A few months ago, Cathay Pacific started trialing offering free Wi-Fi in business class. There’s now a major development, as the airline has rolled this out on a larger scale.
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Cathay Pacific adds free business class Wi-Fi
As of September 2024, Cathay Pacific has introduced free Wi-Fi in business class on all aircraft equipped with this service. The airline has Wi-Fi service on all Airbus A350s and Airbus A321neos, with most (but not all) Boeing 777s and Airbus A330s also having connectivity.
For what it’s worth, earlier this year, Cathay Pacific first announced plans to make Wi-Fi free in business class. Then in June, the airline started trialing complimentary Wi-Fi on one Airbus A350, to see how the free service impacted usage patterns and speeds.
Cathay Pacific has been offering free Wi-Fi in first class for years, but that cabin is only available on a small percentage of aircraft. So it’s nice to see this now extended to business class. Furthermore, Cathay Pacific plans to roll out free Wi-Fi to Diamond members of its frequent flyer program as of November 2024 (though not oneworld Emerald equivalents with other programs).
For those who don’t have access to free Wi-Fi, Cathay Pacific ordinarily charges $10-20 per flight for Wi-Fi with no data caps, with messaging passes being available at a lower cost.
Inflight Wi-Fi sure is getting competitive
Inflight Wi-Fi has come a long way in recent years, both in terms of bandwidth and in terms of cost and value. At first, it was exciting when an airline had Wi-Fi in the first place. Then we saw speeds start to improve, and now we’re seeing airlines investing in making Wi-Fi complimentary, at least in some form.
While many airlines still charge for Wi-Fi, some airlines have started offering free inflight messaging to all passengers, and free unlimited Wi-Fi to premium cabin passengers. For example, in Asia, Singapore Airlines now offers unlimited free Wi-Fi to all KrisFlyer members. Meanwhile All Nippon Airways offers unlimited free Wi-Fi to all first and business class passengers.
Cathay Pacific’s issue is that the airline doesn’t exactly have high-speed Wi-Fi throughout much of its fleet, so bandwidth is a major limitation. The more the airline offers free Wi-Fi, the more people will use it, and the slower the speeds will be.
Hopefully Cathay Pacific can eventually work toward offering free Wi-Fi in lower cabins as well. However, the airline probably needs to update its Wi-Fi service before something like this could be extended to economy.
Bottom line
Cathay Pacific has finally introduced free Wi-Fi in business class, so this service should now be available on all aircraft equipped with internet service. This follows a trial that has taken place over the past few months, and Cathay Pacific also plans to introduce free Wi-Fi for top tier tier elite members as of later this year.
What do you make of Cathay Pacific adding free Wi-Fi in business class?
Malaysia Airlines is rolling out free unlimited WiFi for all passengers (all classes, without needing to be a member of its Enrich frequent flyer program). Reading media reports and trip reviews, free WiFi currently appears to be available on all A350 aircraft, and selected A330 and 737 aircraft. The plan appears to be to progressively roll it out across the entire fleet.
"Free WiFi in business class" is genius marketing, considering that no one who pays $5,000+ for a flight should have any qualms about spending $20-50 to use the internet during said flight.
I gladly pay for my business class tickets but I rarely pay for WiFi. So there is at least one of us. It seems free WiFi is the direction many airlines are heading.
Actually no, I never pay for WiFi when I fly in business class, because I always thought it obscene to add the fee to the high business fare.
Writing this using CX free WiFi, was a pleasant surprise!
Forgot to mention this is on MNL-HKG on a A333. So even a better surprise. Will check it out again on HKG-CGK tomorrow.