Delta Is Introducing Free Inflight Messaging

JetBlue has free in-flight WiFi -and- Amazon video streaming.

Among the first texts will most likely be "How the hell am I going to spend $250K on my damn card next year?!?!? LOL"

@ Alpha -- Great point, updated the post to reflect that.

Mr. Bastian, if you forcing us to spend $250K on Delta card just to get Diamond Medallion, all of us are going to switch our loyalty.

I am also a happy T-Mobile customer, so this will be of little benefit to me. That said, it is nice to see.

Get diamond by flying like you should.

A step in the right direction.

Can't wait to read all the bought-my-status medallion comments on here again today.

Massaging, that's what I wanted. Not Messaging!

A, nobody is forcing you to spend $250k on your Delta card just to get Diamond Medallion. You could, ya know, actually fly a lot.

Had no problem making voip calls with vpn .

United used to (may still) accidentally offer this feature on certain flights 🙂

Depending on the wifi technology and wifi portal they used to use, I found that I could inadvertently get free iMessaging and receive whatsapp, GroupMe, and Facebook messages without paying for wifi. I haven't tested it recently but was a handy glitch.

Copycat #iFlyAlaska

Ben, T-Mobile now offers unlimited wifi. No longer capped at an hour. Need to update that.

@ Sergio T -- Do you have a link? T-Mobile's website still references only an hour of free wifi:
https://www.t-mobile.com/offer/free-in-flight-wifi-texting-uncarrier.html

@jetset: Flew UA Monday between SAN and IAH and can confirm the accidentally free data connectivity is still there, but seems to be limited to just iMessage. Neither of my WhatsApp or Facebook messages was delivered, nor was any message that relied on cellular. And pictures or other multimedia weren't coming through - only text. Anymore I always test this out just to see if it's a fluke, and I have pretty decent success. It's great.

@A: just FYI the $250k spend on a credit card to get Delta Diamond is better than what AA and UA offer. Thus, although it is ridiculous it is still better than nothing. If you really want Diamond, fly Delta and spend the money on their flights. Simple as that.

@ Lucky - Sergio is referencing T-Mobile’s One Plus and One Plus International Plans. I have One Plus International, and have free unlimited WiFi on most GoGo and GoGo 2kU equipped aircraft. Link below:

https://www.t-mobile.com/cell-phone-plans?icid=WMM_TM_Q117TMO1PL_b1R6S9EA6ZD7631

Scroll down until you see T-Mobile One Plus 🙂

I am very happy about this!! I'm a happy Verizon customer who has always been jealous of the T-Mobile benefit. Glad I'll be able to use now when not purchasing a full wifi pass.

@Lucky- you don't need to be a T-Mobile customer to get free messaging, all you need is a phone number that is on T-Mobile. I know as I'm a verizon customer though when I go on planes I enter my uncle's phone number (He has T-Mobile)

Dear Everyone Who is Still Complaining About the Delta MQD Waiver,

Bye. Have fun flying with worse airlines.

Sincerely,

Easily spends more than 15k a year in flights which isn't that hard if you are a true business traveler

PS - this thread isn't about the waiver, it's about wifi

This a great perk which my girlfriend and I will enjoy when I'm traveling for work. Add this in with the easy $15k MQDs I should get next year, and 2019 could be a good year of flying for me. I never knew that T-mobile offered those benefits, but I still don't think I could trust them where I live. Verizon still has the best coverage in rural America.

Messaging great, just hope phone calls are not next.

JK - Fly a lot? A frequent flyer programme that expects people to fly frequently in order to get status? I can't see such a thing catching on...