I’ve decided to save my “newsier” post on US Airways for a bit later, and kick off the real posting with this gem I found, one that will dramatically improve your in flight experience.

Video entertainment on US airlines, especially domestically, often is quite lacking, both literally, and in terms of content. There still exists a large percentage of US airlines that fly without personal in-flight entertainment (IFE), such as seat-back monitors. (Most respectable international airlines, such as Singapore Airlines, Cathay Pacific, or Emirates, feature on-demand in-seat video, even in economy class, with sometimes hundreds of movie, television, music, and game options).With no personal IFE, the entertainment playing from overhead monitors is often insufferable, ranging from grade-c movie titles to reruns of sitcoms so awful they’re probably used as an interrogation technique: “Okay! I’ll tell you everything I know! Just turn off the damn reruns of Everyone Loves Raymond!”

The key, of course, is to bring your own in-flight entertainment. I’m not much of a big movie watcher outside of an airplane, but I do enjoy a good film when trapped in metal tube. So: you heard it here first: Wing and a Prayer has the remedy to awful in-flight entertainment.

It comes courtesy of Kevin Marshall, a poster on the popular travel website FlyerTalk.com (I will discuss the site in greater detail, later). All words and images are of his creation. Truthfully, though, I thought I had created the best use of a vomit bag, when, two years ago, on a flight to Tokyo on United, I used the vomit bag to take notes from a reading for my honors thesis. He trumps me here.

It’s a shoutout, too, to all the Southwest flyers, the airline that famously features no IFE. Going to school in Berkeley, with many people from Los Angeles and San Diego, I came to know people’s Southwest experiences quite well. Enjoy.

Kevin Marshall’s Homemade IFE Recipe:

*How to make a Getto IFE system for iPhone/iPod Touch (or other media device).
*
You will need:
- A sick bag
- An iPod/iPhone or other media player.

Instructions:
- Ensure the sick bag isn’t used
- rip hole in the centre of the baggie
- rip hole large enough for screen
- rip hole in side so you can plug your headset in
- mount onto seat back
- enjoy entertainment

Simply priceless:

Ta-da!

Enjoy!