″ in back and 36″ up front, nobody will beat that with a regular coach product.
On the Delta 757, pitch didn’t change – it’s still 31″ although the “slim line” seats supposedly offer more legroom. The old 738s are 32″ but I don’t know for sure that they’ll stay that way.
I wonder if this “fleet” is meant to eventually directly compete with JetBlue on the east cost JFK routes?
Well, they are meant to compete with JetBlue on the long hauls, but not on the Florida routes. They made that mistake once already. The goal, as far as I remember, was to have this on flights of over 4 hours or 1,750 miles in length.
Do you happen to know if they are offering the inseat entertainment in coach on the ATL-HNL route 764 aircraft
Thanks
MC – I don’t believe so. The 767-400s that fly domestic don’t have the system, as far as I know.
Hey Cranky, this will be interesting. I’m set to fly from BDL to LAX this June, and my itinerary (via Kayak.com rather than Delta.com) shows 738 going and 73H back. My Delta reservation shows both as 737, with the return flight missing the word “Boeing” before it. Nonetheless, the seat map shows up to row 33 for both flights. Neither flight has scheduled entertainment, so I have to wonder if they’re both somehow with the redesigned interiors. I wish your little cheats helped me figure out what to expect, but I won’t know until June. I’ll let you know afterwards.
Have they fixed this issue? Flying JFK to LAX in a month on 757. Shows map with 44 rows, but it did last time as well and I was stuck watching Bee Movie and Friends Re-runs for 6 hours.
Brian – Not that I know of. JFK to LAX should always have the in seat video, but if a plane breaks, substitutions can always happen. Hopefully you’ll have better luck this time.
In March (2008) I flew a DL 767 from ATL to SEA and was pleasantly surprised to find it had a new interior w/back seat video. (It worked so-so, but was better than nothing.)
My seat, 4C, seemed more comfortable than on other Delta 767’s; it fully reclined, as did seats 4AB & 4EF, and had usable storage space between the back of seat and the bulkhead.
The interior was brighter and lead to an overall better experience.
My family and I are flying from London Heathrow on a 767-300 aircraft on 12 July. Will we have AVOD on the aircraft, please? We then fly on to San Diego on a 737-800 aircraft. Will this have AVOD please?
I am hopeful that the system may be available, as 14 hours of flying with a single screen will not mean that I will ever be tempted to fly with Delta again. (We usually fly Heathrow to LAX with British airways, and drive to San Diego. This time we have decided to fly to San Diego airport, and avoid the drive. (My daughter lives in San Diego.)
We have already found some “nice” surprises in the “service” provided. With BA we get two good meals, as many soft drinks as we want, and light snacks provided on route if we get hungry. There are screens in the backs of each seat, and we have free access to eighteen channels including fairly new films. (19 channels if you include the maps, which I do enjoy at times.)(Yes, that is in Coach Class, and it is all for free and gratis.) Delta will give us a breakfast on the Transatlantic flight, and “allow” us to purchase snacks on the second flight. (Not a lot of difference in price, but a world of difference in care.) If there is not a choice of movies on both flights, that will mean we never use Delta again, as the differential in service is way too much to warrant saving a few pounds Sterling. (Is it true that Delta also charge for viewing films on the AVOD system?)
Sorry, I forgot to mention that our first flight is from Heathrow to JFK, and then from JFK to San Diego.
Alan – For all the info, you’ll want to look at Delta’s latest blog post. According to this, flights from Gatwick have AVOD but not from Heathrow. It does, however, say that “most” domestic flights over 4 hours from JFK have AVOD, so keep your fingers crossed that it’s correct.
On the international flights, I believe most of the movie content is free, but you may have to pay for some premium shows, like HBO. On the domestic flights, they have free live television, but you will have to pay for movies if you don’t want to watch TV.