Seeing RED on my flight to LA!

Last week I took a flight aboard a Virgin America flight from New York to Los Angeles. Never having flown that particular airline, I had no idea what to expect. The people were great and the airline exceeded my expectations. There was one particular aspect of the flight that I really loved. Each passenger has his or her own little feature-packed LCD touch screen on the back of the seat in front of them.

Called, RED Interactive in-flight entertainment system, this Linux based playground allows you to do a bunch of cool things. You can track the flight using Google maps, see your altitude, and the outside air temperature. But that's not all, you can watch satellite TV, listen to music and even watch music videos. If that's not cool enough, you can also order drinks, snacks and meals using the screen and it even provides a credit card scanner to order any of the "premium" items that aren't offered for free.

There is even a built in "chat" option which allows you to communicate with other passengers;  you locate them using a map of the seating arrangements. All I can say is that RED kept me entertained and free from hunger and boredom on my circa six hour flight from NY to LA and back. Kudos to Virgin for moving into the electronic age of air travel!