I am currently writing this post on my flight from Philadelphia to Los Angeles (though it’s being published a day later) aboard an American Airlines (formerly US Airways) Airbus A321. I’ve taken this trip twice per week for the past 10 weeks and there has been WiFi on every single one of those flights.
I overheard a couple of passengers behind me talking about how this particular flight didn’t have WiFi service so I was curious and tweeted American to find out. I could’ve just asked a flight attendant, but I wanted to know if HQ knew.
@AmericanAir hey! Is wifi available on AA717 tonight?
— Dominic Perilli (@DominicPerilli) August 22, 2016
Within a few minutes, American replied back that my flight did not have Gogo in-flight WiFi. As you can imagine, this gave me such a sinking feeling knowing I’d be embarking on a 5hr 15 minute flight without internet (first world problems, I know).
@DominicPerilli Not on tonight’s flight. You’ll see the Wi-Fi symbol by the flight number when offered, here: https://t.co/hSJ3Skh5fD
— American Airlines (@AmericanAir) August 22, 2016
I immediately “reaction published” a tweet chastising American for the lack of WiFi on this flight, to which they apologized.
Of course the @AmericanAir A321 I’m on for a TRANSCON flight doesn’t have @Gogo wifi. And I pay $50 per month, why?! #whatajoke
— Dominic Perilli (@DominicPerilli) August 22, 2016
@DominicPerilli We know how important it is to be connected and apologize for the lack of Wi-Fi tonight.
— American Airlines (@AmericanAir) August 22, 2016
Once we were airborne I flicked on my laptop’s wifi just for amusement and ALAS! “Gogo in-flight” appeared.
Could it be!?
Within five minutes I was connected to the internet and surfing the web.
Now I feel like an idiot who overreacted.
MY POINT
How the heck does the actual airline not know if a particular flight has WiFi? They repeatedly told me to check for the WiFi icon next to my boarding pass. I did and there was none, but the flight has WiFi.
The lesson to AA should be that your right hand should know what the left is doing if you want to avoid semi-irrational freakouts from loyalists like me. If my Twitter following was actually more than 1,000, there could’ve been some unnecessary reputation damage.
Don’t make me hate you American! Jeez!
Okay, now I’ll go back to shutting up and enjoying the WiFi available on this flight 🙂
You should get some kind of compensation as good will…maybe some AA miles. I know that in BA I would get some AVIOS for any problem or issue with service in general.
AA needs to make their customers happy but I am not sure if that is how they feel concerning these issues.
Have a good trip anyway!
Umm… last minute plane substitution happens.
I tracked the inbound flight and it was indeed the same aircraft that I sat on. An old US Airways A321 – N165US. So no plane change there.