American Airlines reverses course on free Wi-Fi

After a few years courting low-cost leisure passengers, while effectively antagonizing and disregarding premium customers, American Airlines is finally showing signs it’s ready to compete on product and service. Until recently, American was among a vanishingly small number of major global airlines with no stated plan to roll out free Wi-Fi or even free messaging... The post American Airlines reverses course on free Wi-Fi appeared first on Runway Girl.

Apr 20, 2025 - 14:58

American Airlines reverses course on free Wi-Fi

After a few years courting low-cost leisure passengers, while effectively antagonizing and disregarding premium customers, American Airlines is finally showing signs it’s ready to compete on product and service.

Until recently, American was among a vanishingly small number of major global airlines with no stated plan to roll out free Wi-Fi or even free messaging — despite the fact the latter has become so common it’s virtually a minimum standard for a full-service carrier.

But almost exactly a year after showing no expressed interest in adopting the free Wi-Fi model during the 2024 Aircraft Interiors Expo in Hamburg, where “miles as a form of payment” was instead touted by American, the carrier has reversed course and announced that free Wi-Fi is coming to 90% of its fleet starting in 2026. The service will be sponsored by AT&T.

The free offering will be available to all AAdvantage loyalty members on aircraft fitted with either Viasat or Intelsat’s satellite-based inflight connectivity systems, which cover the entire mainline narrowbody fleet and eventually all two-cabin regional jets as they’re upgraded from a legacy air-to-ground system to Intelsat’s multi-orbit IFC solution.

Widebody aircraft with Panasonic Avionics’ Ku-band satcom solution on board will continue to offer a paid experience with no strategy shift announced as of now, leaving American at a disadvantage compared to Delta and others who support free connectivity even on longhaul flights, where coverage is available.

This leaves Spirit as the only airline still charging all passengers for onboard Internet in the United States and Canada, with no publicized plans to move to free.

Southwest and Breeze Airways offer free connectivity to some passengers, while both offer free messaging to all passengers. Ultra low-cost carrier Allegiant has not fitted its fleet with IFC.

Meanwhile, American is also retooling its boarding procedures to focus slightly more on premium cabin passengers, though the actual impact is perhaps more symbolic than anything else.

Starting 1 May, American will now board Business and First Class passengers in one of two “Preboard” phases, with ConciergeKey members being first. This bumps active duty U.S. military members and AAdvantage Executive Platinum status holders down into Group 1, which effectively becomes the third group to board, after families with children 2 and under.

Among the benefits of these changes, notes American, is that: “Those in the premium cabin will experience the personalized service that they know and expect.” Cheers to that.

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