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What in-flight entertainment is most popular for Thanksgiving travelers? We asked the airlines
A traveler walks past a Southwest Airlines airplane.
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Kevin Dietsch
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Getty Images
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The Thanksgiving holiday marks one of the busiest travel weeks of the year, with hundreds of thousands of people flying in and out of LAX.
To get a sense of the collective mood among travelers this year, LAist reached out to major airlines and asked: What’s this season’s most popular movie or TV series for passengers?
Alaska, American, JetBlue, Southwest, and United airlines responded. By and large, funny holiday classics like Home Alone and Elf were the most watched.
Home Alone premiered in November 1990. The film stars Macaulay Culkin as 8-year-old Kevin McCallister, whose family accidentally leaves him behind in Chicago when they go on a trip to Paris. Kevin awakens to an empty house, assuming his wish to live alone has come true.
“I made my family disappear,” he says with a smirk. Then, to protect his home from two thieves, Kevin fills his home with booby traps.
At JetBlue, Home Alone is the most popular holiday film so far on the in-flight entertainment system, and it was also the most-watched movie last year. Kevin’s saga is also among the top three films on Southwest, said spokesperson Dan Landson.
But Elf, starring Will Ferrell, has been a consistent holiday favorite.
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In the 2003 film, Ferrell plays Buddy, an adoptee raised in the North Pole by two of Santa’s elves. After learning about his origins, Buddy heads to Manhattan in search of his biological father, who turns out to be a Grinch-like businessman.
On Alaska airlines, passengers are turning to Friends, the beloved TV sitcom about six pals in New York City that ran from 1994 to 2004.
Perhaps, given the ongoing impacts of war across the globe, a contentious election cycle in the U.S., and the prospect of tough conversations at the Thanksgiving table, travelers are looking for something reliably enjoyable.
Or maybe they just need a laugh.
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You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
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