Seven hours of Norwegian train trip comes to British Airways in-flight TV

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• Tariq says:

  24 Jun24 June 06:23

  Great idea. If I’m a bit snoozy and don’t feel like concentrating on watching a film, I often just put the map on. Don’t need to have uncomfortable headphones on to listen to anything, often sends you to sleep, and when you wake up you can see instantly where you are!

  • Ricardo says:

    24 Jun24 June 15:10

    Me too. I wonder if all of us dozing off with the map left on for several hours are what’s really behind the high viewing figures

• Paul says:

  24 Jun24 June 06:30

  I do wish they would focus on the basics rather than this rubbish. Simple food well cooked, depart on time with my bag, curteous service and use my name, good quality IFE with latest releases and complete TV series.
  It’s not hard, others do it every day. BA try all this flummery and esoteric nonsense, then fail miserably. To many people with nothing much to do!

  • Lady London says:

    24 Jun24 June 13:45

    You want a lot, don’t you.

    🙂

• LondonFoodie says:

  24 Jun24 June 07:12

  Gives a new meaning to “watching the grass grow”

• Farringdon says:

  24 Jun24 June 08:14

  It’s a spectacular train journey. Well worth doing if you’re in Norway.

  • JohnG says:

    24 Jun24 June 10:10

    Exactly, in fact the only reason I probably wouldn’t watch it on a plane is that it’s on my list of things to do in the flesh!

    If they think it’s going to be popular with passengers then I really can’t see the reason why some people are complaining that they shouldn’t be focusing on ‘this rubbish’. Surely things that are popular with passengers are exactly what they should be focusing on.

• Stu says:

  24 Jun24 June 08:55

  To be honest, I welcome ideas like this. On the First Great Western train from Bristol to Paddington they have a carriage with screens and I was surprised at the amount of well-being type programs e.g. meditation, breathing exercises, mindfulness. I like having this variety.

  I do think the IFE has incredible potential and opportunities but is completely under-utilised. Having touch screen TV’s in front of people’s faces for time periods up to 16 hours is a real opportunity for the airlines to engage and differentiate….

  Or maybe not…

  • Lady London says:

    24 Jun24 June 13:47

    …or advertise…
    Let’s not give them ideas 🙂

• Czechoslovakia says:

  24 Jun24 June 09:27

  Just a shame BA didn’t choose an equivalent offering from British Rail. 7 hours of watching a broken down locomotive or Network Rail clearing leaves on the line would certainly help people drift of to sleep easier on board.
  Deutsche Bahn have there own dedicated tv channel!

  • TimS says:

    24 Jun24 June 09:39

    Or 7 hours on a rail replacement bus stuck in motorway traffic!

  • JQ says:

    24 Jun24 June 17:06

    Still stuck in the 1980s, I see

• Simon says:

  24 Jun24 June 09:27

  It is supposed to be a great train journey, I’m doing the opposite journey from Oslo to Bergen this weekend

• Volker says:

  24 Jun24 June 09:36

  I like trains, the idea itself is good. But why buy footage from a foreign country? Why not produce a film about travelling Britain, at least to begin with? Create/secure jobs in the UK? And show passengers on BA flights (anywhere in the world) how beautiful the fleet’s home country is (attracting tourists, hopefully)?

  The recent documentary on BBC2 was called “A very British airline”, wasn’t it?

  • N3jly says:

    24 Jun24 June 09:44

    I don’t think it would have quite the same tranquil setting in Britain. there are parts of the rail network that are stunning, but not mile after mile for 7 hours. I mean who really wants to see 6 1/2 hours of graffiti and 1/2 hour of the lake district?

    • Frenske says:

      24 Jun24 June 10:33

      I have never take the train but I have travelled more or less the same route by car, I would guess Glasgow-Mallaig would be great for television. But why not live-streaming the view from the cockpit.

      • TimS says:

        24 Jun24 June 11:04

        Probably because on a long flight the view from the cockpit can actually be quite dull.

        If it purely looked out of the window it would be dull for 90% of cruise and if it was set further back to capture the crew as well it would probably scare many passengers to see what they do (or more accurately DON’T do) during cruise.

        Seeing a night time thunderstorm in the distance ahead of you can be quite spectacular, as can seeing a plane coming out of the clouds flying straight towards you 1,000 or 2,000 feet below but most of the view ahead at altitude is nothing but cloud & empty sky.

  • JohnG says:

    24 Jun24 June 10:12

    The train journey they’ve picked is supposed to be one of the most beautiful in the world. It’s already been filmed and is apparently popular with an audience. I’m all for BA trying something like you suggest but it hardly seems like a good reason to ignore good content from elsewhere.

  • Chilibenny says:

    26 Jun26 June 14:17

    Yes lets show foreign passengers some of the great things to do and see in Britain. You could get them away from London and the South East and tempt them to travel to some of the great places in the other parts of the UK.

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