American Airlines frequent flyers have long awaited the launch of free Wi-Fi. The airline officially began the offering on Jan. 6, but a phased rollout means it is taking a few weeks for the free connectivity to reach all eligible aircraft.
Earlier this week, I was fortunately able to access free Wi-Fi on a flight from Boston to New York, marking my first flight with the offering on American.
Free Wi-Fi is available on the airline’s aircraft equipped with Viasat and Intelsat’s high-speed satellite connectivity, which covers approximately 90% of its fleet. My flight was on an Embraer 175 powered by Intelsat.
Flight AA4393, BOS-LGA
I was airside about a half hour before boarding. I made a quick stop at the Admirals Club for a light breakfast before heading to my gate.
My aircraft this day was N101HQ, an 18-year-old Embraer 175. Note the flat radome towards the back end on top of the fuselage, a telltale sign of Intelsat’s multi-orbit IFC on American’s jets.
I sat down and got a pre-departure beverage.
Side note: The flight attendant in the First Class cabin on this flight was fantastic. She was super friendly and attentive, and she did everything she could with drinks and snacks on this short 45-minute hop to New York. I also saw her holding friendly conversations with a couple of passengers who were willing to talk.
Her overall friendly vibe made for a nice environment up front. Cudos to her!
As I settled in, I connected to aainflight.com and a pop-up came up letting me know that there is free Wi-Fi on this flight.
I clicked “Connect to free Wi-Fi,” and I was able to log in with my AAdvantage account on the next page.
After watching a 30 second AT&T ad (the free Wi-Fi is sponsored by AT&T), I was fully connected:
I ran a speed test and got solid results. These were similar numbers to some of my previous flights on American’s E175s with Intelsat.
Free Wi-Fi, at least on aircraft equipped with Intelsat’s high-speed system, is available from the moment you get on the plane to the moment you arrive at your destination. Being connected during taxi and takeoff is nice.
Interestingly, the flight attendants did not make any announcement about Wi-Fi being free. They stuck with the same script of “Wi-Fi is available on this flight,” but made no mention of it being free. I imagine they’ll change the script once the airline finishes its phased rollout.
Although it’s a very short flight to New York, I received a bag of mixed nuts, and I asked for just a cup of water, half full for my choice of drink (I’m boring, I know).
I spent the rest of the short flight on Wi-Fi, browsing the internet and sending some messages. The speeds on American’s jets equipped with Intelsat’s high-speed satellite connectivity are more than enough to smoothly browse YouTube and other streaming services, which is also a good option to kill time onboard.
I did run another speed test while in the air, and I got similar results of 70.1/13.8.
Concluding Thoughts
Having free Wi-Fi onboard definitely changes how I approach killing time during flights, whether it’s doing work or watching YouTube.
Although American is relatively late to the party in the U.S. with free Wi-Fi, I’m glad to see the offering finally available. Once the full rollout is complete, it’ll be nice to be able to reliably connect on most American Airlines flights without a ridiculous cost.
Additionally, I love the speeds of Intelsat’s multi-orbit IFC, and the free Wi-Fi now makes flying the Embraer 175 even more lucrative than it already is.
All photos taken by the author.
