Lufthansa's IFE is wobbly

IN A BID to capture as much travellers as possible, airlines install different types of entertainment to make the time fly faster.

Systems are usually called IFE (In-Flight Entertainment), and in the past several years, old analogue systems were replaced with a grid of networked computers, with every seat having a dedicated computer connecting to content distribution server. Some airlines choose Linux, some choose Windows operating systems.

IFE in business class is based on a relatively small 12" screen (there are airlines with 12" in Economy)...

Sadly, my 14A seat IFE was probably jinxed, since IFE crashed no less than four times during a short flight between Frankfurt and New York.

Sadly, this was visible quite often and no, it does not take seconds...

It turned out that pressing the back button in main menu would bring system to a halt, just like rewinding the movie to the very beginning (and not stopping). Unlike my previous flight Swiss A340-300, where a crash brings a penguin and boots in 2-3mins, this system was loading approximately six minutes each and every time. We have checked on-line and it seems that there are quite a lot of passangers (pax in short) complaining about this. However, Lufthansa's recent unprofessional behaviour makes this IFE problem just a small thing in the pond.

Given the price of a seat in a business class seat and lack of any IFE in Economy class, one might think that Lufthansa went all out to create a premium experience for high-paying passengers. Not this time around. µ