American Airlines disables powerports on all 767-200s and some 767-300s

“Electrical Outlet” photo credit: grendelkhan on Flickr

I’m traveling today.  Last night I went online to AA.com to see if wifi is available on my flight (it isn’t) so I decided to see what movie selection was being offered in January and came across this:

Powerports on the 767-200, select 767-300s and the 757s have been proactively disconnected while American reviews an issue recently discovered during a routine maintenance check. We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause and are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.

I knew that the powerports on 757s had been deactivated  several months ago and last week in one of the AAdvantage forums I follow, a reliable source posted some information about an issue with the powerports on 767s, but this is the first official notice I’ve seen from American about this problem.

No idea what the problem is, American hasn’t provided much information about the matter, nor has there been any information about when the issue will be fixed, but given the fact that the powerports on their 757s have been deactivated from several months now, it might be some time.

It’s frustrating that wifi isn’t more readily available, but this is really irritating.   It’s getting to the point that I’m going to have to start avoiding flights on anything but their 737s, which are more likely to have wifi and at the very least, functioning powerports.

At least with my MacBook Pro I’ve been getting 6 hour battery life even when watching a DVD.