We’ve seen a trend lately whereby airlines have increasingly rolled out free Wi-Fi for passengers. This has come in a variety of forms, ranging from Delta offering unlimited free Wi-Fi to all SkyMiles members, to Air Canada offering free inflight messaging to Aeroplan members.
As flagged by Executive Traveller, Malaysia Airlines is now joining the list of airlines offering free Wi-Fi… but in a limited capacity.
In this post:
Malaysia Airlines’ free Wi-Fi in business class
As of July 1, 2023, Malaysia Airlines will be introducing free Wi-Fi in business class:
- This will only be available on the carrier’s wide body jets, including Airbus A330s and Airbus A350s
- Business class passengers and Malaysia Airlines Enrich Platinum members will receive 100MB of free Wi-Fi
- In the future, the airline plans to extend free Wi-Fi to Malaysia Airlines Enrich Gold members, plus “limited complimentary connectivity” for all Enrich members, but there are no additional details regarding that just yet
For context, Malaysia Airlines’ current Wi-Fi pricing is data-based, and is as follows:
- For $2 you can get the “Lite” pass, which gets you 10MB of data
- For $10 you can get the “Social” pass, which gets you 50MB of data
- For $25 you can get the “Business” pass, which gets you 200MB of data
This is better than nothing, but…
It’s nice to see Malaysia Airlines rolling out free Wi-Fi in some form, but this isn’t exactly a whole lot to get excited about. The airline is offering 100MB of free Wi-Fi, which it’s describing as a “generous data cap,” ensuring that customers can “stay connected and productive during their journey.”
I mean, maybe 100MB is enough to stay productive for the entire flight from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore, but that’s about it. 😉 Anyone who actually wants to stay connected for an extended period of time will likely still have to buy a pass, or multiple passes.
Admittedly this probably comes down to Malaysia Airlines not having a cutting edge inflight connectivity system, and bandwidth on planes is extremely limited, so offering unlimited free Wi-Fi probably just ins’t practical. Malaysia Airlines plans to introduce a new wide body business class seat in late 2024, so maybe the airline will also improve its Wi-Fi at the same time.
Some people value Wi-Fi immensely, while others don’t, so it’s interesting just how different the approaches of various airlines are. For example, looking at European airlines, I can’t help but point out how outrageously expensive Wi-Fi is on SWISS. While Lufthansa will let you stay connected for a long haul flight for under $30 with unlimited data, SWISS charges over $65 for 220MB of data. Ouch.
Bottom line
Malaysia Airlines is introducing free Wi-Fi in a limited capacity as of July 2023. The airline will offer 100MB of free Wi-Fi in business class on its wide body jets, including A330s and A350s. The airline plans to roll out free Wi-Fi on a bigger scale at some point in the future, but there are no additional details yet.
What do you make of Malaysia Airlines introducing free Wi-Fi?
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