What is it with ptvs never working? It shouldn't be that hard to get them running. I took a 50 min flight from Toronto to Ottawa on an a320 last year and only one on the entire plane worked! And it was economy!
Here's the deal, I have a one way flight to ZBAA on Air Canada's shiny new 773 judging by the fact that this is going to be a very large revenue flight, with some big customers (asians) I think AC will get things in order and get the ptvs working. They are doing all they can to gain loyalty from asian customers, which is one of the reasons they're switched to the 777 as opposed to the a340s, which are getting dated.
I think what I'll do for that flight, is get to the terminal mad early, try on some cologne, snare some free wifi, and go look at some planes. Once I'm on the flight, I'll watch a few movies on my powerbook (powerports on the 777

) and once dinner comes around, I'll pop a gravol/Tylenol cocktail and start reading an aviation mag (sometimes makes people giggle/uneasy) till i fall asleep.
Coming home I have an Air China 747 for 13-14 hours to KJFK, worried about that, because Air China is a little, notorious for the condition of their planes. For that, my strategy is to bring the analects of Confucius and my iPod, along with the med cocktail, and try to make myself sleep with the great ones words of wisdom.
On both flights, I'm definitely getting up and walking around, exploring. I want to ask to see the crew rest area on the 777's third floor! Let's hope there's some FA's up there