It will soon be quicker, more dependable, and perhaps even less expensive to stay connected when traveling with American Airlines.
Just in time for the busy summer travel season, the Fort Worth-based carrier unveiled a series of Wi-Fi enhancements on Thursday.
American is increasing the bandwidth available to its long-haul fleet, which may be the biggest upgrade. Wide-body aircraft fitted with Panasonic satellite communication will now be able to broadcast video, according to the carrier.
Historically, among U.S. airlines, American's wide-body fleet featured among the slowest, least dependable, and priciest internet plans I'd ever seen. For full-flight Wi-Fi passes on flights from New York to Tel Aviv and Dallas to Hong Kong, I have spent between $35 and $50. Even uploading photos or browsing Instagram would have required too much latency in the rates.
The airline will become the first significant U.S. carrier to provide Wi-Fi with video streaming capabilities on 100% of its mainline (nonregional) aircraft once these upgrades are implemented over the next several days.
By the end of July, American will also be offering free Wi-Fi to qualified T-Mobile users on all regional and narrow-body planes.
The Magenta and Magenta Max plans from T-Mobile offer complimentary in-flight internet. The earlier arrangement included four full-flight passes annually in addition to one hour of internet access on every other flight. All year long, inflight Wi-Fi is limitless for Magenta Max users.
Unfortunately, despite the fact that the majority of Boeing 777s and Boeing 787 Dreamliners are fitted with Panasonic connectivity, T-Mobile customers will still have to pay for Wi-Fi on those flights.
While these improvements are unquestionably remarkable, it's regrettable that American has yet to fulfill its 2017 commitment to provide free in-flight messaging to all customers.
The first of the Big Three American airlines to provide free messaging to all passengers was Delta Air Lines in 2017. This made it possible for passengers to access the internet and use services like iMessage and WhatsApp without having to pay for a full Wi-Fi pass.
The following day, American declared that it would "soon" follow Delta's lead without offering a specific time frame.
Yet here we are, six years later, and American has still not made this offering available. Even Southwest Airlines and United Airlines, whose fleets are largely equipped with slower and less dependable Wi-Fi than American's fleet, now provide free messaging. So it's unfortunate that American hasn't followed through on its pledge yet.
American, for its part, stated that "we are constantly introducing new items and assessing new options to bring to clients. Time-limited sessions with email and messaging services are available to users of ad-sponsored Wi-Fi on board our Viasat aircraft.
All of these improvements are the result of a recent increase in attention given to improving the inflight Wi-Fi experience.
Leading the changes is Delta, which earlier this year publicly announced free fleetwide Wi-Fi for SkyMiles members. The development of this enhanced service is still ongoing at the airline, although it is anticipated to be completed by the end of 2024.
Of course, JetBlue was the first American airline to launch complimentary Wi-Fi in 2013. Other airlines, including United and Alaska Airlines, recently reduced the cost of Wi-Fi to just $8 per flight. Last year, even ultra-cheap discount carrier Spirit Airlines introduced Wi-Fi on its yellow Airbuses.
Satellite providers have also been vying to increase their connectivity options in addition to carrier-level Wi-Fi upgrades. One of the top inflight Wi-Fi providers, ViaSat, recently launched its much-awaited ViaSat-3 satellite, which is expected to provide a quicker and more dependable connection starting in a few weeks.
Elon Musk's Starlink is now a serious rival to ViaSat. Starlink made its debut recently on JSX, and in the upcoming months and years, Hawaiian Airlines aircraft will be equipped with it as well.
I took a flight on a JSX Starlink-equipped jet earlier this year, and the network's speed, dependability, and performance completely astounded me.
The airline is also introducing other improvements to the passenger experience in the sky, including updated menus and buy-on-board options, in addition to the Wi-Fi updates.
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