I don't hate airlines' seat-back TVs,
I just hate the ads.
Photo: Globalgiants.com

by Brook Wilkinson

I took my first flight on Frontier Airlines not too long ago. The crew was great, and the flights arrived on time, but I have one major complaint: I was forced to watch advertisements throughout the entire flight. They scrolled continuously across the seat-back screen, a mere eight inches from my face, nearly impossible to ignore.

You've probably read the recent articles about ads on tray tables and even boarding passes, but I find the video advertisements most insidious of all. Frontier lets them play constantly, unless you slide your credit card and cough up several bucks for their DIRECTV service. Should you prefer to read a book or, say, a magazine, good luck my friends. It's hard to ignore flashing stimuli at such close range, and you can't close your tray table or put away your boarding pass to make it stop. In fact, there's no clear method of turning off the screen.

Cheer up. About half an hour before landing on our return flight, my boyfriend figured out how to turn those infuriating screens off: Press the "brightness down" button until the screen eventually goes black. Then, finally, you can read your brand-new copy of Condé Nast Traveler's August issue in peace.