American Airlines finally rolls out free Wi-Fi — but there’s a catch

Zach Griff

1 day ago

ZACH GRIFF

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Say goodbye to $35 Wi-Fi passes on (most) American Airlines flights.

Starting Tuesday, the Fort Worth-based carrier is officially rolling out free Wi-Fi across much of its fleet.

American Airlines free Wi-Fi

At launch, all domestic narrowbody aircraft and regional jets will offer free, satellite-based internet access. That includes the Airbus A320 family and Boeing 737s in the mainline fleet, as well as most CRJ-700s, CRJ-900s, and Embraer 170/175s operated by American Eagle.

Notably, American isn’t turning on free Wi-Fi across its wide-body fleet just yet. That milestone is expected in early spring. The airline says the phased rollout is due to the complexity of activating free Wi-Fi across such a large number of aircraft.

Still, the timing raises some eyebrows. Boeing 787s equipped with Viasat antennas can already technically support free Wi-Fi today. It’s possible American wants to squeeze a bit more revenue out of paid Wi-Fi purchases, or that it still needs to make backend infrastructure upgrades to support a free model at scale.

Either way, it shouldn’t be much longer before these jets join the list.

What’s also missing from the announcement is universal fleet coverage. American’s entire fleet won’t support free Wi-Fi — at least not yet. The perk is limited to aircraft equipped with high-speed Viasat or Intelsat connectivity.

That means Boeing 777s and older 787s using Panasonic Wi-Fi won’t qualify. The same goes for regional jets still using air-to-ground connectivity, though that’s essentially a moot point given how unusable that service has become.

(Fortunately, American is upgrading the air-to-ground regional service with speedy satellite service.)

To access free Wi-Fi, travelers will need to log in to their AAdvantage loyalty account. The service is sponsored by AT&T, so don’t be surprised if watching a short ad becomes part of the login flow. If you don’t already have an AAdvantage account, you’ll be able to sign up onboard. (Or you can decide to pay for a pass if you prefer.)

Free Wi-Fi rollout

This long-anticipated move makes American the final Big 3 U.S. airline to introduce free Wi-Fi. But it’s doing so in a big way. Overnight, the carrier will go from offering no free Wi-Fi to having more free-connected aircraft than any airline in the world.

In the U.S., Delta ranks second, followed by Southwest and JetBlue.

Free Wi-Fi is quickly becoming a table-stakes amenity across airlines worldwide. While travelers will still need to wait a bit longer for United and Alaska (among others) to roll out free Wi-Fi more broadly, that delay may ultimately pay off.

That’s because those airlines plan to use Starlink for free onboard internet — a system that’s proving to be faster and more reliable than most competitors, including Viasat, Hughes, and Intelsat. (Southwest, for its part, also still uses Anuvu, which remains among the weakest providers in the market.)

Zach Griff Author

Zach Griff is a travel expert who’s covered airlines, loyalty programs, credit cards, and travel tech for nearly a decade. He’s visited 60+ countries and regularly shares his insights across Instagram, TikTok and X — and at From the Tray Table.