On the same day Alaska Air launched its awful WiFi and discounts subscription program, Alaska Access, Oneworld partner American Air announced changes to its in-flight WiFi offerings, and they couldn’t be more different than what Alaska did.
Oh WiFi. For our ever-connected world, this is an inflight amenity that’s becoming more of a necessity than a nice-to-have. Yet, airlines are all over the place in how they handle it. Traditionally, WiFi was available for a fee, if at all, and was fairly expensive. And even if it was available and you paid for it, there was no guarantee it’d actually, you know, work. However, in recent years, we’ve been seeing a shift towards offering free WiFi. Delta was the first legacy to make this move, while Hawaiian is also offering free WiFi (for now) as it slowly adds the capability to its fleet.
However, yesterday, Alaska Airlines began offering a subscription program that gave customers one discounted length-of-flight WiFi voucher per month, plus early access to fare sales. Whomp, whomp. I hope none of you reading this post goes for the money grab.
What made their bad announcement all the more ironic, though, is the fact that American appears to be heading in the direction – at least a little.
American Changes Its WiFi Program
There are a couple of things going on in the announcement about how American changes its WiFi program. The most notable of these is that they’ll kind of, sort of offer free WiFi on certain aircraft.
Ad-Supported WiFi
Yep, as American changes its WiFi program, they’ll begin offering free WiFi to all passengers. However, there are several caveats to this:
- The Ad: you’ll have endure an ad running 15 to 30 seconds long
- Time Limit: that ad gets you 20 minutes of access. Unfortunately, you can only do this once per flight per device.
- Availability: ad-supported WiFi will only be available on American’s domestic narrow body fleet – basically, those fitted with ViaSat WiFi. That includes the Boeing 737 NG/MAX, Airbus A319, the A321, and A321neo. I could be wrong, but I think the A320 may be excluded, as they are equipped with Gogo 2Ku. Widebodies are equipped with Panasonic.
It’s a real bummer that American limits ad-supported access to just once per flight. Are the ad fees not enough to justify allowing repeated showings for more time? Couldn’t they also give AAdvantage members more time, especially since Delta gives all SkyMiles members free access? Oh well.
Miles for WiFi
In the next several weeks, as American changes its WiFi program, you’ll begin to see opportunities to redeem miles for WiFi access on the same aircraft types listed above. Again, the limit to just ViaSat aircraft is a bit of a bummer, but this isn’t something I see myself doing, anyway. Normally, these schemes offer poor value, too, so it isn’t worth it. Unfortunately, that’s harder to determine at this point, as American still hasn’t released pricing.
Gate-to-Gate Connectivity
Unlike the old days, passengers can enjoy gate-to-gate connectivity onboard most of American’s mainline fleet. However, if you’re traveling with one of their regional partners, things are a bit different. To address its shortcomings in the space, American is partnering with Intelsat to bring connectivity to 500 two-class regional jets. No timeline has been given for the project, other than that it’ll begin this summer.
American Changes Its WiFi Program, Final Thoughts
As American changes its WiFi program, it isn’t going as far as Delta, JetBlue, or Hawaiian. However, it isn’t also going the route of Alaska. But it’s also worth mentioning that American has the most expensive WiFi of any U.S. carrier today, with prices ranging from $10 to $35. For domestic flights. By contract, Alaska, United, and Southwest all charge $8, regardless of flight length. American does let you buy subscriptions, too, at $50/month for one device or $60/month for two. American also offers an annual subscription at $600 and $700, respectively. All subscriptions cover domestic flights, only.
United offers both domestic and global plans at $50/month or $70/month, respectively, or $540 or $690 per year.
Either way, I find it a bit shameful that Hawaiian, an airline that still paywalls in-flight entertainment, offers free high-speed WiFi, yet these big legacies don’t. Of course, whether it’ll stay free, regardless of it the Alaska Air acquisition closes, is not a foregone conclusion.