Oct 1, 2017, 1:57 am
Last edit by: sigma421
Onboard WiFi has been introduced to BA's fleet and is being marketed as Highlife Connect. This thread is to track the rollout. See https://www.britishairways.com/en-gb.../wifi-on-board for BA's FAQ on the system.
Long-haul aircraft with WiFi fitted
A350-1000 - All fitted (12 aircraft).
A380 - All fitted (12 aircraft)
777-200ER - All fitted (43 aircraft)
777-300ER - All fitted (16 aircraft)
787-8 - 0/12 aircraft
787-9 - 14/18 aircraft
G-ZBKA, G-ZBKB, G-ZBKC, G-ZBKD, G-ZBKG, G-ZBKH, G-ZBKI, G-ZBKJ, G-ZBKK, G-ZBKL, G-ZBKM, G-ZBKN, G-ZBKO, G-ZBKP
787-10 - All fitted (2 aircraft).
BA are currently trialling free WiFi in first class cabins. For those in other cabins the current cost on all long-haul aircraft is:
Note that prices and services offered are subject to change.
787-8 - G-ZBJA/B/C/D/E/F/G/H/I/J/K/M
787-9 - G-ZBKE/F/R/S
The majority of aircraft have wi-fi equipment fitted with the exception of those expected to retire within the next few years. Wi-fi equipment is installed after delivery and the rate at which this happens appears to have slowed down post-COVID.
A319 - 12/29 Aircraft
G-EUOA
G-EUPL/M/N/O/P/R/S/T/U/Y/Z
A320 - 61/67 Aircraft
G-EUUA/B/C/E/F/G/H/I/J/K/L/M/N/O/P/R/T/U/V/W/X/Y/Z
G-EUYA/B/D/E/G/H/I/J/K/L/M/N/O/P/R/S/T/U/V/W/X
G-GATH/J/K/M/N/P/R/S/U
G-MEDK
G-MIDO/S/T/X/Y
G-TTOB/E
A320neo - 17/20 Aircraft
G-TTNA/B/C/D/E/F/G/H/I/J/K/L/M/N/O/P/Q/R
Wi-fi installation has not yet occurred for aircraft delivered from October 2022 onwards.
A321 - 15/18 Aircraft
G-EUXC/D/E/F/G/H/I/J/K/L/M
G-MEDL/M/N
A321neo - All fitted (10 aircraft)
The price of WiFi on short-haul flights varies according to the length of the route. The following prices are known:
Messaging - £1.99 or £2.99 depending on flight distance.
Browse & Stream (one hour) - £4.99
Browse & Stream (whole flight)
£4.99 (MAN / NCL)
£6.99 (ARN / HAM)
£7.99 (KRK / LIS / MAS / PMI)
£8.99 (AGP)
£9.99 (LED / SOF)
£11.99 (LCA)
Short-haul aircraft not planned to receive WiFi due to retirement
A319 - 18 Aircraft
G-EUOE/F/G
G-EUPD/G/J/K/W
G-DBCA/B/C/D/E/F/G/H/J/K
Background information:
Long-haul aircraft with WiFi fitted
A350-1000 - All fitted (12 aircraft).
A380 - All fitted (12 aircraft)
777-200ER - All fitted (43 aircraft)
777-300ER - All fitted (16 aircraft)
787-8 - 0/12 aircraft
787-9 - 14/18 aircraft
G-ZBKA, G-ZBKB, G-ZBKC, G-ZBKD, G-ZBKG, G-ZBKH, G-ZBKI, G-ZBKJ, G-ZBKK, G-ZBKL, G-ZBKM, G-ZBKN, G-ZBKO, G-ZBKP
787-10 - All fitted (2 aircraft).
BA are currently trialling free WiFi in first class cabins. For those in other cabins the current cost on all long-haul aircraft is:
- 1 hour: £7.99
- 4 hours: £17.99
- Full flight: up to £23.99 depending on route
Note that prices and services offered are subject to change.
Long-haul aircraft still to be fitted with WiFi
787-8 - G-ZBJA/B/C/D/E/F/G/H/I/J/K/M
787-9 - G-ZBKE/F/R/S
Short-haul and mid-haul aircraft known to have WiFi fitted and enabled
The majority of aircraft have wi-fi equipment fitted with the exception of those expected to retire within the next few years. Wi-fi equipment is installed after delivery and the rate at which this happens appears to have slowed down post-COVID.
A319 - 12/29 Aircraft
G-EUOA
G-EUPL/M/N/O/P/R/S/T/U/Y/Z
A320 - 61/67 Aircraft
G-EUUA/B/C/E/F/G/H/I/J/K/L/M/N/O/P/R/T/U/V/W/X/Y/Z
G-EUYA/B/D/E/G/H/I/J/K/L/M/N/O/P/R/S/T/U/V/W/X
G-GATH/J/K/M/N/P/R/S/U
G-MEDK
G-MIDO/S/T/X/Y
G-TTOB/E
A320neo - 17/20 Aircraft
G-TTNA/B/C/D/E/F/G/H/I/J/K/L/M/N/O/P/Q/R
Wi-fi installation has not yet occurred for aircraft delivered from October 2022 onwards.
A321 - 15/18 Aircraft
G-EUXC/D/E/F/G/H/I/J/K/L/M
G-MEDL/M/N
A321neo - All fitted (10 aircraft)
The price of WiFi on short-haul flights varies according to the length of the route. The following prices are known:
Messaging - £1.99 or £2.99 depending on flight distance.
Browse & Stream (one hour) - £4.99
Browse & Stream (whole flight)
£4.99 (MAN / NCL)
£6.99 (ARN / HAM)
£7.99 (KRK / LIS / MAS / PMI)
£8.99 (AGP)
£9.99 (LED / SOF)
£11.99 (LCA)
Short-haul aircraft not planned to receive WiFi due to retirement
A319 - 18 Aircraft
G-EUOE/F/G
G-EUPD/G/J/K/W
G-DBCA/B/C/D/E/F/G/H/J/K
Background information:
FAQ : Status of on-board WiFi rollout on BA aircraft
Aug 20, 2019, 1:20 am
#618
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: LHR/SEA/YVR
Programs: BAEC G/*O E
Posts: 921
Took VVIH to DME the other day and although the bird is fitted with WIFI and they even mentioned it before landing, the system was off for the entire flight. Wonder if that's because they haven't quite figured what to charge for it yet.
Aug 20, 2019, 3:31 am
#619
Join Date: Mar 2017
Posts: 726
I'm on BA293 TATL somewhere below Greenland, and wifi is shockingly bad, even on Premium. I think BA needs to up their game. I know it is satellite, but I frequently fly QR EDI > DOH > BLR and most of the DOH > BLR leg is also across water and wifi is fantastic, so it is possible. I'm not going to attempt to reclaim my £17.99, but I am very disappointed with it.
Having said that, on shorthaul there do seem to be some issues still but that's an entirely different set up and provider to the longhaul system BA are using.
Sep 6, 2019, 1:26 pm
#620
Join Date: Aug 2018
Posts: 242
Similar situation on Orlando flights earlier this summer. I tend to think the crew just can't be bothered to activate it.
Sep 25, 2019, 9:44 am
#621
Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: ±38,000 feet
Programs: LH HON, BA GGL, AF Plat, EK Plat
Posts: 6,428
There are plenty of comments on this thread and elsewhere online saying how good the wifi on longhaul BA aircraft is. Saying they 'need to up their game' is presuming that the service you experienced is how it is across the whole fleet at all times. And is it really fair to blame BA? If the wifi goes down at a private residence is it the homeowner's fault?
Having said that, on shorthaul there do seem to be some issues still but that's an entirely different set up and provider to the longhaul system BA are using.
Having said that, on shorthaul there do seem to be some issues still but that's an entirely different set up and provider to the longhaul system BA are using.
Sep 25, 2019, 9:51 am
#622
Join Date: May 2016
Location: EDI
Programs: Was BA GGL but no longer travelling
Posts: 583
If you pay £24 for full service on a TATL you expect to get something semi reasonable. My LHR to IAD last Wednesday wasn't too bad, I could use email and I could RDP into a remote server okay. But the idea of "streaming a movie" as they suggest, is far-fetched.
Compared to the service I get on QR when I travel from DOH to BLR, it's night and day. NB This isn't a BA QR debate; QR's wifi from DOH to EDI is equally as poor. Both sectors involve mixture of land and sea.
Compared to the service I get on QR when I travel from DOH to BLR, it's night and day. NB This isn't a BA QR debate; QR's wifi from DOH to EDI is equally as poor. Both sectors involve mixture of land and sea.
Sep 27, 2019, 7:03 pm
#623
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2015
Location: London
Programs: BAEC Gold
Posts: 228
WiFi is FOC in F on BA66 PHL-LHR this eve. Apparently a trial that’s going to be rolled out to F on all flights.
It’s a little convoluted to get to the page to enter seat number and name or booking ref - you have to find ‘rewards’ on shop.ba.com - but the full browse and stream package is available and working well. Just updated iOS 13.1.1 as we passed Nova Scotia so cannot complain about bandwidth at all.
Unfortunately still limited to a single device, second one errors when entering details.
It’s a little convoluted to get to the page to enter seat number and name or booking ref - you have to find ‘rewards’ on shop.ba.com - but the full browse and stream package is available and working well. Just updated iOS 13.1.1 as we passed Nova Scotia so cannot complain about bandwidth at all.
Unfortunately still limited to a single device, second one errors when entering details.
Last edited by LBP2; Sep 28, 2019 at 1:00 am
Oct 3, 2019, 2:10 am
#626
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Greater Metropolitan Area
Programs: Yes
Posts: 367
I have finally had the chance to experience shorthaul wifi on a couple of flights. Due to BA strikes I also was on SAS on a return leg and could compare the two offerings.
BA's Wifi is definitely ground-based, because the ping times are below 100ms - that is quite impressive. It probably also explains why it drops out over certain parts of the north sea - I never saw evidence of any satellite backhaul as a fallback. I always paid for the "Browse & Stream package" - I found it very interesting that the package description varies from the "FAQ" to the "Restrictions" page.
The FAQ says "On the Browse package ... no less that 250Kbps". "On the Stream package ... no less that (sic) 1Mbps".
However, on the Restrictions page when pruchasing it says "Messaging Wi-Fi package - limited speed to 50 kbps" - "Browse & Stream Wi-fi package - limited speed to 1 Mbps".
So one could argue that the FAQs are misleading - are they specifically only for long-haul? Because there isn't even a "Browse package" - there are a "Messaging package" and a "Browse & Stream package" on short-haul. I'm not even sure that the 50kbps restriction was listed on my first flight.
The 1 Mbps restriction on the faster package seems to be accurate. My speedtests usually came in at about 1.2 MBit/s, with upstream much lower. Interestingly, the connection felt quite snappy anyway - probably due to the low latency. I could stream Netflix and Youtube reasonably well, so the "Stream" description isn't completely off, although one could argue that 1 Mbps doesn't really cut it. I also plain failed to download a menu PDF from a restaurant - I tried on two flights as an acid test. That's not a particularly data heavy thing to do.
What I don't understand is that SAS offers a consistent 14 MBps on all the flights I've had, which I believe is through Viasat? I understand that capacity could be come an issue if all of BA and LH use a purely satellite based system, but the SAS fleet isn't that tiny either - and surely a ground based system should beat a satellite system, especially this early on?
Considering that the speed restrictions have been incorporated into the web page, I am not too hopeful about seeing more than 1 Mbps on shorthaul flights in the short- to medium-term future. Does anyone know how Lufthansa compares on the EAN - not too sure whether any planes have it yet? I get the impression that the connection on BA is artificially throttled, and if it was uncapped it could work much more quickly - but for capacity or commercial reasons there is a hard cap on 1 Mbps.
BA's Wifi is definitely ground-based, because the ping times are below 100ms - that is quite impressive. It probably also explains why it drops out over certain parts of the north sea - I never saw evidence of any satellite backhaul as a fallback. I always paid for the "Browse & Stream package" - I found it very interesting that the package description varies from the "FAQ" to the "Restrictions" page.
The FAQ says "On the Browse package ... no less that 250Kbps". "On the Stream package ... no less that (sic) 1Mbps".
However, on the Restrictions page when pruchasing it says "Messaging Wi-Fi package - limited speed to 50 kbps" - "Browse & Stream Wi-fi package - limited speed to 1 Mbps".
So one could argue that the FAQs are misleading - are they specifically only for long-haul? Because there isn't even a "Browse package" - there are a "Messaging package" and a "Browse & Stream package" on short-haul. I'm not even sure that the 50kbps restriction was listed on my first flight.
The 1 Mbps restriction on the faster package seems to be accurate. My speedtests usually came in at about 1.2 MBit/s, with upstream much lower. Interestingly, the connection felt quite snappy anyway - probably due to the low latency. I could stream Netflix and Youtube reasonably well, so the "Stream" description isn't completely off, although one could argue that 1 Mbps doesn't really cut it. I also plain failed to download a menu PDF from a restaurant - I tried on two flights as an acid test. That's not a particularly data heavy thing to do.
What I don't understand is that SAS offers a consistent 14 MBps on all the flights I've had, which I believe is through Viasat? I understand that capacity could be come an issue if all of BA and LH use a purely satellite based system, but the SAS fleet isn't that tiny either - and surely a ground based system should beat a satellite system, especially this early on?
Considering that the speed restrictions have been incorporated into the web page, I am not too hopeful about seeing more than 1 Mbps on shorthaul flights in the short- to medium-term future. Does anyone know how Lufthansa compares on the EAN - not too sure whether any planes have it yet? I get the impression that the connection on BA is artificially throttled, and if it was uncapped it could work much more quickly - but for capacity or commercial reasons there is a hard cap on 1 Mbps.
Oct 3, 2019, 8:49 am
#627
Join Date: Mar 2017
Posts: 726
However, what with the constant delays to this whole project for years now, I wouldn't be putting a lot of money on the gap being plugged next year. We'll see.
This 'full roll-out by summer 2019' appears to have slipped as well unless all the aircraft are now up and running. Has anyone got any info on this?
Oct 3, 2019, 9:16 am
#628
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Greater Metropolitan Area
Programs: Yes
Posts: 367
Just like it's difficult to tell whether the "North Sea gap" is a specific problem, which is how it was reported previously, or whether that problem exists because there is currently no satellite component at all - I suspect it is the latter. It just shows over the North Sea because there is no ground based system there either - I could never quite work out what the satellite backhaul is SUPPOSED to be used for anyway? Just the (North) Sea gap? Seems to work fine without everywhere else, even if it's a bit slow
Oct 3, 2019, 9:58 am
#629
Join Date: May 2016
Location: USA, UK
Programs: BA, Hilton, jetBlue, Lufthansa, Network Southeast, and Amtrak.
Posts: 38
Satellite backhaul is primarily for the North Sea, but also for other watery places, and for some spots where terrestrial links are simply not good enough. One example of this latter is some of the Russian part of the route to Moscow. The pending sale of Inmarsat has done nothing to speed up deployment of this part of the system.
Oct 3, 2019, 10:03 am
#630
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Dorset, UK
Programs: BA GGL
Posts: 635
It’s a little convoluted to get to the page to enter seat number and name or booking ref - you have to find ‘rewards’ on shop.ba.com - but the full browse and stream package is available and working well. Just updated iOS 13.1.1 as we passed Nova Scotia so cannot complain about bandwidth at all.