Is that all we need to confirm Wifi? In other words does the radome go hand-in-hand with Wifi installation and implementation? If so it wouldn't take long for FTers to get the list of equipped aircraft, particularly since we know who has been in CWL recently.

Prospero thanks for digging up a photo of the actual BA installation. It should be fairly easy to see in good conditions (view from a gate in LHR T5, and similar). The top of an aircraft fuselage is usually quite flat and smooth, even the 744 upper deck bulge tapers at a shallow angle, so I feel it quite distinctive.

Panasonic, used by AA, and Gogo 2Ku are both Ku band and both have fairly flat antennas; the AA one is, I think, a little smaller footprint but about the same height.

I'm confident that BAEC FTers will easily recognise it.

I think the bulge for that antenna indicates satellite wifi, or at least satellite broadband data communications of some sort. I think the existing crew SATCOM system antenna is a different type, visible as a thinner blade (but I welcome confirmation from experts).

Having investigated further, I don't think the presence of a radome is sufficient. For example, take a look at this photo of G-BNLY. It was taken in 2012. That said G-CIVX's radome is positioned much further forward than this example, so that might be clue.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7079/...6a5ee7ae_c.jpg
G-BNLY by JETA1PHOTOS, on Flickr

G-CIVV also has antenna radome, like G-CIVX is immediately aft of the upper deck bubble
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4334/...4fdeb44f_c.jpg
G-CIVV - LHR by Jan, on Flickr

G-CIVV was first to be fitted.

Yes, the rather large blister has been removed and it’s not carrying the new smaller version.

The one on G-BNLY has been on a lot of the fleet for years. Sat com maybe?

I was on one earlier in the year and found as I was turning my electronics into flight mode that there was wifi. However when the survey popped into my inbox and it asked if I had used it I said no. That was because I was on a sleeper flight and just wanted to sleep ASAP. The survey didn't seem to have been written with that considered as an option. It focused on the service pricing & speed not whether you might have paid for a flat bed and wanted to use that to sleep. As a result I found it a fairly uninteresting survey.

Posting from aboard the BA112, which I believe is the return leg of BA173 reported above. I chose the slower speed package and it's working fine for browsing, email and even uploading some short video.

No announcement though, so it may be very lightly loaded. I only found it because I searched WiFi in desperation, there was an email I absolutely had to send while at JFK and my phone died just at the wrong moment, I could no longer access my charger etc. I had a tablet with me as well, but no mobile connection on it. I searched WiFi with the tablet hoping unrealistically that I would catch a signal from the terminal building, and instead the BA WiFi network appeared. No access on the ground but once seatbelts came off all working perfectly (the technology is 15 years old at this point, after all ;)). Glad I chose to fly today.

In answer to a post upthread, Gogo prepaid vouchers as from Amex are NOT valid for the service, because there does not appear to be any way to log in to your Gogo account. I tries a few times, but it seems (for now at least) the Checkout botton brings you straight to a page called Gogo Guest Checkout, with no log in option I could find. This also means credit card details will need to be entered with each use. Perhaps this will change in the future. As a point of comparison, VS Gogo planes allow the use of Amex vouchers.

Hopefully the rollout is swift.

Does anyone know if access to BA.com is free?

My memory says yes ... but it isnt 100% certain.

Now that is a very good question. It should be, but I expect not.

yes it would be good to know either way. Would be very useful on a flight home to be able to change a booking yourself rather than wait to land and get BA to do it. It would make less work for BA as well.

Does anyone have insight or details on this? I'm on the BWI route in a few weeks and would love wifi (although seems unlikely).

I'm not sure that we have had any reports of wifi being offered on G-CIVV, although plenty of reports that she has had the kit fitted.

Are we sufficiently confident that G-CIVV's wifi is actually in service?

788s and 789s will take a while. Cutting holes in carbon fiber (or, more precisely, patching the holes up afterwards) is difficult. I'd expect them to be scheduled after the 747s (and probably after the A380s as well). Gogo has committed to doing this, but at the moment, AFAIK any 788/789s with connectivity (like the AA ones) are Panasonic due to their long relationship with Boeing.