American Airlines has just put out a press release about how it’s enhancing inflight entertainment, and will soon allow AAdvantage members to redeem miles for inflight Wi-Fi. The press release talks about how American is offering free sponsored Wi-Fi to passengers.
For whatever reason, I see many people online reporting that American is following Delta in introducing free Wi-Fi. However, that’s not the case — I’ve checked with American, and nothing has actually changed. This is simply the same opportunity that has been around for around two years.
In this post:
American’s free Wi-Fi on Viasat equipped planes
Since the spring of 2022, American Airlines has been offering passengers limited free Wi-Fi, as part of the oneworld carrier’s overall Wi-Fi offering. Here’s how American’s complimentary Wi-Fi works:
- Free Wi-Fi is available on Viasat-equipped aircraft, which includes a vast majority of the narrow body mainline fleet
- Customers have to watch a sponsored 15-30 second ad, and then can be connected to the full Wi-Fi offering for a limited time session; this session is typically 20 minutes
- This is being done to drive awareness for American’s inflight Wi-Fi offering, and to “help American better understand what inflight experiences are most meaningful to customers”
Just to show the process of accessing the free American Airlines Wi-Fi, connect your browser to American’s inflight Wi-Fi portal, at aainflight.com. Then click on “Get online.”
You’ll see the paid Wi-Fi pass options ($19 for an hour, seriously?!), but if you scroll down a bit further, you should see the “Complimentary Wi-Fi” section.
You’ll then be redirected to the ad, which is typically quite short, and is often just intended to promote the American AAdvantage loyalty program.
Then you’ll receive confirmation of how much time you have to enjoy the free Wi-Fi.
Since American doesn’t have seat back entertainment on most narrow body planes, this is a nice way to pass time on American, in addition to the carrier’s streaming library of movies and TV shows. However, it’s probably not all that exciting for those of us who pay for a monthly Wi-Fi pass on American.
Will American ever offer unlimited free Wi-Fi?
For years, JetBlue has offered passengers free Wi-Fi — it’s one of the only airlines in the world that offers this without any sort of caps on usage, and it’s a fantastic point of differentiation. We’ve now seen Delta follow JetBlue’s lead, as the airline offers free Wi-Fi to all SkyMiles members on most flights, and plans to offer it on all flights by 2025.
For years, there have been rumors of American eventually matching Delta. However, it seems to me like this is nowhere close to becoming a reality:
- American has made it clear that it’s not trying to be a premium airline, and that the carrier’s network is its product, and nothing else
- The airline has just announced that AAdvantage members will soon be able to redeem miles for free Wi-Fi, so that suggests even more that free Wi-Fi isn’t part of American’s plans
I imagine that eventually American will offer free Wi-Fi, as I think that will become an industry standard perk, especially as technology continues to improve. But I can’t imagine it will happen anytime soon.
At least American offering some free Wi-Fi sessions on Viasat jets is better than nothing. However, in reality I think very few people realize this is even offered, as it’s not at all promoted.
Bottom line
American Airlines is continuing to offer passengers free Wi-Fi on all Viasat-equipped mainline narrow body aircraft. Customers just have to watch a short 15-30 second ad, and can then enjoy 20 minutes of complimentary Wi-Fi.
While American has just announced this as a perk, nothing has actually changed, as this is the same benefit that has been around for a couple of years. If you are flying with American and don’t want to pay for Wi-Fi, then this is a great option, so be sure you look out for this.
What do you make of American Airlines offering free sponsored inflight Wi-Fi?
I have unlimited free wifi including streaming on American. It's included with my T-Mobile plan, has been for quite a while.
What's American and Alaskan gonna do when people expect free wifi after delta and united do it?
They're all gonna do it! Add 5 bucks (or whatever slightly above break even will be) to every ticket price... It's basically what it'll come down to.
In the nicest way possible
If you fly aa often, why haven’t you switched to t mobile already or why didn’t you with delta before that? I haven’t paid for WiFi on a plane in a long time
They’re cheaper and have better international plans to boot
I would have thought that free Wi-Fi would be a logical perk to include in elite status benefits.
Screw AA. I dont know if I will pay $7, $9, $12, $17, $19, $25, $29 or $35 for wifi on AA.
The other point worth flagging here is how inconsistent (and sometimes ridiculous) AA's wifi pricing is - while UA and WN don't have free wifi, the $6 and $8 per flight, respectively, is far more reasonable to me.
It seems like "free" wi-fi has become more important than safety. I was under the impression that an airline's main function is to get people safely from one place to another not provide wi-fi. But I guess that idea was mistaken.
World Elite Mastercards issued in Canada come with Boingo, which provides $0 WiFi on American, without watching a video. This is one of those very rare cases where Canadians receive a value denied to Americans.
Well, and you're also Americans. That seems like a value to this one!
This is so annoying. There is nothing new here and the 20-min ad-supported wifi offering is the weakest of any major carrier.
What about T Mobile customers ? Don’t they get free wifi on American ?
I have been using the free 20 minutes on all my flights since I found the free video. But yesterday's flight, didn't have the free video option, and I have ran into that issue before on one of my flights. So it's not a guarantee that you will have the free 20 minutes available.
Another AA article. Yawn.
so weird that a travel blog routinely covers the world's largest airline ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Psss... reset your mac address, clear cookies, boom another free 20 minutes. You can do this on iOS devices (once per device) by using the "private wi-fi address" switch.
How many miles will be required for how many "free" minutes? AA is NOT competitive with DL for in-flight entertainment. DL has free unlimited Wi-Fi and real-time TV. I flew 4 AA flights in early March 2024 and only one aircraft offered Wi-Fi for watching a commercial. It was only 20 continuous minutes. If you switch to a different app, the 20 minute clock keeps running.