American Airlines has announced a new entertainment option for passengers starting Friday, February 1, 2019.
American Airlines passengers will have access to Apple Music through inflight Wi-Fi, allowing them to stream more than 50 million songs, playlists, and music videos, on any domestic flight equipped with Viasat Wi-Fi.
American says they’re the first airline to provide “exclusive access” to Apple Music through complimentary inflight Wi-Fi. That’s a pretty funny claim. JetBlue offers all passengers free inflight Wi-Fi and they’re free to use Apple Music, but I guess that’s technically not “exclusive,” since there’s no partnership.
Those who already subscribe to Apple Music can simply connect to Wi-Fi on Viasat-equipped aircraft, and then log into their account. Customers who don’t have an Apple Music subscription can sign up for a free three month trial (which is the same offer you get on the ground).
This is no doubt a positive, though is also pretty minor. American passengers aren’t getting anything they wouldn’t get on the ground here (they can either pay for an Apple Music subscription or get a free trial), but rather they’ll just be able to access it for free through inflight Wi-Fi.
I’m nonetheless happy to see this, since anything positive from American is good news. I remember a couple of years ago the airline said they’d offer free inflight texting. Unfortunately they changed their mind, and still haven’t added that.
On the plus side, what has impressed me is the pace at which American has installed high speed Wi-Fi throughout their fleet.
At this point American has high speed Wi-Fi (either Viasat or Gogo 2Ku) on 570 aircraft, with the plan for all planes to feature this by mid-2019. I’m impressed by how quickly American has accomplished this, since I feel like just a year ago it was rare to find an American plane with high speed Wi-Fi, while nowadays most of my flights are getting it.
Do you plan on using American’s new inflight Apple Music feature?
Considering they are quickly removing "real" in flight entertainment, this is perfume on a pig at best. Rather pathetic offering instead of offering real entertainment offerings like Delta does. Color me not impressed.
As plain and cheap as the coach seats look, the business class seats, particularly on the 757s look awful with a gigantic hole showing their cheapness where a proper monitor should be.
This is nice! I mean its not a GAME CHANGER but its a nice to have for some folks. I agree free texting, like their competition offers, would be nicer. Or you know, just not ripping out existing IFE etc.
AA announces free Apple music on the same day United announces free Direct TV. Boy, this just illustrates how bad AA has become since their merger! Just a damn shame
How is this good or an improvement? Apple Music typically costs $9.99 a month, so why would AA charge $10 for an hour, or $12 for the flight? So in essence dumb customers are helping to pay for the "free" WiFi.
You'll have plenty of time to use it while you are delayed and experiencing MX issues :)
Sounds like a good improvement!