``American....Their fleet consists primarily of 30 year old, single isle, Super 80`s.....Why would American want to pay the expense and have the cost of airplanes being down to embed an IFE system in those aircraft when most likely they will all be gone in five years or less..``

Strong point, and I`ll add ``why would they want to go embedded on planes where their life cycle is near complete, and then either pay to have it removed (so they can install the then obsolete IFE in new aircraft?) or just let them go?``. This holds true for the many airlines using leased aircraft; why install to at some point face removal costs or sacrafice of the investment (which may not yet have paid for itself)?

There are alot of advantages with the portables, more than offsetting some relatively simple logistics issues. Where the using airlines could better capitalize is to make more of a promotion of the digE at the point of ticket sale - make the decision then, Mr. Passenger. Then bring exactly the quantity on board that you need. It`s something called ``efficiency``, I think...

But I KNOW nuttin`!

`Cept it was nice to see a post by BillWilke!

SGE