Since last August, American has offered passengers on their trans-continental 767-200 flights, wirelessly streamed, on-demand entertainment to their laptops. American uses an onboard server to deliver the video, and travelers are able to “rent” TV programs and movies for $.99 to $3.99 (sort of like Netflix).

Here’s a video demo:

Up till now, iOS and Android devices weren’t compatible with the video format.  I’m not sure when that changed, but today I noticed American has expanded their on-demand service and now support iPad and Android tablets.

Stay entertained in the air with entertainment on demand. Purchase wirelessly streamed movies and TV shows from an inflight library to your Wi-Fi-enabled laptop during flight, and now to your iPad, Galaxy Tab, Motorola Xoom or any tablet that runs iOS 4 or 5 or Android OS 3.2.

To promote it, they’re giving you free Gogo wifi when you rent a movie:

To celebrate the launch of entertainment on demand availability on tablets, we’re giving away complimentary Wi-Fi. Simply purchase a movie in flight now through June 3 and you’ll receive a complimentary Inflight Wi-Fi pass for use on your next flight.

The best news is that it won’t just be 767-200 with this technology:

Entertainment on demand is available onboard all American Airlines flights on 767-200 planes…as well as select MD80 planes and coming soon to 737-800 planes.

We are working to install entertainment on demand service across our entire Inflight Wi-Fi equipped domestic fleet by the end of the year.

If want to know if on-demand entertainment is available on your next flight, the AA Wifi Widget now displays availability.

Visit this page at AA.com for complete details.

Speaking of on-demand entertainment….

A month or two ago, I was traveling from JFK to San Francisco and took a video of the menu from the Samsung Galaxy Tab entertainment system that’s offered to First Class and Business Class passengers. 

It’s hardly a documentary, but if you’re curious….

Have a great weekend!

Earlier this year American Airlines announced that they and Gogo Inflight Internet would test streaming video to passengers’ wireless devices on some of their 767-200 transcontinental flights.  I guess they must have been pleased with the results, because today they announced that this service, Gogo Vision, is available on all their 767-200 flights:

American Airlines is the first North American airline to offer an innovative new feature – Entertainment On Demand. Now you can purchase wirelessly streamed movies and TV shows, from an inflight library to your Wi-Fi-enabled laptop during flight.

Entertainment On Demand is now available onboard American Airlines flights operated by 767-200 aircraft – primarily transcontinental flights. Choose from a wide variety of feature films and TV programs selected for everyone.

Prices start as low as $.99 for TV shows and $3.99 for movies.

Later this month, they’ll offer free wifi with a rental:

Beginning August 15 and running for 30 days, rent a movie or TV show through American Airlines Entertainment On Demand and get a free Wi-Fi session for your next flight. You will be emailed the free Wi-Fi code in your Entertainment On Demand receipt.

For now, it’s only supported on wifi enabled laptop, but they’ve announced plans to expand availability to iPhones, iPads and other mobile devices soon. Go here for complete details.

I haven’t been lucky enough to be on one of the test flights, so I can’t claim to know how well it works. If you’ve been able to try it, please feel free to share your experience. I’m curious to know how well it works and what kind of movie and TV show selection was available.

Back in the days before we printed  tickets with our inkjet printers or could have a QR Code boarding pass sent to our iPhones, American Airlines had actual ticket offices all over the world.

Starting in the late 80′s, when I was a young adult, I’d grab system timetables every time I flew or went to the airport.  I still have a box filled with old tickets, system timetables, boarding passes, and route maps for several airlines: American, Pan Am, Delta, Southwest, Midwest Express, USAir, Philippine Airlines, Lufthansa, British Airways, Northwest Airlines, Continental, MarkAir, TWA, America West, even CSA Czechoslovak Airlines circa 1991 (when CSA was the abbreviation for Czechoslovak State Airlines).  I even found my original AAdvantage Program welcome kit, complete with awards chart and an invitation to join the Admirals Club for only $175.

I was looking through this box and came across an American Airlines DFW Quick Reference Timetable from May 1990, with a list of 39 actual ticket offices in the Dallas/Fort Worth metro area, including an AAirlink ticket office on Midway road and LBJ freeway.  It’s hard to believe that American had that many ticket offices at one time, even more difficult to fathom how they were able to support the cost.   I don’t remember the AAirlink location, or what it was even, but I think it was some kind of park and fly/ticket office location, though I may be wrong about that.

I plan to scan my original AAdvantage Program welcome kit and post it later this month, for now I thought I’d share a photo of the back of the AA Quick Reference timetable with a list of all those DFW ticket offices.  Let me know if you remember the old AAirlink location or can explain in more detail what purpose it served.

Via the Skytalk blog over at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, American just announced a new mobile site version of the Wifi Widget.  Here’s a screenshot of the new site.

You can access the site by pointing your mobile browser to m.aawifiwidget.com or by clicking here.

I did this flight myself back in May.  Because of the volcanic eruption in Iceland, the plane had to fly a far north route over Greenland, adding almost three hours to the trip.  It was a very long flight.

Take a look at Christoph Niemann’s flight diary.  I can relate to many of his observations, especially the struggle with the neck pillow.  I’ve too have always wondered about that hole in the window.

See them all here.

Air Canada

Airplane Bath

Airplane Graveyard

Backyard Plane

More strange Google Earth sightings at Tech Blog.