I was in the same boat as bofc this week. My life at work would have been a lot easier if I had e-mail/internet access during my outbound and return flights earlier this week. Unfortunately even though the AA wifi widget said that wifi would be available on each of my flights, it turned out not to be.

I probably should have known this already, but the lesson is now learned -- no matter what the wifi widget says, I will assume that there is no wifi on my AA flights until I am on board and am able to connect.