In light of the United Airlines decision to roll out Starlink internet across both its mainline and regional fleet, giving the carrier the fastest, best performing wifi in the sky (eventually) and making it free to customers, folks are asking will American make its wifi free also? After all, Delta and JetBlue already do, too. And Southwest and Alaska charge far less for internet than American does.
It turns out that CEO Robert Isom laid out his philosophy on charging for wifi way back in 2018.
- Wifi should generate revenue,
- Unless they’re forced by competitors not to charge for it
In terms of anybody talking about free wifi that’s fantastic. ..The issue we’ll all face is that that bandwidth, that satellite wifi serice, it’s not cheap. Think about what you do on the ground now put it in a plane and then track satellites in a plane. So what you’re talking about ultimately is something that would be an expenditure of hundreds of millions of dollars and it’s something we have to think about in terms of what do customers expect, what do they get for that, what advantages does it bring in addition to live TV that we will be giving free, that we are giving free, and also stored content on the plane.
So it’s something that we are out there and making sure we’re conscious of. The intent though and the model that we have is that we will be charging for wifi. As we go forward of course we’ll be conscious of the marketplace and make sure we do the right thing.
At American’s Media and Investor Day in September 2017, they announced free onboard messaging for passengers. A year later they acted confused, as though they’d never said it. The idea was dismissed internally as too expensive after it was announced. While everyone not gives wifi for free,
- Generally messaging on other carriers is free (but isn’t for most customers on American)
- And airlines that charge for wifi charge $8, while American can charge $20 – $30
When Delta Air Lines had first prepared to offer free wifi, in summer 2019, American Airlines had a plan in place to match whatever Delta did.
American Airlines had a partnership with JetBlue, where they were trying to align much of their benefits for customers, but American didn’t match JetBlue on free wifi. When Delta finally introduced free wifi, American Airlines didn’t match.
- CEO Robert Isom says the airline’s priority is not spending a dollar they do not need to.
- And they do not see themselves in the ‘premium’ lane that Delta and United are competing over. Instead, they see their schedule as the product. People will buy them because they’re big in the Sun Belt, which are growing regions, and they can create connections that transport customers where they want to go (though American hardly has a monopoly on doing this).
The problem for American Airlines is that on a trip cost basis, they become more expensive than their competitors even when fares are the same. If American wants $200 for a ticket, and United and Delta want $210 even, American is more expensive to any customer wanting inflight internet. You’re paying more and won’t be getting the same overall product. That’s a tough market position to defend.
Put another way, American Airlines will ultimately get dragged kicking and screaming into offering free wifi – though of course they’ll spin it as generosity towards their customers when they do.
Depends if AA management begins to see the coach experience anything beyond what Spirit and Frontier offer.
Is there even one soul on God’s green earth who prefers American Airlines to Delta or United?
My highly educated high-end white collar professional team flies frequently between JFK/EWR and SFO. Not one of us flies American.
In my social circles, American is a bad joke.
Put simply and succinctly, American sucks.
I had a bunch of AA flight credits to use this year due to their cancellations and I forgot the AA cunudrum. As a whole I don’t hate them. In general I think their crew isn’t bad.
Often nicer in F/C than Delta but as a whole, someone said it best. AA is a Southwest product at much higher prices.
Isom has accomplished something I thought was unimaginable: Make AA worse than UA.
This will be on the table for consideration post-bankruptcy
Seriously??
American Airlines won’t give you the time of day for free.
It’s more likely they’ll introduce a policy to take away your Miles if you don’t purchase their pricey WiFi.
The AA hate is reaching the hyperbole stage of 2022 Delta love and 2016 United hate
The loyalty program (that includes redemptions on great oneworld partners) is still better than UA and DL. That’s what is currently keeping me around.
There are many myself included who don’t need WiFi while on planes. If you’re deciding based on free WiFi then the choice is clear. My determining factors are usually non stop flights and therefore SW and AA primarily win the bulk of my business. I would never choose a carrier based on WiFi free or otherwise.
One thing people hate is extra fees by the airlines, any airline. Even though I’m not a business person, adding on a few extra dollars to the airfares should cover the cost of “free wifi.”
SFO/EWR
“My highly educated high-end white collar professional team flies frequently between JFK/EWR and SFO.”
I literally started cackling out loud reading this. It’s as arrogant as someone saying unprompted that they are officially a mensa.
“something we have to think about in terms of what do customers expect”
Starlink has thousands of satellites in low orbit that are providing a diarrhea of internet to every single spot on the planet with hundreds of megabytes of service and latency that makes you think you’re sitting in your living room. All for <$100 per month.
In five years, I will expect nothing less from the airline I fly.
Starlink does not allow airlines to charge for WiFi under their contract. If AA or Delta follow United in selecting Starlink, they will be doing free WiFi whether they like it or not.
UA internet isn’t free, yet. It’ll take quite some time before it’s noticeably available. Mods will be done during scheduled maintenance.
DL internet is only free for Skypeso members, and the log in is redonkulous. It’s not rolled out to the entire fleet, it’s marketed, but limited availability is being generous.
AA has time to make a move.
AA has a very nice, reliable and free streaming on your personal device on all domestic flights without SBS. Even regionals, better than DL. The content is great. One click and done. Only true road warriors need internet, and they need to chill, take an hour off.
pilot,
UA said it will the first revenue flight with Starlink won’t be until the end of 2025.
DL’s login is no different from any other login. Seriously?
DL has over 600 aircraft offering high speed free WiFi now, most are domestic and they are rolling out new international markets every week.
DL is adding high speed WiFi to RJs.
DL will complete its rollout before any other airline including UA gets even half of their fleet equipped with high speed free WiFi
DL offers streaming content from its own servers, AVOD with their content and streaming via WIFi. THAT is the model that UA is pursuing. AA is not going to be in that camp and neither is WN or Spirit.
As with everything else, there is a clear dividing line in the industry. In terms of onboard passenger entertainment, B6 and DL are very much leaders now while UA says it will get there; the rest of the industry so far is not even pursuing it
And AA cannot just turn on free WiFi; they have to negotiate the bandwidth with their providers. It is very possible that other carriers are adding enough high speed WiFi that there may not be room for huge expansion for AA even if it wants to – without significant upgrades in delivery
Haha if you thought flight attendants were going to attempt to work with their new contract, you’ve got another thing coming when AA eventually gets dragged into the free WiFi game.
Anything that can make professionals more productive in the air will sell more tickets.
Starlink is no better than Viasat. Both products are the same. Both can offer gate to gate internet.
@Jay – you clearly haven’t used Starlink.
@Gary, Starlink at home is exponentially better than Viasat. For in-flight wifi, for most use cases, one is not better than the other. Most use in flight WiFi for entertainment purposes (streaming in flight tv or movies), and for that use purpose, Starlink is not better than Viasat. Event casual web use, one is not better than the other. There may be a niche use case where Starlink is better. But you cannot point to that use case to overall state Starlink is bettert than Viasat. Assuming Viasat is cheaper, it makes little sense for airlines to go with Starlink over Viasat, other than as a marketing ploy.
@Jay – Starlink isn’t just faster, it has much lower latency than ViaSat. The latency is what makes the experience vastly different inflight. How much have you actually experienced Starlink inflight? They are not the same.
It’s totally obvious. Of course AA will have no choice now but to offer the same service. Airlines have long been total copy cats. Passengers will not ride AA when another airline with the same airplanes is offering free WiFi. There’s not a lot to do on flights beyond reading and looking out the window, which I do enjoy.
Note to Dom: I respectfully disagree, Ipsom and the rest of the Parker gang have now totally succeeded in bring American to the level of a bottom feeder as was USAir. Who would have thunk it a couple of decades ago?
Why do people need WiFi on board? When do these people disconnect from their so called busy life? Have of these people are taking nonstop under 2 hours flights. Why can’t they relax for 2 hours and disconnect? I’m AA EP who flies international weekly, I won’t even waste my time attempting to connect to that Panasonic Internet whatever because it is slow as dirt and super expensive. Besides, I go straight to sleep, I miss all meal service, why would I need Internet. People are busy being busy, there are other people who can resolve issues. It’s like the old addage of a business owner vs. a businessman. The people who need Internet inflight, yea they are business owners. By the way AA do offer free Internet on domestic continental service, not Caribbean, Alaska or Hawaii domestic, if PAX has T-Mobile and also on those same route they offer 20 minutes of free Internet to the other PAX. They have a vast entertainment library and live TV on their continental domestic line.
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