2/12/2005 12:37 PM

By: Adam Balkin | New York 1

A personal entertainment device

American Airlines now has an answer to all the in-flight entertainment being offered by JetBlue, Delta Song and just about every other carrier.

It looks like a laptop and it`s called a personal entertainment device. It provide passengers with a range of entertainment and information options.

``The device is yours to rent for the duration of the flight. All you have to do is slip a credit card through the slot and the credit card in this case will take $7.95 off your credit card. You will have 12 feature movies, out of first run, but not yet on DVD, you will have 12 music videos, you will have games, you will have music and a vast array of options,`` Ned Raynolds of American Airlines said.

Although it doesn`t offer any mid-flight connectivity for e-mailing or Web surfing, the device is synched every day so it can offer you the morning papers.

``It`s not like going to the Web site of the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times. It`s like having the Times in front of you, except you don`t have to turn pages,`` Reynolds said. ``It`s on the screen and if you want to scroll down on an article, you just push down on the screen.``

But why is American trying this right now at a time it seems we`re reading just about every day about airlines cutting costs and trying to stave off bankruptcy?

``What they are facing right now is a lot of competition from low-cost carriers who are doing a lot of hip marketing and offering a lot of fun, intriguing onboard amenities,`` Janet Libert of Executive Travel Magazine said. ``Half of their aircraft are MD-80 and they don`t have any on-board entertainment so, what they could do is re-equip all of their aircraft with a sophisticated onboard entertainment system, which is really, really expensive and high risk. This way, it`s a way to get customer needs met, earn revenue and do it in a way that`s really low cost and low risk.``

American is starting to test the devices this week on two flights: LaGuardia to Miami and LaGuardia to Dallas.

The airline said it will wait to see how well the pilot program works. They are confident the technology will take off enough that it will be offered soon on all of its MD-80 aircrafts

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