Americans have a reputation for being glued to the TV, so let’s see if their carriers—plus America’s neighbor, Canada—provide IFE systems that enable the screen zombie behavior everyone loves. In today’s face-off, we’re going to see who has the best business class IFE – Air Canada, American, Delta, or United. Let’s see who has the best entertainment in the North American skies!
As a reminder, Premium Travel Insider aggregates reviews from around the web and scores them on a 1-3 scale. A 3 indicates that a given category exceeded reviewer expectations, a 2 indicates it met expectations, and a 1 failed to meet expectations. We evaluate a variety of categories, the most important of which we call the “Big 5” that are most important to a premium travel experience: seat, food, drink, service, and in flight entertainment. You can learn more about our methodology here.
Top Line Scoring of the Best Business Class IFE
| Airline | Number of Reviews | Aggregated IFE Score |
| Air Canada | 11 | 2.89/3 (Superb) |
| Delta | 11 | 2.71/3 (Excellent) |
| American | 13 | 2.44/3 (Great) |
| United | 14 | 2.40/3 (Great) |
Well this is an interesting matchup! Leading the pack is our neighbor to the north, Air Canada, with an absolutely superb 2.89/3. Next comes Delta at 2.76/3. American and United come in last, but both still boast great systems, scoring 2.44/3 and 2.40/3, respectively. A recurring theme actually is that there were no bad reviews of any of these IFEs—only “met” or “exceeds” expectations.
So the good news is that everyone has a great (or better) product. The bad news is, well, there’s still winners and losers. Let’s get to the details and see why everyone scored the way they did!
Air Canada Business Class IFE – Best and Worst
Air Canada – The Best
America’s northern neighbor crushed this competition. Let’s see why everyone liked their IFE system so much! First: great content.
I flicked through the entertainment system a little more as we finally began our takeoff roll. There was a very wide selection of movies for you to enjoy on the HD screen.
Ricky from Prince of Travel, flying from Toronto to Buenos Aires.
The IFE was conspicuously good, with a wide selection of English and French options and some new releases. There is something for most tastes, and I could have watched 20 or 30 hours of the programming and still not been bored.
Paul Lucas of Simple Flying, traveling from Frankfurt to Vancouver.
And in addition to a great selection of content, the screens themselves get rave reviews.
Air Canada’s new seats offer a large, 18-inch touchscreen HD display…. Air Canada offers a large content selection with a mix of new releases, older films and TV shows.
Zach Honig of The Points Guy, flying from London to Toronto.
Air Canada – The Worst
Air Canada did not have any poor IFE reviews. Nearly every review was “beats expectation” with a couple of exceptions.
Delta Business IFE – Best and Worst
Delta – The Best
Delta had a similarly strong showing as Air Canada. Let’s see what people liked about their product.
Delta A350 offers an excellent and wide range of entertainment options. I was surprised how many international movies were on offer and there was also a dedicated SkyKids channel. The only complaint is there is no tail camera view from the in-flight entertainment.
Sam Chui, flying from Beijing to Detroit.
Sam wasn’t alone in praising the system. The Luxury Travel Expert also found the selection to be excellent.
…Delta’s entertainment – which the carrier calls Delta Studios – is excellent, with a large library of movies (around 300), TV shows (around 800), audio books, video games and even live satellite TV. You can view the shows on the seat’s entertainment screen, or alternatively, stream the entertainment to your own mobile phone or tablet.
The Luxury Travel Expert, traveling from Brussels to New York.
Delta – The Worst
Delta, like Air Canada, had no negative reviews. All reviews were either “meets” or “beats” expectation, with a slightly lower ratio of the latter than former.
American IFE – Best and Worst
American – The Best
American came in third, but still had a strong showing of quality entertainment. Let’s see what our experts had to say, starting with Katie Genter of The Points Guy, a frequent American flier.
The IFE screen was just over 18 inches wide diagonally. The screen didn’t tilt, but there was no need — the screen was crisp and clear regardless of the angle of the seat. The IFE system had ample offerings, including four live TV stations, 273 movies, 137 different TV shows (many with multiple episodes available), 573 music albums and 15 games. There were also many e-reader magazines available, as well as my favorite, the Voyager 3D flight map.
Katie Genter of The Points Guy, traveling from Shanghai to Los Angeles.
Family Flys Free of Travel Update noted how strong—and kid-friendly—the selection is.
American Airlines offers an extensive list of movies in their in-flight entertainment system. There are a good number of recent releases and a great selection of kids movies.
Family Flys Free of Travel Update, flying from Dallas to Buenos Aires.
American – The Worst
Again, no reviewers had anything bad to say about American. There was a more even mix of “beats” vs. “meets” expectations for their IFE product, which drove their score lower.
United IFE – Best and Worst
Coming in last was United, although last in this case is relative, as United still scored 2.40/3. Let’s see what people did and didn’t like about this particular system.
United IFE – The Best
United’s IFE is nearly always strong, and today was no exception. There was a good assortment of movies and TV shows. The screen itself, being newly refit, was crisp and high definition.
Premium Travel Insider, traveling from Washington Dulles to Brussels.
United offered an extensive catalog of entertainment, though the screens themselves felt slightly outdated and less high-definition than those competitors use.
Wallace Cotton of The Points Guy, traveling from London to NYC.
United IFE – The Worst
United had no negative reviews, but had comparatively fewer “exceeded expectations” ratings than the other carriers featured.
Conclusion: Best Business Class IFE – Air Canada, American, Delta, United
In the modern era, many people bring their own entertainment and eagerly binge watch their show of choice while staying powered up via an outlet. However, there is a certain convenience—and maybe for some, even excitement—of catching up on a movie that just left the theaters, or maybe discovering a new TV series.
The challenge with bringing your own content is you need to plan. And if you’re springing for business class, you don’t want to plan, you want to enjoy. A great IFE system on an aircraft means you’re not worrying about devices or if you can find something to watch, you’re just worrying about WHAT to watch. As always, research before flying, particularly if entertainment is important to you. You can learn more about each carrier at:
Not happy with those carriers? Check out all of our business class reviews and see if you find someone else you like. Or perhaps you’d like to upgrade to first class — in which case our first class reviews might be to your liking. No matter how you fly, Premium Travel Insider has you covered.
Enjoy this post? Give us a follow on Twitter or join our mailing list.