Two decades ago, I flew British Airways for the first time. I was 13 years old, and it was the greatest flight I’d ever been on.
What made it so great? Two words: Personal TVs. Every seat had its own television, and each TV had a dozen channels. You could flip through and watch any movie or TV show playing on that channel. For a kid like me — especially one who didn’t have cable TV yet — this was heaven.
Tonight, I flew on British Airways for the first time since that flight. And I’m pretty sure it was the same plane I’d flown on 22 years earlier.
What makes me think that? Well, they still had the same TVs — and they still had that same lineup of channels.
In 2022, we’ve come to expect a little more from our in-flight entertainment. We expect there to be dozens, if not hundreds, of on-demand movies and TV shows.
This flight had two channels, showing two movies of their choice, and a picture quality that reminded me of the days of rabbit ears on our set-top box.
Look, I know this is a first-world problem. And it the end, it didn’t really matter at all. Instead of watching a movie, I read a book, did a little work, and took a nap.
But it was a nice reminder of how far things have come in the past few years. The next time I’m flying and I *only* have a few dozen options to choose from, I might be a little more grateful. Sometimes, you need a little reminder to remember how good you’ve got it.
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That’s a photo of the TV at my seat. The wavy lines aren’t the result of any weird pixelation caused when taking a photo of a screen — that’s just what the screen looked like.