Figuring Out In-Flight Wi-Fi

Your next flight in the US will likely have Wi-Fi, and it’ll probably cost you between $8 and $19 to use. Per a 2018 Gogo survey, about 50 percent of fliers use their own electronic devices on planes. And about 56 percent of North American travelers intend to use in-flight Wi-Fi on their next flight, according to a 2018 Inmarsat survey.

- Sascha Segan

In-flight Wi-Fi has never achieved the quality we experience on the ground, and it’s unlikely to in the future. Yes, we’ve seen the demos that show Gogo’s new 2Ku satellite system is fast enough to provide streaming video for dozens of people at a time. (I’ve even done some of the demos myself.) But it has never seemed to translate into actual speeds on any of the flights I’ve been on, and I fly at least once a month. Perhaps I’m not patient enough; Gogo says there’s a backlog of 1,400 aircraft waiting for their 2Ku upgrades. For now, here are four tips to get you online in the air as fast as possible (even if that’s not very fast).

1. Find out whether your flight has Wi-Fi.