American Airlines will begin testing free wifi next week, starting on 3 routes:
- Charlotte – Jacksonville
- Charlotte – Raleigh
- Chicago – Miami
The airline says the test will determine
- Take rates (how much customers use it when it’s free)
- Bandwidth (whether their wifi system can handle the increased use)
- “The impact to customer satisfaction via NPS scores.”
As long as American is buying enough bandwidth from ViaSat and Intelsat, they should be able to handle it. There’s no question that usage goes up when it’s free. It would even go up if it were less expensive. Today, American Airlines charges substantially more than other U.S. airlines for inflight wifi.
I do think, though, that the need to determine how much their net promoter score increases with free wifi misses the point a bit.
It’s easy to see how much revenue they would lose from free wifi. They know what the revenue stream from selling wifi looks like. The CFO will choke hard over this one.
But it’s hard to see how much ticket revenue they are losing to other airlines because of wifi. When the ticket price is the same, American Airlines is the more expensive trip option than Delta and JetBlue and soon United because they charge $15 – $30 per flight for wifi versus free. American could be losing more ticket revenue than they’re generating in wifi revenue, and not even know it.
They want to see free wifi move the needle on net promoter score to see that giving up the paid wifi income is worthwhile. But wifi alone might not move the needle. They still need to do it!
- American still lacks seat back entertainment screens
- And offers very little buy on board, and is cheap on snacks
- And service is generally less friendly than on Delta, too.
If offering free wifi doesn’t move the needle a lot on net promoter score, does that mean you shouldn’t do it? Or that you need to lean harder into free wifi and other changes to the product? Put another way, do you give up on a competitive offering that appeals to customers?
In 2017, America Airlines promised free messaging at its Media and Investor Day. Then they never implemented (and even asked like they’d never heard of such an idea when I asked about it). The senior executive who announced it hadn’t fully cleared it, and the CFO at the time killed it as too expensive. They do not even offer free messaging today, years after the industry moved to that as a standard. The mental model naturally leads them to wonder whether fully free wifi would gain enough in NPS score to be worth it?
American’s net promoter score significantly lags that of primary competitors Delta and United. They aren’t going to dig out from their deficit with free wifi alone. There’s a plan for American Airlines that turns things around but taking a wait and see attitude and insisting on proof in the spreadsheets isn’t what gets them there.
At a recent investor conference, United’s CFO spoke about a $50 million increase in food investment even though it isn’t going to directly show up trackable in ticket purchases – but it’s necessary to become the preferred airline for customers and earn a revenue premium. That’s what American is competing against.
In 2012 I wrote that wifi would eventually be free, once there was enough bandwidth on board so that one customer’s use didn’t trade off with another’s. That’s largely happened. JetBlue and Delta offer free wifi. United is moving to Starlink (enough bandwidth) which will be free. And it looks like American is being pushed there – dragged kicking and screaming, perhaps, but they have to get there.
Weak ‘test’ routes (two Charlottes?!) Anyway, I’ll be waiting in the comments for those AA-shills that think ‘seat back entertainment screens’ aren’t good–thems fightin’ words! Gimme some IFE!
@1990
That’s because you’re a brainless child who needs constant screen time. I mean you even admitted it, “I’ll be waiting in the comments”. Go outside.
@Gary
I’m 1 for 5 on good in-flight service from DAL and 0/3 on United. Meanwhile I’m 3/3 on AAL. Everything you say is blatantly anti-AAL now… I wouldn’t be surprised if you are getting paid by United. Same goes for 1990. You’re losing credibility.
@Enuf — No, you.
I don’t use wifi on the plane. Delta said, free wifi for members. I joined and none of the planes I was on had it. I don’t fly UA. I may have used it on B6 to check email once. If AA made it free in F, J or to AAdvantage members, that would be cool. I might use it to check email or something. I personally like AAs BYOD rather than IFE that is broken or glitchy. It works very well and the selection is vast.
Sorry, but in the era of iPads and increasingly-larger phone screens, it’s much easier to simply BYO entertainment these days.
It’s about time that AA offered free WiFi on board. Even free for one hour would be a good start. If I need to access WiFi for a few minutes on a flight, it’s offensive to have to pay $25 or more.
AA might not achieve payback on free WiFi for one because they will do a lousy job promoting it.
Free Wi-Fi for all of 10 minutes on that Charlotte to Raleigh flight…
As far as IFE goes, I prefer my own device, but I do miss the safety demo video on AA, “first things first…”
Anyways
CLT to RDU? Who at skyview thought of that route? At that underwhelming rate why not offer it for DFW-AUS, PHX-TUS, DCA-LGA?
Maybe they’ll get their heads out of their arses one of these years. They’ll be late to the party as usual since the merger.
pilot,
seriously?
with 650 domestic mainline aircraft with WiFi alone, you manage to consistently choose the RJs and 717s?
“with 650 domestic mainline aircraft with WiFi alone, you manage to consistently choose the RJs and 717s?” I’m pretty sure DL assigns the aircraft. And, the love to use RJs from my home airport to everywhere but ATL.
@Denver Refugee — ‘Easier?’ To lug around a big-old iPad?? Fellas, we travel so differently, it’s funny. IFE screens are an amenity—lacking amenities doesn’t make the airline better. The shilling continues!
AAnd AA will lose the opportunity to ‘greenwAAsh’ when/if it instAAlls those IFE screens. AAll thAAt fuel/pollution sAAved from the environment ! (Not to mention $$$ flying those screens AAround the system)…..lol
Bring back meals on NYC ORD routes
Not everyone lives on the internet, have lap tops or expensive phones your are tech savy. Seem their sacrificing a large dynamic by not offering IFE.
Not everyone lives on the internet, has lap tops, expensive phones or are tech savvy. Seems that a large dynamic, one that have time to travel, and expendable cash to do so is being missed here.
If one has T-Mobile . . .
That being said, it is 2025 and it is surprising that Gary’s prediction (in 2012) has not come to pass.
@Jack – it came to pass with JetBlue, Delta, JSX, it’s coming true with United, Qatar, and others.
Honestly, I imagine the take rates have to be low at the prices they charge. It’s simply stunning and horrible options to log in and see $19 for an hour and $29 for the full flight on a 4 hour flight. It feels predatory, and there’s simply no chance the take rate is higher than, what? 15%? At the most?
I can afford it, fly F sometimes, and even I balk at that from principle.
It’s frankly always surprised me that they don’t make it a perk of cabin or status, at the very least. Why not offer it free for Gold or Platinum users and above?
And there’s a middle ground here, as well: lower the price to United rates of $5 or $8 for the flight, where an impulse buy feels more reasonable. $29 each way for mediocre wifi is such a slap in the face.
I wish they’d bring back IFE – or at least put a function on the BYO portal for a map. Here’s hoping that AA will give free wifi and actually make a premium pivot but I’m not holding my breath
It’s interesting to see how Gary’s comments tend to suggest that he wants American Airlines to be liquidated.
Will the major investors ever wake up and realize that this is a clueless and rudderless ship before another Chapter 11?
@DesertGhost — I suspect more bankruptcies, mergers and acquisitions in these coming years, but in no way did I read Gary having a preference for liquidation—I admire your imagination, though, like; which brand of amphetamine are you smoking?
CLT-RDU is at most 15 mins above 10,000 feet. Often the entire leg is only 30 mins. I don’t understand why this would be a “trial” market. CLT-JAX is less than an hour,
Why would you not trial mid-cons out of DFW? That would give the most representative sample.
The problem with AA is they are being ran by a management team who always played on the LCC playground. For a decade now they have crammed that mantra down the throats of a customer base that expects better. You can only gain revenue and market share so much by proclaiming to be the largest airline.
Sorry, but AA is now Spirit on crack. I would argue Spirit is better because at least they know who they are and make no bones about it.
AA has chased off the premium passenger, is starting to lose money, and now panicking. Wanna know why you don’t get the suppose better treatment from crew as say Delta? Because we have been trying to tell AA this was happening and they doubled down on thinking they know everything. We have a former FedEx employee as our VP of InFlight. How fitting. She has made it clear she doesn’t want to hear from the fas. So when in the air, apologizing for management mistakes gets old and yes, frustrating.
Now AA has some stupid committee for improving premium service with NO interaction from the FA’s. Isn’t that marketing’s job?
I’ve tired of excuses. It’s time AA makes the decision whether they want to be a LCC or World Class Airline or at least BETTER overall. AA needs to put to rest the poor decisions and change course. While I personally don’t need IFE or abundance of snacks, it truly is about perception. Right now AA has an image of being CHEAP and LOW CLASS.
Trying to stay positive but I have little faith or hope in AA. Thank God I’m only 5 yrs from retirement.
Just flew to Miami with AA. Been over 20 years since I last flew with AA. Doesn’t seem much has changed other than impossibly cramped seats that made my ankles swell for my entire vacation. The lack of Ife is inexcusable. 20 years ago they would show a movie on a projector screen. Today, you are expected to sit there and stare at the back of your chair for 4-5 hours while listening to children scream from boredom. I have no intention of ever flying AA again. They are a dinosaur and will go extinct soon.
I realize WiFi is the focus here, but I just flew SFO-MIA r/t on AA. On 5+ hour flights, the in-flight crew passed through the cabin ONCE offering something to drink and a Biscoff cookie. There was no offer of buy-on-board food, no second pass through the cabin to see if anyone wanted more coffee (both flights departed between 7-8 am local time), water or anything else to drink. This was clearly policy, rather than a decision by the in-flight crew themselves. That’s fine on a short hop, and like @Robert, I too will try to avoid flying any domestic long-haul on AA…
@Jason — Big mistake. Never take AA for that route if you’re looking for a ‘premium’ experience. MIA-LAX is the only West Coast route that American actually sometimes flies lie-flat business and first. Seasonally, United sometimes flies 757 with lie-flat for FLL-SFO. Otherwise, you’ll want jetBlue mint for a nonstop SoFla to California (FLL-SFO/LAX, MIA-LAX, etc.) If you’re worried about economy, then, I’m sorry, but they are all grueling for that 5-6 hour chore.
I took my 4-6 flights a year from AA to Delta. Citibank convinced me to downgrade to a credit card with seemingly the same features(?) but no annual fee.
I do like their 2x a day LAX-DCA but it’s not about the free wifi. Delta just feels better. Cleaner. Nicer. Fancier. Like they care. I thought they were trying to aim for a lower segment but I recently took a trip with Avelo that was way better than AA.