After years of charging for inflight internet on most of its flights, American Airlines is finally making free Wi-Fi a reality for many travelers as the airline begins rolling out the complimentary in-flight connectivity starting today.
American Airlines Begins Rolling Out Complimentary Wi-Fi For AAdvantage Members Today
American Airlines has switched to complimentary inflight Wi-Fi on the vast majority of flights, marking the beginning of a major connectivity shift that will eventually cover almost the entire fleet. The service is being offered at no cost to AAdvantage members and is sponsored by AT&T.
American said complimentary Wi-Fi will be available on aircraft equipped with Viasat and Intelsat high-speed satellite connectivity, and the airline has been preparing for this by outfitting hundreds of regional aircraft with satellite Wi-Fi as part of the broader rollout plan. American says that once fully implemented, free Wi-Fi will be available on about 90% of its fleet and as of today, you can expect free Wi-Fi on most of the narrowbody fleet.
American framed this as a customer experience upgrade aimed at helping passengers stay connected for work, messaging, social media, and streaming. As Heather Garboden, American’s Chief Customer Officer, put it:
“Our customers greatly value staying connected while in the air, whether communicating with friends, getting work done, checking in on social media or streaming their favorite subscription services. We’ve been working diligently to outfit our aircraft with best-in-class high-speed Wi-Fi and together with AT&T are proud to offer those services at no cost to our most loyal customers.”
Allow me to translate: Delta Air Lines and Untied Airlines offer, or will soon offer, free Wi-Fi to their loyalty members and therefore we cannot afford not to.
Some aircraft types, mostly widebody, that use older connectivity systems will still require paid Wi-Fi for now, at least until they are equipped with the supported satellite hardware.
But this is not just good news, but great news for AA flyers, particularly because Wi-Fi was so expensive (often over $20, even for short flights) both in an absolute and comparative sense (Alaska, Southwest, and United charge a flat $8 for Wi-Fi for loyalty members).
CONCLUSION
American Airlines is finally joining the trend toward complimentary inflight Wi-Fi, and a broad rollout starts today. It may take time to reach full scale, but with AT&T sponsorship and a plan that American says will cover roughly 90% of the fleet, this is a genuine upgrade that should make flying American more pleasant and more productive for many travelers, myself included.
Ahh, it’s a January 6 celebration! Lol.
Dark humor aside, all airlines, including ULCCs and especially those with BYOD, should have complimentary, reliable WiFi on all flights. It’s 2026, not 1956. Get with the freaking program.
AA has had the capability to offer free high speed WiFi for years; they use the same platform as DL uses on most of its aircraft.
the limitation has been that Viasat has not had the bandwidth to support two megacarriers with free WiFi – DL just spoke first. Viasat just added another satellite to cover N. America which opens up more bandwidth.
and the bigger deal is that, even w/ the launch day kinks which AA fliers are reporting, AA leapfrogs B6 and mostly UA in number of operating aircraft w/ free high speed WiFi coming up behind DL not just in total aircraft but also global coverage; AA has no plans to match DL’s offer of free global WiFi which is currently available across the Atlantic and to Latin America.
UA, in contrast, has a handful of mainline aircraft w/ StarLink in service as of this day.
Finally, “The new American is arriving.”
Congrats! AA is “an airline that is proud to bear the name: American.”
I was on a flight today from Las Vegas to O’hare and looking forward to the wifi. They announced in while we taxied for take off. But after we took off, then announced the wifi was not working. So American Airlines mojo. This is happening and oops, not working. Glad the two engines were working.