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?
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