Originally Posted by
MikeBOS
+1 on this, though I would add that on most long flights there are significant periods where the wifi doesn't work. On a transcon I would assume that it will be non-functional for an hour or so of the trip, spread out intermittently throughout the flight. If the wifi isn't working when you get on the plane (before pushing back), in my experience there is a 50%+ chance it will be out for the whole flight so plan accordingly.
Speed is also variable from flight to flight. Sometimes it is quite usable, at other times very slow.
I've flown JetBlue about 40x this year and this is way more common than comes across in the media and from travel bloggers. I've had multiple flights where the Captain has knowingly taken the aircraft without functioning FlyFi in order to avoid a delay. Kind of why I laugh when I see the JetBlue core values being preached by the company. I should note I'm always prepared with backup things to do in case of no wifi but knowingly taking an aircraft with non-functioning wifi on a 6 hour flight is pretty cold. I also think this should fall under the Customer Bill of Rights similar to how they compensate for broken tvs.
So my advice is to be prepared with a good book, downloaded video or alternate things to do in case tv or wifi aren't working. However, in terms of functioning FlyFi, I haven't had an issue doing emails in flight. Maybe it's a bit slower to download an attachment but it generally works.
In terms of transcons, it should work pretty consistently except there are a handful of patches where it may go out for a few minutes. It almost never works over Bismarck, North Dakota for example.