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16
The San Juan Daily Star
Monday, December 29, 2014
4 PR Banks Said Tough Enough to Weather Storms in 2015
By EVA LLORENS VELEZ
[email protected]
A
research and financial services
firm from New York says four of
Puerto Rico’s banks are expected
to survive 2015 even though the island’s
economy is expected to continue facing
challenges.
A new report from Keefe, Bruyette
& Woods evaluated local banks and their
exposure to financially ailing public corporations.
“We found that, although the environment remains challenging, we believe
the banks’ balance sheets are strong,” said
the report, titled “Strong Banks in a Weak
Environment.”
The report examined Banco Popular,
FirstBank, OFG and Scotiabank and found
stronger balance sheets and smaller, more
stable banks despite the island’s economic
diﬃculties.
“In our meetings with bank managers and government oﬃcials we came
away with a sense that there is a will in
both the private and public sectors to
address the problems facing Puerto Rico.
Not all of the individuals we met agree
with all the proposed or implemented
changes, but there was definitely active
dialogue,” analysts Brian Klock and Glen
Manna said. “That said, the economic problems were neither created, nor will they
be solved, overnight.”
The report calls for a reform of the
island’s public corporations, tax system,
and teachers’ pension system, tagging all
as remaining issues either in progress or
not yet addressed. The government expects
to approve tax reform by March and have
a business plan for the Puerto Rico Electric
Power Authority (PREPA) in March.
But the report still predicted a 1 percent to 2 percent annual decline in gross
national product (GNP) and continued
sluggish growth in employment. Banks
can expect flat trends in commercial loan
growth, wholly oﬀset by a contraction in
consumer loan growth, and a moderate deterioration in consumer credit, the analysts
said.
But management teams and government oﬃcials are optimistic that the decline in oil and gas prices could have a meaningful positive impact if they stay lower
for longer. The government already expects
low gas prices in January and February.
“Compared to the fiscal and economic conditions in Puerto Rico last year, we
believe conditions, while still challenging,
have marginally improved,” the analysts
said.
The report noted that the unemployment rate has shown staggered improvement, but the labor force is shrinking. Recently, there was an increase in jobs in the
private sector.
In October 2014, there were 160,500
workers unemployed in Puerto Rico, representing 14 percent of the total labor
force of 1.14 million workers. This is actually an improvement from October 2013,
when there were 177,300 unemployed and
the unemployment rate was 14.9 percent.
However, the year-ago period was based
on 1.19 million workers in the labor force,
the report says.
The Keefe, Bruyette & Woods report
noted that public corporations will be on
center stage in focus for 2015, adding that
issues related to PREPA restructuring
and the Highways and Transportation
Authority’s fiscal independence could be
negatives for the economy.
Public corporations are slated to pay
high amounts in debts in 2015, including
$650 million by PREPA, which is undergoing a restructuring.
After meeting with the banks in the
$550 million syndicate, Keefe, Bruyette &
Woods continues to believe the banks’ risk
of loss should be significantly less than
those of bondholders.
American Airlines Says ‘Strong’ Profit To Allow Bigger Wage Hikes
A
merican Airlines said Tuesday that
it plans to pay flight attendants an
additional four percentage points
on top of raises already averaging 10 percent, thanks to profits that have strengthened as oil prices have collapsed.
In a letter to employees, Chief Executive Oﬃcer Doug Parker said “very strong”
results for 2014 would allow the carrier to
lock in substantial wage hikes for the flight
attendants. Other work groups would also
see improvements in their raises—once
their respective contracts are ratified.
Plummeting oil prices have slashed costs at the world’s largest airline by
passenger traﬃc, which is poised to save
more than its competitors because it did
not hedge against prices rising.
Unions have called on Parker to tie
employee compensation to the company’s
performance, but Parker has opposed profit-sharing, practiced by Delta Air Lines,
United Airlines and Southwest Airlines.
“There are many ways to share success, but when it comes to compensation,
we believe it is best to reward (workers)
with industry leading wage rates not lower
wages supplemented by compensation
that varies with airline profitability,” he
wrote in the letter, obtained by Reuters.
The pay increases show how seriously American views labor relations,
which have often emerged as a stumbling
block in other airline merger deals, as it
joins its operations with US Airways a
year into the carriers’ merger.
Hourly rates for flight attendants
will be seven percent higher than those at
Delta or United, Parker said in the letter.
A separate letter from the airline cited an
hourly rate of $24.18 for first-year flight attendants.
Yet the announcement also placed
American’s other workers under pressure to conclude contracts, a prerequisite
for their raises. The carrier hopes to avoid
the fate of other merged airlines that struggled for years to reach deals for all their
workers.
Pilots are the next group up for a
contract, and the company said in a third
letter Tuesday that it had ended negotiations with them, leaving them to choose
between a final oﬀer or arbitration as early
as February 2015.
The letter added that if pilots accept
the oﬀer prior to Jan. 3, higher pay rates
would be eﬀective retroactively as of Dec.
2, 2014, rather than after the agreement.
The company’s proposal would raise pilots’ pay about 23 percent upon signing and then three percent for the next
two years, compared to smaller gains they
would get under an arbitrated contract,
the company said in the letter.
The airline has also proposed various
changes to work rules, some of which have
been sticking points in the negotiations.
The Allied Pilots Association, which
represents American’s pilots, said its board
will convene on Jan. 2 and 3 to decide a
course of action.
The San Juan Daily Star
Monday, December 29, 2014
17
Selling the Family Home Is Liberating for Many Retirees
Mike and Barbara West are selling the home in Bethesda, Md., that they have
lived in for 26 years, and building a new home in Florida
By HARRIET EDLESON
W
HEN is a house your safe haven
and when is it standing in the way
of richer life experiences?
That’s the question more and more retirees are asking these days.
Take Barbara and Mike West and Joseph and Phyllis Applebaum, retirees and
longtime Maryland residents.
After years of analyzing their financial
situation, the Wests decided to put the mortgage-free suburban house they had owned
for 26 years on the market. They wanted to
avoid the mid-Atlantic winters and considered moving to Hawaii, where they had lived
while Mr. West was in the U.S. Navy.
But they decided it was too remote.
They also ruled out San Diego, Savannah,
Ga., and Charleston, S.C. Florida, they decided, was a possibility.
They considered renting their
Maryland house out for part of the year, yet
the idea of storing some of their household
goods and someone else sleeping in their
bed changed their minds.
Of the decision to sell a mortgage-free
home, Barbara West, 63, said it would give
them a chance to dream and to explore. Besides, “It’s a lot of money locked up in the
house,” said Ms. West, who retired from
her job as a lobbyist two years ago. “It’s a
nice side benefit. It will free up money. We’ll
have more flexibility. We’re kind of looking
at it as an adventure.”
The Applebaums — Joseph, 71, and
Phyllis, 67, also decided to buy a place in
Florida.
Their calculations were slightly diﬀerent. They still had a mortgage on their
home, where they had lived for 27 years. By
selling the house, they could take the profit,
buy in Boca Raton for cash and be mortgagefree.
For those 65 and older who have paid
oﬀ their mortgage — approximately 70 percent of homeowners in that age group — the
financial future looks bright.
Many still want to sell their homes to
free up money that would give them more
flexibility during retirement. So they sell or
plan to sell their home, and create a less expensive lifestyle. For those who have a mortgage, selling and moving to a less expensive
area can create a mortgage-free lifestyle.
Close to 80 percent of the 41 million
Americans age 65 and older are considered
homeowners — whether or not they carry
mortgage balances. That is the highest percentage of all age groups, according to the
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
While the overall homeownership rate
has remained the same during the last decade
and even after the recession for the 65 and
older demographic, the percent of older owners with a mortgage increased to 30 percent
in 2011, from 22 percent a decade earlier, according to a May 2014 C.F.P.B. report. For those age 75 and older, the percentage carrying
mortgage debt more than doubled, to 21.2 percent from 8.4 percent, in the same period.
Reasons include the refinancing boom
of the 2000s, a first-home purchase later in
life, smaller down payments and the use of
home equity lines of credit, the report said.
For 2013, the percentage of homeowners age
65 and older carrying mortgage debt remained at 30 percent, according to the C.F.P.B.,
which releases the data every two years.
“There is a definite trend that older
Americans are carrying debt into their retirement years,” said Stacy Canan, deputy
assistant director for the C.F.P.B.’s Oﬃce for
Older Americans. “Decades ago it was sort
of rare.” She does not see that trend abating
as the age groups younger than 65 are carrying mortgages, too.
Older Americans have credit card debt
and student loan debt, but the “largest part
of the debt, without a doubt, is related to
their mortgages,” Ms. Canan said.
After more than one trip to Florida, the
Wests found through friends a community
under development near Jacksonville, and decided to build a four-bedroom house there.
“New has a lot of appeal, especially
at our age,” Ms. West said. For Mike West,
65, who retired in June, the house in Florida
would be the closest he would come to building his dream home. Rather than cut and
trim the lawn and shrubbery as they have
been doing in Maryland, they will pay for
services and travel more.
Changing their lives won’t happen
overnight. From the time they signed the
papers, it was going to take 10 months for
the house to be built, so they expect it to be
ready in July 2015.
The biggest gain is the sense of freedom that lies ahead. “We’re hoping our
house sells early so we’ll be homeless for a
few months,” Ms. West said.
The calculations in trading one home
for another are individual and depend on
the value of the house, the equity in it, income, anticipated future income and other
expenses.
Those in the throes of change typically
spend time analyzing the kind of life they
want, how much income they will have and
their costs.
With home and home-related expenses
the largest cost for every age group 50 and
older, according to research from the Employee Benefit Research Institute, it’s worth
considering if you will be able to aﬀord the
cost of living where you are, whether you
want to stay there and what your other options are.
“They need to sit down and figure out
their retirement plan — what’s coming in
and what’s going out,” Ms. Canan said.
The E.B.R.I. report, based on research
from 2007 through 2011, shows declines in
spending on housing costs, but whether the
spending patterns will continue remains
to be seen. “The crash had really changed
some spending patterns,” Sudipto Banerjee,
a research associate with E.B.R.I, said.
Even those with considerable investment portfolios are aware of the uncertainties in the financial markets. “They say, ‘I
don’t know now how the return will be. The
bottom line is I need to save more.’ That’s
why we’re seeing these big spending cuts,”
Mr. Banerjee said.
According to a study from the Society of Actuaries, Personal Risk Management:
2013 Risks and Process of Retirement Survey
Report, cutting back on spending or intending to “is not as income-sensitive as might
intuitively be imagined.”
Among retirees with annual incomes
below $50,000, 79 percent had already cut
back on spending or planned to, while 73
percent of those with incomes greater than
$100,000 were spending less as well.
Freeing up money from a house or
other property that no longer meets your
wants and needs is often the first step. “If
you can be retired and not have a mortgage,
it can be a lot better,” said Anna Rappaport,
chair of the Society of Actuaries’ Committee
on Post Retirement Needs and Risks.
Adventure appealed to JanSuzanne
Krasner and her husband, who had paid
oﬀ their mortgage. Two years ago, they sold
their house in Westchester County, N.Y., and
left for Israel on the last flight out the night of
Hurricane Sandy. They rented an apartment
in Tel Aviv for 10 months.
Next, they spent a month traveling in
southern Africa and Europe, then rented an
apartment in Manhattan for two months.
They had sold most of their belongings except personal memorabilia, and decided to
buy a furnished place in Boynton Beach,
Fla., for cash.
“By moving to a less expensive area, it
frees up money to travel,” said Ms. Krasner,
67, who had been in business with her husband for many years, retiring in 2009. “We
have enough money to feel secure.”
For both the Krasners and the Wests,
maintaining family ties were a priority and
played a role in their decisions. Each of the
couples has two grown daughters whom
they want to be able to see. Mrs. West has
a sister in Florida, and the Krasners have a
number of cousins in the state. Family relationships, the weather and the cost of living
were paramount.
“The rest didn’t matter,” Ms. Krasner
said. “Nothing will be perfect. We prioritized.” They hope to spend three months of
the year in Tel Aviv.
18
The San Juan Daily Star
Monday, December 29, 2014
Even for the Person Who Has Everything, Gifts Matter
By PAUL SULLIVAN
R
. COURI HAY, a society figure in Manhattan, is not one to think small when
it comes to holiday presents.
He gave a former partner two Andy
Warhol prints of Marilyn Monroe, because
by that point in their relationship he had given him every other Monroe-inspired item he
could think of, from kitschy items to trips to
places linked to her.
He once presented Cornelia Guest, a socialite and animal rights activist, with a plate
of jewels. He told her she could pick whichever one she wanted but that only one of them
was real. (“I knew the real one,” Ms. Guest
said. “That was a fun present.”)
For his mother, he went so far as to
commission Peter Max, the pop artist, to create a painting from a photo of his mother and
grandmother. “It brought tears to her eyes,”
he said. “She was genuinely surprised to receive that.”
And it is that surprise that he says he
and his friends try to give each other above
all else. “My friends and my family and my
partner — they’re all really spoiled,” he said.
“They can all basically buy anything they
want for themselves.”
But this year, Mr. Hay thinks he has
really outdone himself. For his current partner, he has the gift of all gifts— better than
the Damien Hirst painting he gave him last
year, better even than the Range Rover with a
bow on top. Spoiler alert: He’s getting a threefoot-tall Fabergé egg painted with koi fish.
Why this? His partner loves koi and
tends to the ones in the garden in their townhouse. The egg, which he has been hiding for
months, was painted by the artist April Gornik, and Mr. Hay bought it at a charity auction.
“When I saw it painted with koi fish,
light bulbs went oﬀ and it was like, ‘Let it
snow, let it snow, let it snow,’ ” Mr. Hay said.
“I’m putting a big box over it. I think he’s
going to go into shock. I believe he will not
guess what is inside the box.”
Of course, one man’s perfect surprise is
another’s ho-hum gift — or frivolous indulgence. If you’re not a small child, does any of
this gift-giving really matter? Should we even
bother spending money on gifts that are extravagant, thoughtful or both for our friends?
Yes, it turns out, we should. Gifts matter.
Elizabeth W. Dunn, associate professor
of psychology at University of British Co-
lumbia and a co-author of “Happy Money:
The Science of Smarter Spending,” (Simon &
Schuster, 2013), pointed to a study she was involved in that tested couples’ reactions to the
gifts they thought their partner had selected
for them.
“We lied and told them their partner
either picked their top choice gift or their
second-to-last-favorite gift,” she said. “People
freaked out. One time I had to dive between a
couple who was saying, ‘Why would you get
that for me?’ ”
Of the 10 gifts they chose from, all were
less than $10.
In the experiment, what gift people
picked for their partners ended up influencing how they responded when asked if they
would marry the person.
“What that says to me is that people
should put some thought and money into a
gift,” Ms. Dunn said.
But she said extremely expensive items
might also be about a giver’s inability to pick
an appropriate gift. “People aren’t good at giving gifts,” she said “Most people solve that
problem by thinking what they themselves
would like. That’s fine when you’re similar to
the gift recipient, but sometimes people are
just trying to throw money at the problem.”
Scott Diament, president of the Palm
Beach Show Group, which produces art, antiques and jewelry shows, is giving a $295,000
Christophe Claret Margot watch to his girlfriend this year.
“When you care about someone who is
really special to you, you want to find something that says something about you, about
them, about the relationship,” he said.
The watch struck him as a significant
display of aﬀection — only 20 were made —
but also appropriate for his girlfriend since
the design is about love itself. “You can click a
button and it comes up ‘he loves me, he loves
me not,’ ” he said. “You can also set it so it
always comes up ‘he loves me.’ ”
The proverbial Grinch with such lavish
presents is the gift tax. Michael Malakoﬀ, managing director of wealth planning at Ascent
Private Capital Management in San Francisco,
said few people thought they needed to file a
gift tax form for a holiday present. If the gift is
worth more than $14,000 and is going to anyone other than a spouse, they do — even if no
tax will be owed. “If you don’t, you’re playing
the audit lottery,” he said.
This is a risk many are willing to take,
since the gift tax is not as closely audited as
the estate tax, he said.
Other research shows that while gifts
are important, these high-value baubles may
not be the best way to deepen a relationship.
Experiences would be better. And they don’t
have to be extravagant ones. A gift certificate
to a favorite restaurant will suﬃce.
Cassie Mogilner Holmes, assistant professor of marketing at the Wharton School at
the University of Pennsylvania, in a coming
paper looked at how gift-giving fostered relationships. All gifts helped to strengthen relationship bonds, but those that were experiences made those bonds even stronger.
“If my best friend were to take me out
to dinner or give me a gift certificate to that
same restaurant, my receipt of that gift would
lead me to feel closer to her than if she had given me a sweater,” Ms. Holmes said. “People
are more likely to give material gifts because
they have this notion that come Christmas
morning you want to have something under
the tree to unwrap. There is this assumption
that they’ll think of you whenever they use
it.”
But this assumption, her work suggests,
is false, and people would be better oﬀ giving
concert tickets or signing someone up for a
wine club. “When you’re consuming an experience you feel a greater intensity of emotion than when you’re consuming a material
good,” she said.
In other words, the sweater — or
$295,000 watch or Fabergé egg — is great
when you unwrap it, but over time you get
used to it in a way you don’t with the memory
of a great night out.
Sheila Rosenblum, owner of Lady Sheila
Stable, a horse-racing syndicate, said she gave
her 80-year-old uncle a racehorse this year, to
fulfill his dream of owning a thoroughbred.
But when it came to her two children she went
for an experience, an extreme-sports vacation
that will include tandem paragliding, ziplining and, of course, horseback riding, from
Dubai to New Zealand.
The risk is that the giver picks an experience that the giver would like, not one that
the receiver wants. But that can happen with
any gift.
And even at this level of gift-giving,
there is no guarantee that the gift will get
used, no matter how lavish or thoughtful.
Martin D. Shafiroﬀ, an investment
banker, commissioned the artist Iké Udé to
create a portrait of his wife, Jean, in 2012. “I
wanted it done before I got too old,” Mrs. Shafiroﬀ said of the stylized picture.
Alas, while she says she loves it, the picture is not hanging on the Shafiroﬀs’ walls.
“We have other types of art in the home,” she
said. “We’ll eventually hang it somewhere.
But it’s here in my home, and I’m very happy
that I have it.”
While reveling in giving gifts, Mr. Hay,
whose home is filled with gifts from a lifetime
of being on the Manhattan social scene, does
not subscribe to the adage that it is better to
give than receive.
“I never tell people ‘No gifts,’ ” he said.
“Who doesn’t like to unwrap a gift? I’m diﬃcult to buy for and surprise. But you can shop
for me. I don’t want to discourage anyone.”
And if all else fails, he said, there are
always chocolates.
The San Juan Daily Star
Monday. December 29, 2014
19
Cramped in Coach, but With Better Entertainment
A
IR travel, as an experience, sure
leaves a lot to be desired.
Smaller seats, higher baggage fees
and ticket prices (despite lower fuel costs)
are just a few of the myriad complaints.
On the bright side, however, airlines
are making more money, and after years
of outdated in-flight entertainment, investments in onboard technology may entertain passengers enough to make the miles
go by more quickly.
Most United States carriers have, in
recent months, announced updates and improvements to their domestic in-flight tech
that, in some cases, even provide free entertainment to the poor souls back in coach.
These new services let you use your
own mobile devices, like tablets, laptops
and phones, to either stream free content
like TV, music or games, or to rent movies
and TV without having to pay for a Wi-Fi
plan.
At the center of many new oﬀerings
is Gogo Air, the in-flight Internet pioneer
that provides both Wi-Fi on planes and
more full-fledged entertainment options.
Delta Air Lines’ new Delta Studio
service, for example, relies on Gogo. The
service, released in August, is available to
all passengers on any flight over 90 minutes, letting them stream satellite TV, music
and video games on a personal device without paying for a Wi-Fi plan.
When you open a browser window
on your laptop, tablet or phone, you’ll
see a menu that oﬀers movies and TV to
stream or rent.
What you see is based on where
you’re sitting. (You’ll be asked for your
name and seat number when you sign in.)
So-called premium movies and TV
are free for first, business and upgraded
economy class, but Delta said coach passengers get at least something free, and
can pay $6 for additional movies and $1
for TV shows.
If you want to surf the web or check
email, though, you’ll still have to pay for
Wi-Fi. And be aware that to get the free
streamed content, you must download
Gogo’s video player app before boarding
the flight.
Alaska Airlines this week announced a similar service, also powered by
Gogo, that will let fliers rent movies and
TV even if a separate Wi-Fi subscription
isn’t available on the flight.
JetBlue, which has long been popular
thanks to its satellite TV in flight — every
plane in its fleet has a seat-back TV — is
also leaning heavily on personal devices
Virgin America is the cream of the crop when it comes to high-tech in-flight entertainment, says tech columnist Molly Wood. Travelers can have wifi and free
satellite television, all from their seat.
and faster Wi-Fi. The airline’s Fly-Fi service uses satellite-based Internet access,
instead of the more typical ground-to-air
system, with speeds that can rival home
broadband networks.
The airline is still deploying the faster Wi-Fi throughout its fleet; it said just
under half its planes oﬀer the faster Internet options. A JetBlue spokeswoman said
the rollout would be complete in spring
2015. If you’re on a flight with Fly-Fi, you
can get basic web access free, or upgrade to
even faster Internet access for $9 an hour.
Those prices may change after the entire
fleet has the technology.
That’s expensive, but I’ve paid as
much or more for Gogo’s in-flight Wi-Fi
and had it work at a crawling pace. If you
really wanted to stream a movie from Netflix, the cost might be worth it.
Its free content includes programs
from Fox and National Geographic, e-learning videos, book excerpts and cooking
shows.
Personally, I’d rather watch the live
TV on the seat back, but maybe a Fox series would suﬃce if the TV signal became
choppy.
Many airlines are finding that oﬀering better in-flight Wi-Fi and a few free
content options is easier and cheaper than
upgrading expensive seats to include seatback TVs. And a few free oﬀerings go a
long way, especially in coach.
“Other than pouring us endless martinis, that’s just about the only thing they
can do to keep us happy in flight,” said
Jack Plunkett, chief executive of Plunkett
Research, a market research firm based in
Houston.
Mr. Plunkett said airlines were slow
to jump into in-flight technology after the
industry’s first major attempt — the seatback telephone — proved a “dismal failure.”
“It added a lot of weight to the airplane, drew a lot of power and required
a communications system connecting the
airplane to a comm system on the ground,”
he said. “After that failure, it was hard to
talk them into trying Wi-Fi on board.”
But as personal devices like phones, tablets and laptops became more
and more common, and third-party Wi-Fi
providers oﬀered to shoulder the cost of
in-flight Internet access, airlines realized
that the “bring your own device” model
of in-flight entertainment could be cheap
and easy.
And instead of replacing entire seats
to add entertainment, airlines are adding
welcome niceties like power outlets and
USB plugs in every row. So, using in-flight
Wi-Fi to stream a movie to a plugged-in tablet becomes a better way to fly.
Southwest Airlines, always bare bones in terms of its actual planes, oﬀers WiFi on about 80 percent of its flights.
While the company said its smaller
aircraft would not be retrofitted for Wi-Fi,
any new jets that come into the fleet will
have it.
Southwest also includes live Dish
satellite TV and Beats Music playlists wi-
thout requiring passengers to pay for a
Wi-Fi plan, and said it was the only airline that oﬀered wireless Internet access
during taxiing, before takeoﬀ and after
landing.
In the coming years, expect in-flight
Wi-Fi to continue to get faster — and hopefully cheaper. Virgin America announced
this week that it had upgraded its in-flight
Wi-Fi, provided by Gogo Inflight, to up to
10 megabits per second, close to a typical
home broadband connection. The connections in-flight will probably be slower, because everyone is sharing the Wi-Fi, but
that is still an improvement.
And Gogo said that it was testing satellite-based Wi-Fi, instead of the current
ground-to-air system, and that could provide a plane with a connection of 70 megabits per second. Even shared among passengers on a plane, that would be speedy
Internet.
A few carriers are, of course, slower
to upgrade than others. United, for example, oﬀers Wi-Fi access on only about half
of its jets, although it just announced plans
to bring Wi-Fi and Gogo-powered personal device streaming to some of its smaller
United Express planes starting early next
year. About 200 of its 700 planes oﬀer seatback entertainment.
American Airlines oﬀers Wi-Fi on
all its big jets, but only on 12 percent of its
regional planes, and it has some kind of
seat-back entertainment in 58 percent of
its wide-body jets, the company said.
And then there’s the domestic inflight dream: Virgin America, often lauded as having the best domestic in-flight
system of them all. Yes, every flight has
(newly upgraded) Wi-Fi, power outlets
and USB ports.
But every plane also has seat-back
TVs that stream live television and oﬀer
on-demand movies and TV (free to Main
Cabin Select and first-class passengers).
The TVs serve as touch-screen ordering systems for food and drinks, which
are then delivered directly to your seat.
You can use them to play games and chat
with other passengers, and Virgin America just introduced a new feature that lets
you send a drink to another passenger on
the plane.
Such seat-back amenities might not
be practical to maintain forever, especially as personal devices and faster in-flight
Internet access become cheaper and easier
to deploy.
But for now, the best of all worlds is
still the best option.