American Airlines has finally announced free wifi. It will start in January 2026, and will apply to planes equipped with ViaSat and Intelsat (formerly Gogo) satellite internet. Widebodies with Panasonic internet will not offer internet for free.
- American really had no choice. Delta offers free wifi and so does JetBlue. United is moving to free Starlink internet, which is the best functionality in the sky. American has been charging up to $29 for a single flight’s connectivity, when other airlines that charge for it ask $8. Free, fast wifi has become a base expectation and airlines charging a premium for it are more expensive than those that do not even at the same ticket price.
- This has been inevitable for six years. When Delta was first expected to announce free wifi back in 2019 American literally had press releases written with the expectation that they would match. Delta delayed their announcement and improved bandwidth, the pandemic hit, and this was delayed but it was always going to happen. The CFO suite pushes back but they had no choice.
- This is a me-too offering and won’t move the competitive needle. American still lacks seat back entertainment screens, offers very little buy on board, and is cheap on snacks. Service is generally less friendly than on Delta, too.
In 2012 I wrote that wifi would be free on board within a decade, once there was enough bandwidth on board so that one customer’s use didn’t trade off with another’s. That’s largely happened though widespread adoption was delayed by the pandemic. Bundling services, when there’s no tradeoff between one customer consuming the product and another doing so, is a profit-maximizing strategy for the same reason cable companies bundle channels.
Here, though, American Airlines appears to be generating some revenue by partnering with AT&T on the project. You don’t have to be an AT&T customer to get free wifi, so it’s not yet clear what this partnership means other than advertising them.
Like Delta, passengers will need to be AAdvantage members for free wifi. That should drive program signups, and the hope is that they’ll be able to convert new members to co-brand credit card customers.
Since wifi rebates are part of the Citi small business card from American, and also the premium Aviator Silver AAdvantage card, it’ll be interesting to see whether there are any replacement benefits for those products. There’s time, though, to find out because this benefit is still half a year away.
American’s new Boeing 787-9 aircraft entering service will feature ViaSat. However, existing widebodies (Boeing 787-8 and -9, Beoing 777-200 and -300ER) have Panasonic and the system that’s in place simply lacks the bandwidth for free wifi. When wifi is free, more passengers use it. And while service is improved compared to a couple of years ago, it can crawl at current usage levels. Free would render it unusable.
I flew Porter recently with free WiFi on an E195 from YOW to MCO. It really made the 3.5 hour flight go seamlessly.
Let’s start with WORKING wifi. On AA, particularly the hundreds of EMB 175s, there’s that moment of drama when you connect and watch for the little spinning plane hoping against hope this will be your lucky day that you can text and maybe 3-4 apps might work for $17 for the next 3 hours. Ah well, if not there’s always the cheese and crackers in first class to pass the time
as I have said multiple times, having FREE global high speed WiFi requires BUYING the bandwidth from satellite providers years in advance (or signing the contracts to do so) so that satellites can be made available to deliver it.
AA and DL have technically similar systems. There is plenty of WiFi over N. America. Much less so over the oceans.
UA talks about having high speed WiFi on its international fleet but AA could beat them if AA signs the contracts to get it delivered because of how long it will take to get it installed on UA’s widebody fleet.
all of the big 3 are working to get some type of WiFi installed on large regional jets and those will actually be the first types completed since UA won’t even have Starlink on its first mainline aircraft until the end of the year which is when DL will likely finally wrap up its WiFi project on its entire global fleet including regional jets.
the big 3 had to do it because DL pushed them to do so.
and WN could make it available even for free domestically on its MAX 8s if they wanted to. let’s see what they decide to do
WiFi will be the least of the industry’s problems by the fall
Better lAAte than never? Offhand I don’t know the number of wide bodies AA has, but why not rip out that garbage Panasonic equipment while they’re reconfiguring those planes? It’s in the hangar, just do it.
We’ll see how good the connectivity and speed is once they get this up and running.
About time. Even so, I bet they’ll delay this. Was just on AA’s a321T (which at least has inflight entertainment screens) and their a321neo (which does not). To have no screens and paid WiFi is just silly in 2025. Currently, AA sometimes offers a ‘sponsored’ 20-minutes of free WiFi by watching a video by Viasat. It’s lame. It’s lazy.
@1990 remember back in, what 2017?, when AA announced free inflight messaging and never followed through? Will be interesting to see if they stick with their January 2026 launch date.
What will the price be for nonmembers?
@DWT — Yup. 100%. Bingo. I remember that ‘false promise,’ too. It’s why I rarely trust these ‘feel good’ announcements. Talk is cheap. I’ll believe it when I see it.
Gary, have you heard any word on what this means for T-Mobile customers who can get one free hour most flights and a full flight texting? Do T-Mobile customers lose the full flight texting come 2026?
@DWT,
Remember “we will never lose money again” by DUI Dougie?
Pepperidge Farm remembers…
You clowns CONSISTENTLY demanded free WiFi on AA, and then when they announce it, you’re unhappy. You guys kinda suck; you’re perpetually unhappy, or you’re paid shills like Tim Dunn.
For one, I prefer NOT to have a seat back screen, DL’s are crap, most require wired headphones and the boxes still take up valuable under seat space. It will be decades before they replace them all with wireless systems. I much rather have a holder, use my own content and streaming, AA has a great inflight library, get to use my ear buds and better yet, have space under the seat. As for changes I’d like to see – BOB (maybe partner with Panera), remodeled Admirals club and expand in hubs (like PHX and CLT), add Flagship suites to all 787-8, -9 and refresh the forward pods on 772. I think the A319 refresh is overdue and just phase out the 320 or at least replace the seats. Those improvements alone will elevate the AA experience.
BTW. . .don’t agree about the FA, my AA FA’s have been great over the years and can claim more crabby DL FA then AA over the past 2 years of flying. DL still lives off their past greatness but feel UA and AA are moving up and DL is descending.
@sunviking82 — Ugh, not this ‘debate’ again. Having IFE screens is better than not, even if you don’t use it. You appear to be an AA-apologist. Listen, I’ve been an Executive Platinum for years, and more recently gave it up for Platinum Pro to fly more with Delta and earn Diamond. In my experience, each airline has its strengths. But, seriously, Delta’s soft product is simply better. The only thing that was lacking at Delta was a true premium lounge experience, like Cheslea, Soho lounges at JFK T8. But, recently, Delta has upped the ante with its new Delta One lounges. So, regardless of your somewhat misguided points, I still prefer Delta.
1990, listen, your preference is not fact. People are allowed to have differing opinions and preferences, you come off as not very inclusive of others. Additionally, you appear to be a Delta shill. Sunviking presented reasons why they don’t like it, yet you just state, it’s better to have it than not. Not compelling.
Face it 1990, Delta is for iPad kids who didn’t receive enough parental time during critical developmental stages.
I believe the direction of removing IFE and simply having WiFI with USB-abled power is the proper route to go.
Saves, weight, costs, etc. Even on international carriers, I’ve found IFE sometimes to be spotty and obsolete relatively quickly.
AA’s FA’s, while not on the same level as CX and QR are still fine. I’ve flown Batik Air and AirAsia a few times the past 2 months and I find AA’s FA’s service and manner closer to them. “Get the job done”.
A number of carriers that have seatback IFE also have streaming entertainment so having seatback IFE IS an addition.
and DL is shifting to wireless tablet based seatback IFE so there are not boxes on many DL fleet types. and the tablets are pretty light so the argument about weight applies less than one’s own Ipad or other personal device.
1990 and kb,
the airline industry is famous for blind loyalty – but all of the big 4 serve well over 100 million customers per year. Anecdotes mean very little compared to actual facts and data. DL simply consistently outperforms AA on just about every customer service metric. Of course, everyone can have different experiences but when airlines have tens of thousands of employees and hundreds of millions of customers and customer interactions, anecdotes mean very little.
and specific to this discussion, DL didn’t come up w/ the idea of fleetwide high speed free WiFi but it, like a whole lot of other things, is executing it before and to a better degree than other carriers including AA – which is being forced to offer free WiFi after B6, DL and UA are all moving in that direction.
and, as Gary notes, AA won’t be competitive as a global carrier until they offer it on their worldwide fleets.
Irrelevant to me. I already have free wi-fi on AA (and UA) as a T-Mobile customer of long standing (more than 20 years). And as for IFE, as an AA customer, I don’t care about it. And, Timbits, before you comment, have your favorite airline get consistent connections across the Pacific. Had it when I flew SFO – BNE on UA.
@sunviking82 – I agree 100% on your post. I’m an EP and have rarely had a in issue with a F/A. Most are friendly and attentive. It’s popular to dump on AA here and while they aren’t perfect, it’s not as grim as many make it out to be.
@Kb — Clearly, I caused you some offense. Nice. I still agree with @Tim Dunn that having IFE screens is better than not having them (it’s an ‘addition’ as he said). You ‘feel’ that’s an opinion–okay, maybe it is; I never said it’s the ‘one true religion.’ However, when they are available, I’ve noticed most passengers use the IFE screens–even if just for the ‘map’ feature.
On tolerating different views, on here and elsewhere, I’ve been a champion of free speech, and I invite you to be one, too. Like, even if I disagree with you, I’ll defend your ability to openly express your ‘bad’ ideas, within reason. Recall that this is Gary’s site, and if he wishes to censor any of us, he technically can and will, though he’s been a gracious host and tends not to micromanage us. The only exception to this ideal is ‘the paradox of tolerance’ (look it up if you must)–as such, thank you for not engaging in hate speech, calls to violence, or doxing. Anyway, feel free to call me whatever silly names you want. You can suggest that I’m dumb–I can take it. You could even share a poem like @Mike Hunt if you wish. That was a good one.
ORD,
you and others love to talk about DL’s current lack of WiFi over the Pacific – as if that offsets having had Free high-speed WiFi on 650 domestic aircraft for years – growing to 1100 domestic aircraft by the end of the year – and 150 widebodies by the end of the year with Europe and S. America being turned on in months.
Let us know when AA or UA offer free WiFi across the Atlantic or to S. America; it won’t be by the end of the summer, let alone the end of the year.
Meh, it’s a luxury and nice to have, but not really necessary. It’s nice to track the flight (could also be accomplished with built in screens…), or to message people on the ground. But it’s likely not going to make someone’s decision based just on wifi whether free or not. It’s not something that is NEEDED, but is nice to have. I feel bad for the poor worker-person who will be expected to be working while on business travel as they wouldn’t be an excuse not to. I’ve always enjoyed the downtime and being totally disconnected.