Delta Air Lines WiFi Will Finally, Officially, Be Free Starting February 1

Delta has been talking up free wifi for years, but they didn’t have enough bandwidth on their planes. When you make wifi free, more people use it, and that slows down the service. Ditching Gogo for ViaSat solves for this.

Everyone on domestic flights will get free wi-fi on February 1st.

• However this won’t be on all planes. Airbus A220s and Boeing 717s don’t have ViaSat, so they aren’t ready to flip the switch on those. And it won’t yet be available on widebody aircraft, either.
• That, too, will change as all domestic flights should have free wifi by the end of 2023, and all Delta aircraft – even regional jets – are planned to offer free wifi by the end of 2024.

Fast internet is offered by the airline. Southwest charges $8 for internet, which is more expensive than on American.

Free texting is not offered by American Airlines. They hoped no one would notice when they didn't follow through after announcing it at Investor and Media Day. It was too expensive for them.

American was ready to match Delta's actions in 2019. They had several different versions of the plan ready to go so that they could follow Delta's script exactly. Delta decided they couldn't support the offering.

American should be the first one to leave. It was going to happen. It was always going to happen. American was in a position to be the first global airline to offer free internet because they already had ViaSat. They didn't take advantage of that. Is they going to match?

Since United Airlines can't, they might not think they have to. While CEO Scott Kirby has talked about eventually being free, and they promised to retrofit their domestic fleet with seat back entertainment and fast internet but they haven't done that yet The least functional internet among U.S. carriers is offered by United. They are at a disadvantage until they have more capacity.

Delta becomes cheaper to fly even at the same fare. You will have to pay for the ticket and the internet on other airlines. That is a built in advantage for an airline which has struggled operationally compared to its own past performance, but which still edges out other carriers overall. This helps cement their reputation as the premium carrier, which is the reason they are able to succeed despite offering less value in the Skymiles program.

I predicted in 2012 that onboard internet would be free within ten years if an airline solved the bandwidth issue. That was pushed out to eleven by the swine flu.

Ed Bastian, the CEO of Delta, said in March that the airline would give away free internet within a year or two. They had to make sure they had enough bandwidth so everyone could use it. Delta's plan is getting better. Domestic aircraft are equipped with ViaSat.

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Ed Bastian, the CEO of Delta, said in March that the airline would give away free internet within a year or two. They had to make sure they had enough bandwidth so everyone could use it. Delta tested how much people use the internet.

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SkyMiles members can get free inflight internet on many of Delta's planes with their fastest satellite internet. At DeltaWifi.com, you can enter your SkyMiles number and password to gain access to the service. The airline performs a slow test to make sure they have enough.

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