A380 WIFI Trial Starts tomorrow (7th March 12)

[Berlin]

Does anyone know by any chance which ones of the big birds got the new system installed? With number A still out of service in Singapore, there would only be 5 without it, right? Just curious as I'm off to LA on Friday...

 

[milehighclub]

VH-OQG/H/I/J/K/L have WiFi enabled

 

[Berlin]

VH-OQG/H/I/J/K/L have WiFi enabled

So the six latest ones then! Thanks a lot for the quick answer- I love this forum!

 

[ozbeachbabe]

I thought my AA flight from SFO to JFK in August 2010 on either a 757 or 767 had wi-fi available. I didn't use it though, as I only had a phone (and not a great one at that! Nokia E71) and was trying to sleep.

EDIT: AA website actually notes wi-fi available on all 767 aircraft.

I was referring to not being aware of any airlines how offer free wi-fi for F or J pax.

I was on 2 AA 767 flights SDQ/MIA & DFW/HNL neither of which had the wi-fi symbol on the aircraft. Once you get outside 100 miles from the US Coastline you're not able to use the GoGo wi-fi on AA. Their B757's aren't wi-fi equipped either so you need to aim for 737-800's or MD80's apparently.

 

[wafliron]

That was a speedtest.net result through my phone, the speedtest failed on my Mac as it had trouble locating the nearest server

Thanks for clarifying. So... do you remember if it was 0.11MBps or 0.11Mbps?

 

[jdlover23]

Thanks for clarifying. So... do you remember if it was 0.11MBps or 0.11Mbps?

yep Mbps - although checking through my results on my phone i cant find the test - so this is coming from my memory (mid flight!)

 

[wafliron]

yep Mbps - although checking through my results on my phone i cant find the test - so this is coming from my memory (mid flight!)

0.11Mbps... ouch, that's really slow :-( Thanks for clarifying.

 

[ozscot]

AA give you a free connection for 30 minutes, well in A anyway but presume the same down the back. The speed was quite good on the flights I had last month. There's a good iPad app called FlightTrack Pro - this becomes really cool when you're using it on the flight while connected and you can see your real time position and progress.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

AA give you a free connection for 30 minutes, well in A anyway but presume the same down the back. The speed was quite good on the flights I had last month. There's a good iPad app called FlightTrack Pro - this becomes really cool when you're using it on the flight while connected and you can see your real time position and progress.

Thought that was only to access www.aa.com free of charge not surfing the web in general?

 

[ozscot]

Thought that was only to access www.aa.com free of charge not surfing the web in general?

No it's general access, with the usual restrictions on voice and video.

 

[serfty]

No it's general access, with the usual restrictions on voice and video.

Wasn't like that on the short SFO/LAX flights I took least weekend.

AA.com was free, you could get 15 minutes for $2 and the normal pricing started for longer.

Posted on a wing and a prayer

 

[ozscot]

I was on LAX-DFW, DFW-BOS & reverse and definitely was open access using my iPad. I was using a VPN tunnel through to the Melbourne office.

 

[dfcatch]

I was on LAX-DFW, DFW-BOS & reverse and definitely was open access using my iPad. I was using a VPN tunnel through to the Melbourne office.

It was a special - they offer them from time to time.

Back to normal charges now.

 

[wafliron]

The speed [using the internet on an AA flight] was quite good on the flights I had last month.

Note that the technology used by AA is very different to what Qantas is using: the former uses mobile phone technology (with the plane connecting to ground-based towers) whereas the latter uses satellites. I don't know for certain, but I'd guess that AA's technology will provide much better speeds - but it only works when flying over the continental United States.

 

[Gorbo]

Used AA before no real problems works well, will wait to see with Qantas

 

[jb747]

OnAir spokesman Aurelie Branchereau-Giles told Australian Business Traveller that "the bandwidth available will typically support 12 simultaneous users (and) our experience with in-service customers suggests that this is more than sufficient even for an A380."

The upshot is that I very much doubt that you'll be able to browse on anything with any level of graphics, and I will be staggered if Skype were to work (and also if it isn't actually blocked). Chat will be fine, as will text based email.

I'm flying one of these services on Sunday, so I'll have a chat to any users I find. But, as far as I know, the aircraft does not have any particularly great amount of satellite bandwidth. Divide limited by a lot, and you don't get a good number.

It will automatically cut out over any US islands in the Pacific too (and it also won't work over Oz or the USA).

 

[wafliron]

I'm flying one of these services on Sunday, so I'll have a chat to any users I find. But, as far as I know, the aircraft does not have any particularly great amount of satellite bandwidth. Divide limited by a lot, and you don't get a good number.

As a pilot, are you allowed to use this service if you wish? Or is it not allowed by QF / air safety regulations?

It will automatically cut out over any US islands in the Pacific too (and it also won't work over Oz or the USA).

That's interesting - do you know why? Some sort of legal / licensing restriction? I can't imagine it'd be a coverage problem given satellites are normally setup specifically to cover major landmasses.

 

[ChrisGibbs]

Used the complimentary OnAero WIFI on Saturday 17/3 QF11 service out of Sydney for LA. It took between 2 1/2hr - 3 hrs to obtain access via the complimentary promotion code provided by the CSM. 90 minutes out of LAX access again cut out. For the time the connection was available the performance was reasonable for email, etc however any websites were there was a large amount of graphics were very slow. Reconnection was required a couple of times during the flight. Once you log out you receive an email Customer Support:

Product purchased: 100 MB Internet OnAir
Access fee: promotion
Promotion code: xx_xx_x
Discount amount: US $40.00


In summary - I would look to see OnAero optimise the performance of this services over time. If anyone is expecting the same performance offered on AA, Alaskan, etc then you will be dissappointed. If you want to use OnAero for basic email, IM, etc it works fine. Anything else where a reasonable amount of bandwidth is required is a challenge. All in all a good effort and look forward to using this service over time. I'd be interested in people's voew whether the $US40.00 discounted fee would be a reasonable amount to pay for the service?

 

[jb747]

As a pilot, are you allowed to use this service if you wish? Or is it not allowed by QF / air safety regulations?

There's no avenue for the system to be used by crew. That may change, but there's no way that I need my email so much that I'd be prepared to pay $40, or even $20 for that matter (or anything actually) ...especially given that I'll have access once I get to wherever we're going, and probably for free. There are no CASA rules that stop its use by off duty crew.

I don't know why it's set to cut out, but it certainly sounds like a licensing issue.

 

[yo yo ma]

So let me get this straight - i pay $10k for a business class ticket to the US and then find that Qantas haven't sucked enough money out of me and they want to charge for internet access

It is not compulsory - feel free not to use it if that is the case.