Delta Adds Free In-Flight Entertainment for All

For coach-class flyers, there’s been little in the way of good news recently. If anything, the trend has been a negative one, with airlines squeezing ever more seats onto ever fuller planes. Comfort? Not much.

Delta this week introduced a new in-flight entertainment system, dubbed Delta Studio, that will at least offer a bit of distraction to its coach customers, if nothing in the way of extra comfort.

With the new system, which Delta calls “the most far-reaching effort by an airline,” flyers will have access to movies, TV shows, music, and video games, either on seatback screens or via their own streaming-enabled devices.

All the content will be free to customers in first, business, and Economy Comfort, on flights lasting 90 or more minutes. Flyers in non-premium coach will have access to some content—”Delta’s live satellite TV channels, music selections and game options through seat-back entertainment systems as well as movie or TV selections such as ‘The Hunger Games: Catching Fire’ or ‘Frozen'”—and can pay extra for more.

Delta currently has seat-back entertainment systems in place on all its long-haul international flights, as well as on 140 domestic planes. More than 900 Delta planes offer in-flight Wi-Fi, and by the end of 2015, the number should exceed 1,000.

More inflight diversions certainly trump the alternative. But distraction is no substitute for physical comfort, as Delta seems to believe. From the airline’s press release: “Through the introduction of Delta Studio our customers have yet another reason to choose Delta and a different travel experience. Delta continues to be driven by customer feedback which has consistently placed the desire to be entertained at the top of the list of ways to improve our customers’ time in the air.”

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Top of the list, really?

Reader Reality Check

Delta thinks in-flight entertainment is flyers’ top priority when it comes to air travel. Is it yours? What about legroom and seat comfort generally?

This article originally appeared on FrequentFlier.com.

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