By Shawn Gallagher
Over the past several years, American Airlines has lagged behind other U.S. carriers when it comes to inflight Wi-Fi. Unlike Delta and JetBlue, they still charge for Wi-Fi, and unlike United, they charge a lot.
I wrote about their in-flight product last month using my Boston to Chicago flight as an example. Wi-Fi was one of the topics, as it cost a whopping $24 just for the 2 hour flight. Meanwhile, a United flight on the same route cost just $8, in addition to the IFE screens I had on their Boeing 737.
So what’s the news today? American is finally addressing this gap in Wi-Fi service as they’re beginning to test free onboard Wi-Fi on three routes starting next week. Let’s go over the details.
The three routes that will start seeing free Wi-Fi are as follows:
- Charlotte (CLT) – Raleigh (RDU)
- Charlotte (CLT) – Jacksonville (JAX)
- Chicago (ORD) – Miami (MIA)
Free Wi-Fi applies both ways. They’ll begin rolling out sometime next week (March 2025). It’s unclear how long this will last.
Free Wi-Fi Was Inevitable
In a way, this was kind of inevitable. I’ve been saying for years now (with skepticism, of course) that American Airlines should be the next to offer free in-flight Wi-Fi. The airline had previously denied rumors of plans to roll out free Wi-Fi, but as other carriers moved to improve their connectivity game, they now have no other choice.
United and Delta are in an arms race to improve passenger experience. Delta has plans to expand their free Wi-Fi service to international routes. United has been rolling out its newly refurbished NEXT interiors on various domestic aircraft with spacious overhead bins and in-flight entertainment screens. Corporate at American clearly see that something has to change, and this trial seems to be a start.
Hopefully, the airline can pull through with free Wi-Fi from this trial. American currently utilizes Viasat for their Wi-Fi and should have enough to handle the expected increase in users with connectivity going free (which will be a part of their focus during this trial phase).
American Airlines still has a ways to go in playing the catch-up game compared to Delta and United, but this could be the spark in passenger experience improvements that AAdvantage flyers were hoping for.
All photos taken by the author.