Airline inflight wifi in the United States is converging around free, or for those carriers that charge the price generally hovers around $8 per flight. The exception to this is American Airlines, where connectivity for a single device on a flight can cost over $20.
Instead of paying per flight, I pay $49.95 per month covering a single device on their narrowbody aircraft (both ViaSat and Intelsat, formerly Gogo, equipment).
American has just announced two new pricing options, and I’m confused?
- $599 annual one device plan
- $699 annual two device plan
American’s widebody aircraft are serviced by Panasonic, and monthly plans do not extend to international routes.
- ViaSat: Boeing 737 (and 737 MAX); Airbus A321; Legacy American Airlines A319
- Intelsat 2ku: Airbus A320, legacy US Airways A319
- Air to Ground (“SlowGo”): Embraer E-170 and E-175, Bombardier CR7, CR9 regional jets;
- Panasonic: Boeing 787_-8 and -9), Boeing 777 (-200 and -300ER)
- No wifi: Embraer E-145 regional jets (American really needs to fix this)
ViaSat wifi tends to perform best. The service provided by the company formerly known as Gogo performs well but in my experience has greater latency. While Panasonic’s service performs poorly on American. There’s a lot of finger pointing going on behind the scenes there. I’ve heard from American executives complaining about it, while Panasonic seems to suggest the problem is specific to American’s refusal to pay for enough bandwidth and to make its planes available for maintenance (that they’re unwilling to take planes out of service to fix systems, so they knowingly fly planes with poorly operating internet).
What’s strange about these new plans is,
- American seems to be doubling down on expensive internet, focusing their efforts on new offers there instead of reducing price to the level of competitors.
- These annual plans don’t even offer savings. My $49.95 monthly plan totals $599.40 per year. Why would I buy a year-long plan for a savings for 40 cents?
T-mobile customers receive free wifi from American outside of these plans,
American continues to offer complimentary Wi-Fi for T-Mobile customers on 100% of our Wi-Fi equipped regionals and narrowbodies. Customers flying on American Airlines with the T-Mobile Magenta Plan receive 4 full-flight passes a year, and unlimited 1-hour passes on American’s Viasat narrowbody aircraft. American currently offers this access on our Intelsat aircraft and passengers with the Magenta Max plan receive unlimited full-flight passes on our regional Intelsat aircraft.
Trying to make sense of undiscounted annual pricing planes, American Airlines tells me,
Our new annual Wi-Fi subscriptions were launched for convenience for our frequent travelers who are always looking to stay connected while inflight. The new subscription also allows American to support our business travelers and corporate partners looking for a more seamless way to purchase and access Wi-Fi for themselves and for their employees.
The airline also promotes “offer Apple Music streaming, a Lifestyle IFE channel, and e-learning tools such as Rosetta Stone, all for free” which in some cases means selling access to American Airlines passengers to third parties, or at least trading that access, rather than investing. American doesn’t offer a better value proposition than Delta or JetBlue (with free streaming and even seat back screens).
At American’s Media Day in fall 2017, they announced free messaging. A year later they acted confused, as though they’d never said it. The idea was dismissed as too expensive. Two years later, in summer 2019, American thought they my be forced to offer wifi for free. They prepared to match whatever Delta offered. Yet Delta finally moved towards free wifi this year, but American now is asking customers to commit to a year at a time of expensive internet. Doesn’t that seem like an odd strategic choice?
The entire concept of paying for WiFi goes hand-in-hand with the “nickel and dime” approach to the customer experience by a management team not in tune with what should be considered unbundled.
What’s next-coin operated toilet paper dispensers on flights?
Is WIFI free for Executive Platinum?
I used my monthly plan on an AA B787 last Saturday domestically. How to sign in with a subscription wasn’t as intuitive as on the narrowbodies but the feature is there and it took my subscription.
@Mets Fan in NC – No, not for ConciergeKey or premium cabin passengers either
@Mets Fan: Nope, everyone is expected to pay. Personally, I use a combination of my T-Mobile free WiFi benefit (when available), and AAdvantage Silver Aviator card benefit (up to $50/year) until exhausted. Beyond that, it’s a value call… which usually means I don’t buy it because the pricing is ridiculous IMO
AA does have one of the fastest if not the fastest Wifi. So I’ll pay for it. Just doing work for 1 min pays for the internet.
Why is wi fi on the plane so important, why can’t people disconnect for a few hours? Who needs to be on their PED device all of the time?
An annual plan with no discount makes no sense except that it’s one expense report to submit for reimbursement instead of 12. Although when I had to do that I always batched them quarterly anyway.
It just shows no one is actually managing that company
Charging $600 for a yearly plan, AA must be deeper in debt than i thought.
Rip off.
An easy win would be to make wifi free for cardholders if they are moving toward free anyway. Southwest does this but only with a premium business card. This would be a valued perk and would lead me to keep some of my airline cards that I otherwise cancel after a year (I don’t check bags which is the main perk most offer; early boarding isn’t too special either).
What a dumb idea on AA’s part. I expense the $49 to my company, but have no interest in having it be a once a year charge. Frankly, a big charge once a year for WiFi on my expense statement may get question.
@john – Some of us travel regularly for work. If I don’t work during my 12 hours on a plane a week then I can kiss my weekend goodbye. American’s internet is expensive but it actually works which is important to those of us that have to work on a plane.
You will never see a Wi-Fi solution on the E140/145 or CRJ200. Given the flight times vs. the cost of equipment and megabytes, there is no business case. There are cost effective streaming video solutions such as BlueBox that could find their way on these 50 seat aircraft
Southwest recently added free WiFi to its Business Select fares. Yes I know their WiFi is shaky, but bundling is the trend.
Whether I expense it or NOT doesn’t matter. Give me a breat AA is reaching into my soul!!
I find Wi-Fi and power at the seats are both only in service about 70% of the time on AA mainline domestic.
John,
Maybe people want to stay online to see whether or not there connecting flight is leaving on time, or delayed, or canceled, or if the gate has been changed, etc, etc.
There are valid reasons for connectivity.
Never understood why – as a CK flying in business on the new 77W – I paid the same amount for wifi as a student in basic economy. This was a decade ago and AA then enjoyed a competitive advantage vs Delta (which was still flying older non-wifi equipped 767s on transatlantic routes).
If this covers Wi-Fi on long-haul flights this is a good deal. It’s annoying to be expected to fork up $35 on a 7h TATL flight. That pricing was fine in 2013, but it’s not competitive anymore. I’d happily prepay if it meant I could use my Wi-Fi subscription on long-haul flights, which I currently cannot with my $49.95 plan.
@Jerry – it does not
I think it’s safe to say that the $600 annual plan offers a savings because the $49.95 monthly plan will be jacked up shortly.
Any time AA sends me a survey I comment on the overpriced internet. It seems to me the internet should be free in business class or for elite passengers.
John-
I totally agree with you on disconnecting for a few hours. Part of what I love about flying is getting away from the world for a bit, especially work. It’s a few hours that my phone isn’t buzzing away endlessly, whether I want to be bothered or not.
But I do often use onboard wifi to avoid falling behind on work (like Bacall said), prevent the stress of an onslaught of messages and “emergencies” when I land (especially if travelling for leisure), and sometimes just to pass the time. On much longer flights, I can only amuse myself with music, books, or movies for so long. It does help to pass the time, even if it’s doing work.
Naturally the line from AA about an annual fee at no savings for “convenience” is about as BS as it gets. Plus even if it were somehow more convenient, nobody knows when life will throw you a curveball. You lose a job and aren’t travelling and need to save money, or there’s a medical emergency in your life that takes priority, or something happens in the world like a pandemic or huge spike in flight prices. It just doesn’t make sense to take such a gamble to save 40 cents. And if the wifi doesn’t work on a long flight, you’re probably not going to get reimbursed by the airline for it as you’ve already paid up front.
Paying now for a service to be delivered later conveniently allows the service to be devalued. Ask any United Club Lifetime member.
Makes perfect sense in view of AA bailing on corporate travelers and focusing on the Spirit / Frontier / Allegient leisure travelers. Nothing is ever free, and it’s clear when I look at the company Concur airfare listing that Delta and United are a few bucks more than AA. The real question, was any real analysis done to find out that paying for the wifi in combination with lower fares is the same as flying the other carriers
I regularly fly the A321T transcon service on AA. While AA wifi is pricey at $25 a flight, it does deliver value in terms of its quality and speed. I can stream YouTube if I want. Wifi on Southwest at $8 a flight is cheap, but doesnt have a lot of value since it feels more like dial up service and cuts out alot.
@brian,
You don’t have issues with Viasat? Usually for me to stream YT it’s at a quality of 144p. I definitely haven’t felt like I get my 49.99 worth.
On the savings (or lack thereof) angle, consider this: most people don’t travel every single day and therefore the most cost-effective thing to do is cancel the monthly subscription auto-renewal (which historically they didn’t make easy, for obvious reasons) and buy it again when you actually need it. Even those who fly 2x per week every week don’t really fly EVERY week: they take time off, there are holidays, etc. I know that most people don’t actually turn off the auto-renewal so for those people this is all moot, but for those who will do it, the monthly plan becomes clearly way more cost-effective than these new annual plans.
(Yes, I often do this same thing with streaming subscriptions and wait until someone in the house squawks about not being able to get to something and then I subscribe again.)
@john When you have a real job you just do not clock off at 5pm. My 14 hr flight to Tokyo does not let me just tune out.
Even Dunkin Donuts gives free Wifi. When traveling I have driven up to Burger King and McDonalds parking lots just to steal their wifi when in poor signal areas.
Ever been in a Lowes or Home Depot and wonder why there is NEVER any signal….it is all that metal shelving, it blocks the signal.
Jet Blue is giving it out. AA, UA , BA need to give it out FREE also.
Who still flies AA??? 10 years ago I was already choosing 1 stop on anyone else vs nonstop on AA
No better way to lose passengers to competitors like Delta & jetBlue focused on offering free wifi
There are a couple of 787-8 that have viasat
I found JetBlue WiFi to be far faster with less drop outs than AA when I’ve flown domestically and it’s free. I flew JBU to London and the WiFi was free Transatlantic too and reliable for the majority of the flight. I recently flew AA from LHR-DFW and was struggling to get 1Mbps down and it was dropping constantly. I submitted the screen shots to Panasonic and got a refund for what I considered pricey internet. Also Transatlantic free messaging on Delta and Virgin are fine for me and if I did need to work then their internet is far less expensive than AA. Once flew EI in business and their biz fare included a free internet bundle (not sure if that’s still the case as that was nearly 10 years ago now) which I think more carriers who charge ought to do if you’re paying for a premium cabin.
Gary,
You’ve got a small typo in the story
“ A year later they asked confused…….”
May I suggest:
“A year later they acted confused…..”
Hello Gary,
The flight attendants used to announce what gates the connections are at, and if they are on time or not, etc… etc…. Why does everyone have to be connected all of the time? Why let that internet and phone control you and your life. I certainly do not.
The key part of your comment was…
“The flight attendants used to…”
Flight attendants, at least on AA have not announced gates for connecting flights in several years. Hard to believe I’m the only one, so, O have to believe it is no longer a thing for them to do.
People, at least this person, want to be connected so one can access their emails… which has been the only easy way to know if a flight is delayed, a gate changed, etc.
These days I think it’s best to obtain connecting gate information off the AA app. Not that the app is perfect but the FA gate information was always a bit stale and with their new automation, AA has been known to change a departure gate four to five time in an hour.
I fly monthly on AA as a Plat Pro member. There’s no way I would ever pay $500-$600 bucks per year for WiFi. Just not doing it. Other airlines are offering it for free. Why would I pay give away money? Fortunately, my job doesn’t consist of me constantly being reachable by email where I need to purchase the service.
If I need to entertain myself on a flight, I find something on Netflix to download and watch on my iPad Pro2. You can knock off 2-3 hours depending on what movie/documentary you’re in the mood to watch. Same with Amazon Video. Matter of fact, you can only surf so much on AA’s Wi-Fi since they don’t allow you to stream anything. And their movie selections kinda stink.