American Airlines goes live with in-flight WiFi service

At long last, "you are now free to surf the intarwebz while flying." Okay, so maybe it has been possible in the past, but American Airlines is taking a huge leap forward in the US market today by giving passengers aboard long-haul Boeing 767-200 flights the option to hop online during the trip. The GoGo service, which is being provided by Aircell, will charge customers $12.95 for access to the world wide web, though Reuters points out that VoIP calling is "not available." Delta, US Airways, et al. -- time to get with the program.

[Via Dallas News, thanks Travis]

[Henry Williams @ Aug 20th 2008 9:59AM]

But I have to fly American Airlines to get this, right? Bummer....

[High Ranks make you sterile @ Aug 20th 2008 10:06AM]

Ditto on the bummer...

Why do these Airline Wi-Fi photos always have someone trying to get onto Yahoo! [Insert Service Name]

conspiracy ftw

[Techie @ Aug 20th 2008 10:35AM]

ANA to Japan FTW!

[jake @ Aug 20th 2008 9:59AM]

People will use this for porn. I can't wait until the first news story.

[enki @ Aug 20th 2008 5:12PM]

Mile High Club (Solo Membership)

[216 @ Aug 20th 2008 10:00AM]

surf porn while flying?

[Fred @ Aug 20th 2008 10:02AM]

This is great for people whose laptops aren't taken by the TSA!

[dark star @ Aug 20th 2008 10:08AM]

how do u stay charged?
i never noticecd an outlet

[blurry @ Aug 20th 2008 11:21AM]

AA jets have DC outlets under most of the seats, usually every other row. The outlets are easy to miss but they are there in economy class even. It's the only feature you don't pay for. Too bad there's no way to pay for good service or on-time arrivals with AA though. They otherwise flat-out suck.

[Michael Witt @ Aug 20th 2008 10:08AM]

Thank god there's no VoIP, although it would be interesting to see how they enforce that.

[Dave @ Aug 20th 2008 4:36PM]

Likely the just block Skype ports. So, kids, don't forget your tunneling software for your voip calls!

[Jason @ Aug 20th 2008 10:11AM]

$13?

Blow me.

[From My Cube @ Aug 20th 2008 10:14AM]

yeah you tell them that your not paying for there stinking interwebs....right after you pay $15 to check your fist bag, pay for your inflight mail and dished out the $20 service charge...yeah you tell them your not into playing there "fee game"

[NHAnimator @ Aug 20th 2008 10:28AM]

I do by flying Southwest.

[tiuk @ Aug 20th 2008 10:57AM]

I would have normally let it go, but you did it more than once.

Their.

[michaelportent @ Aug 20th 2008 2:22PM]

@From My Cube said it best. Free WiFi is a drop in the bucket for them, and making it appear as if they're giving it to us for free is a farce.

[Freeburt @ Aug 20th 2008 10:21AM]

Umm, Delta has already announced plans that are much more ambitious. They will be fitting all of their MD planes in Sep 08 and their entire fleet by mid 09.

[Joe @ Aug 20th 2008 10:47AM]

I think Delta is also charging less for the service, something like $9.95. It is an easy upgrade on the MD-88s because it uses the infrastructure of the telephone system that was on these planes at one point. Rumor is that they have already started to install the devices needed on some of the planes so pull out your laptops and check for a wifi signal on your next flight.

[John Doe @ Aug 20th 2008 10:22AM]

have they launched the service on all their flights (including international)??

[justin.johnson3 @ Aug 20th 2008 10:25AM]

Well considering some of their 767-200s don't even have an on-demand entertainment system yet, I'd bet there's some planes that don't have it.

[Bigbloke @ Aug 20th 2008 10:22AM]

This is almost the next best thing to allowing telephone calls from your mobile while at cruise altitude.

Yeah great, sitting in Y Class with some fat a$$hole streaming some shit internet radio site with crappy laptop speakers because he forgot his earphones.

Kool for Pawn as Jake said. Then the same a$$hole gets all worked from surfing his favorite pawn sites, that he then has to climb over everyone so he can go to the WC and have wank.

Yup, look forward to this...

[Abuzar Baloach @ Aug 20th 2008 10:36AM]

Pawn?

[telepheedian @ Aug 20th 2008 11:05AM]

He's obviously from Boston. Lemme go pahk mah cah.

[D @ Aug 20th 2008 10:34AM]

FYI- American is only launching this on a handful of flights. Delta announced a couple weeks ago, they are launching on their entire domestic fleet, with hundreds of these launching by year's end

[Alex McKee @ Aug 20th 2008 10:52AM]

I hope to god that all the airlines have this at least on pan-oceanic flights by New Years. I want some form of interweb access on my way to London.

[Thorny @ Aug 20th 2008 11:35AM]

Makes me want to make a battery powered openWRT router... Just so I can plug it in and set the SSID to Frac_greedy_AA_FreeWiFi_Here.

Starting stopwatch till first 767 is sued by RIAA.

[emma @ Aug 20th 2008 12:38PM]

or you could just stay of the damn internet for a few hours. and don't give me that "business use" bs. I deal with hundreds of emails a month and never miss the damn stuff even for a few days at a time.

if you can't deal without email for 24 hours then your communications dept sucks!

[crow610 @ Aug 20th 2008 1:01PM]

I don't need WIFI, just free peanuts. GO SOUTHWEST!

[sanriver12 @ Aug 21st 2008 12:09AM]

what is the connection speed ????