The Thrifty Traveler Podcast · Thursday, August 27, 2026
American Airlines has announced a significant reversal in its strategy regarding in-flight entertainment, committing to installing seatback screens across its entire narrow-body fleet. This decision comes after years of removing them, a move that was criticized by passengers.
“So last week American announced this, reversing course and will begin outfitting its entire fleet of narrow body planes with seatback screens.”
“The good news, they will all be 4K screens, probably quite big, though they haven't said what. They have said, however, that every single one of them from first class all the way to the very final row of economy will be Bluetooth connectivity.”
“The bad news is that this won't start for new deliveries until sometime in 2028 and to retrofit its entire existing fleet of hundreds of Airbus A320s and Boeing 737 Maxes, that won't be done until sometime in the 2030s.”