New 738's with Wi-Fi
 

Has anyone flown on a new 737-800, which still seem to be restricted to ORD (my home airport), that has in-flight Wi-Fi? It seems that they are upgrading the older fleet of 738's first. I have been on a few to/from DFW and they have had the Wi-Fi, but have not had a new 738 that has it. I often fly some of the more popular routes (LAX, SEA, BOS) from O'Hare, and it is really disappointing that such a nice plane does not have the service yet.

The rollout WIFI plan on 738 seems to be poor.
Appears NOT to be an AA priority.
I have NOT been on one 738 with WIFI

according to travelingbetter website, there are 35 738's active with wifi.

I have noticed the flights from ORD-SFO/SFO-ORD have had wifi ... while the ORD-SJC/SJC-ORD have not ....

I talked to one of the FA's and apparantly they rolled out more wifi on the MD-80's to give folks something to do on the plane ... in comparison to the 737's which has inflight entertainment ....

+-ADT

There must be someone at AA who is such a huge fan of The Office that they can't imagine anything more enjoyable than spending 3 hours watching reruns. :mad:

One of the advantages of the MD-80 to me is...no IFE = no crappy NBC programming tape! ^

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I flew dfw-lga on a 738 and it had wifi. I didn't like the F seat. My butt prefers the MD-80!

I have to admit, I am partial to that episode where Dwight taunts Jim with the snowmen, but I suppose it gets boring after the 5th time seeing it. :D

I've had about a 33% chance getting WiFi on the DFW-SFO route and back on the 738s. However, I haven't seen an MD-80 with Gogo since November for some reason and seemed to have much, much better luck in 2009 and early 2010.

I've seen a few ex-SEA on both DFW and ORD routes. Very rarely do I see them flying to JFK, although that route goes back to the 752 soon so won't see any WiFi for a while. Based on my observations here, on other sites, and in person, there appear to be four tranches of 738s in AA's fleet:

• Older purchases, with original configuration involving S80-style seats in front and Y going back to row 28; no WiFi, not in CIP configuration
• Older purchases, with updated configuration after having gone through the CIP, including articulated seats all round and Y going back to row 30; has WiFi, and is in CIP configuration
• Mid-age model, with updated configuration coming straight from Boeing, including new articulating seats all round and Y going back to row 30; no WiFi, but came from the factory in CIP configuration
• Newest models, with updated configuration and WiFi both coming with the bird as new; has WiFi, has CIP configuration

I stand to be corrected, but I'm pretty sure these are the options. So the only birds with WiFi are the most recent deliveries, and the oldest 738s that have gone through the CIP and gotten WiFi that way.

I have been on only 2 in the last year on IAD/LAX/IAD (out of 20-ish round trips). And both times, I've bought. It's a godsend on that long flight.

I fly in/out of DCA often and I'd estimate that for the last 10 months or so (at least) I've been on a new 738 approx. 90% of the time. What I find shocking is that I'd estimate that only 50-60% of the new 738s that I've been on have wifi. Why in the world AA is not configuring these new planes with wifi is beyond me.

I do prefer the new 738 F seats compared to the old ones.

I have flown on two. One was SEA-DFW, the other was ORD-SEA.

The ORD-SEA flight was in late November, and the Capt. came over the PA and told everyone that the aircraft was brand new and only on its 8th revenue flight.

I'm equally baffled. All my 737 flights (8, I think, in total) in February/March have been with the new CIP configuration and not a single one had wifi. I really don't understand why they don't add wifi when they update the interiors.

-FlyerBeek

They do

Not every 737 with the new interior is equipped with wifi.

-FlyerBeek

All CIP'd non/new/delivery ones DO