Bits: British Airways finally signs wi-fi deal, Four Seasons in Biarritz

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• Genghis says:

  6 May6 May 06:08

  Raffles – BA wifi article edit – “get charged nothing”

  • Worzel says:

    6 May6 May 06:28

    Genghis-have you decided whether or not you’ll write a piece on Avios valuation?

    • Genghis says:

      6 May6 May 06:53

      Hi Worzel. I reread Raffles’ article and it certainly covers key points. It should be compulsory reading for all HfP readers. I’ll have a think about what value I could add.

      • Worzel says:

        6 May6 May 07:05

        If done, run it past me and I’ll proofread 🙂 .

• Simon says:

  6 May6 May 07:06

  I tried the Virgin Atlantic WiFi and the speeds were good, I could stream Sky Sports fine. There was no free option though, I had to pay, think it was £15.

  • Tom C says:

    6 May6 May 07:17

    I agree – and yes, it was £15. Same with Etihad as well, who also use the same system. I’d rather pay and have good speed than a terrible service that was free. Still feels a bit cheap that paying for an F ticket I don’t get free wifi though.

    • Yuff says:

      6 May6 May 07:30

      Low cost carriers in the US have been providing wifi for free( 2014) for several years, how difficult can it be for BA etc!

      • Genghis says:

        6 May6 May 07:39

        And Norwegian?

      • john says:

        6 May6 May 09:03

        Providing WiFi over land is significantly easier than doing it over ocean as they often use air-to-land based transmission rather than having to use satellite. Granted many companies have offered satellite based WiFi for years, and BA are slow to that game, but it is different to providing it over the continental US.

      • insider says:

        6 May6 May 09:10

        But I think it’s much cheaper in the US as you can install ground to aircraft connectivity rather than having to use satellites. That’s obviously more of an issue over an Ocean (or in Europe where I imagine you have to deal with all the nations separately rather than just the EU)

    • JamesWag says:

      6 May6 May 11:51

      Qatar give free WiFi in F, or at least they did the few times I’ve flown it. They give you a code.

      They also did it on a couple of J class flights but not for others 🙁

      • Rob says:

        6 May6 May 15:25

        They do, but only F.

        • JamesWag says:

          7 May7 May 11:42

          Must have been lucky when I got it in J. Not surprised it wasn’t every flight then 🙂

  • Adey says:

    6 May6 May 07:57

    Yup, I’ve streamed Netflix with no problem.

    I was in UC. Wonder if they implement some sort of QoS and allocate more of the available bandwidth to UC? Hope so 😉

    Adey

• Matthew Reeve says:

  6 May6 May 09:39

  I had no issues with Etihad’s wifi, but then I guess I didn’t test it fully. BA have had G-CIVG fitted out with Wifi, no idea if it is still on board (it was in July 2015).

• Nick says:

  6 May6 May 10:33

  Aer Lingus business class free wifi is excellent too. I used it between DUB-BOS last July.

• JamesWag says:

  6 May6 May 11:48

  BA’s just an embarrassment these days. WIFI on just 118 of its planes by 2019 !! There’ll be a new technology by then making the current standards & speeds obsolete 🙂

  How hard is it really ? Come on !

  Was annoyed not to get free WiFi on some Qatar flights in J. Seems a bit penny pinching.

• Callum says:

  6 May6 May 11:51

  I quite like not having internet connectivity on a plane. It forces you to take a break from all the emails and allows me to catch up on all the films I failed to see in the cinema. 🙂

  • Leo says:

    6 May6 May 13:54

    +1. Who needs to stream services when you have IFE….

• Simon Schus says:

  6 May6 May 12:15

  The Aer Lingus wifi is excellent (I think it is provided by t-mobile.de). In terms of speed, I’ve streamed live news channels on a laptop over the Atlantic with no problem 🙂 It has been so useful when trying to finish work on the way to the US (mostly just sleep on the way back to Europe so don’t really bother!).

  GoGo is decent enough for US domestic flights. I’ve managed to stream live radio (through the BBC Radio App) which was fine. Sometimes live streaming of news channels is a bit poor on a laptop and a mobile phone. I had to use a VPN to get access to some streaming websites as the provider blocks (or perhaps throttles) well-known streaming websites to avoid bandwidth hogging. The novelty of streaming in the air wore off fairly quickly as I was only trying it out to see what the wifi was capable of doing, plus a number of the airlines given you local streaming of television programs that they have pre-selected which negates the need to stream live. In the current implementation, I feel like the GoGo wifi is useful for keeping in contact (e.g. iMessage; email) with people whilst on the flight but for not too much else unless you have an urgent need to get some information. I find that the 30 minute or 1 hours packs to be the best value.

• Simon Schus says:

  6 May6 May 12:18

  P.S. The wifi on Iberia flights at the moment is fairly poor. You get a limited amount of data (from memory, 50 mb?) for free and then there are excessive charges beyond that. I used it on a flight from MAD-LHR recently and I could barely even download any of my emails on my phone! It was such a short flight that it wasn’t a problem at all (plus I’m not that important so my emails can always wait!). However, I know that the same service is offered on some Iberia transatlantic flights already. I would not be happy with that service should I have paid for it! Hopefully this deal, once implemented, will allow some better connectivity on the long hauls.

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