American Airlines will offer free inflight Wi-Fi across most of its domestic narrowbody fleet over the coming months with a new ad-sponsored option, the Fort Worth-based carrier announced on Wednesday.
Until now, AA has only offered free Wi-Fi to certain T-Mobile customers through the ‘Inflight Connection On Us’ program, although that was limited to mobile devices only and didn’t work with a laptop or tablet.
Now, however, American Airlines says it will offer free gate-to-gate Wi-Fi for all customers with its ad-supported option, which will roll out throughout the year on Viasat-enabled narrowbody aircraft.
If you don’t want to watch ads to access inflight Wi-Fi then AA will still offer several paid options, including time-based packages and flight passes, with prices varying depending on the duration of the flight.
For frequent flyers, the carrier also offers monthly and annual Wi-Fi subscriptions, and later this year, AAdvantage members will be able to start using their miles to pay for inflight Wi-Fi.
In the next few weeks, AA will add the ability to pay for Wi-Fi with miles on a couple of select aircraft before rolling out the feature across its entire Viasat-enabled fleet by the summer.
American Airlines has three providers of inflight Wi-Fi, and Viasat is installed across the carrier’s mainline narrowbody fleet. AA also has Intelsat (formerly known as GoGo) Wi-Fi installed on some narrowbody aircraft, as well as regional jets and free ad-supported Wi-Fi won’t be coming to these planes.
In addition, widebody aircraft fitted with the Panasonic Wi-Fi system will also be excluded from the free ad-supported Wi-Fi option, as well as the ability to pay for Wi-Fi with miles.
