No Wifi - Blame the government...
So I was on a domestic 787 flight today, and had a lot of important, time-sensitive work to do, and had booked this flight to ensure good satellite wifi connectivity.
After trying to connect for a half-hour, I stopped a FA and asked her about the wifi and if it was on and functioning, as I was having trouble connecting (and had the error message on my screen as I asked her).
She said, "We're flying over a lot of military bases today, so I've been told connectivity is going to be very limited..." and may drop out from time to time because of it. (Meanwhile, the only connectivity I did get gave me enough time to buy the pass, get charged, send one email before it conked out again).
I've taken this route plenty of times before and never had any issues, so I am chalking this one up to a "whooper" by a lazy FA who didn't want to deal with the issue at hand.