British Airways is gradually rolling out wifi capabilites across its long-haul aircraft, and those lucky enough to find themselves on a connected aircraft can get benefit from an hour’s free access.
The carrier has partnered with Visa to offer an hour’s free browsing “for a limited time”.
As detailed here the usual cost is £4.99 for an hour with the Browse option or £7.99 for the faster Stream option (previously known as Connect Plus), which supports streaming of entertainment including Netflix.
As shown on the screengrab below taken inflight last year, the names of these options have changed. Previously they were named Simply Connect and Connect Plus.
BA says that it plans to fit 118 of its long-haul aircraft with wifi over the next two years, although according to the carrier only three have been connected so far.
The installation of the GoGo-enabled wifi involves modifications to the aircraft.
A British Airways pilot recently tweeted about this…
A forum thread on the subject, along with our editorial director Tom Otley’s thoughts on the service when he travelled on a connected flight in late October, can be seen here.
Passengers are informed when boarding if their aircraft is fitted with wifi, with the service available “approximately ten minutes after take-off when the aircraft has passed 10,000 feet”.
Carolina Martinoli, British Airways’ director of brand and customer experience, said “Staying connected is important to our customers who want to be able to work, browse and stream in the air. They can now look forward to enjoying the latest generation Wi-Fi across our long haul fleet over the next two years.”
