BA champions league final
 

hi,
I will be flying with BA and travelling from Heathrow to Vegas on the 26th May- champions league final and will miss the whole game.

can anyone help/advise I have been told that there will be WiFi on the flight so I am hoping this is true! Will there be anyway of streaming the game?

Or or if not would WiFi be strong enough to pick up video signal?

really desperate to find some way to watch it as my partner is a diehard red and it was me who booked these flights without realising (a 30th birthday present)

any help/advice would be great

thanks

Set the video and let him watch it when you get back - all you have to do is make sure he doesn't find out the score!

Firstly welcome to FT!

Secondly, even if you were fortunate to get wifi on the plane (unlikely at the moment), the idea that BA's tech would be up to streaming a game is, unfortunately, laughable.

I'm putting it that bluntly so as not to give you any false hope. You should fully expect to not be able to see the game.

Now you could discreetly ask the crew if the captain would be able to get updates during the flights. I've had this done before during a World Cup game where the crew came over about 4 times during the game with score updates. No guarantees, but worth asking.

I haven't flown on BA with WiFi on board but if it's anything like the WiFi on Aer Lingus (and Aer Lingus seems to be a beta testing airline for BA at times) then it probably won't be reliable or fast enough to stream live video (and even with a good land based connection streaming sites can be poor quality).

Or though not ideal you might consider internet radio to listen to the game live, WiFi on board should be good enough for this.

Just to pick up on terminology - the WiFi signal if there is any (will let others answer that) would be strong - but its the available bandwidth to the Internet that you're right to question. If there is WiFi you should consider streaming radio which uses considerably less bandwidth and might be more reliable. Or even using things like a webpage that has text based updates on progress.

Thank you

I agree that there's very little chance on the LAS route of having wifi. However, I managed to stream Netflix and live iPlayer (over a VPN in the latter case) without a probleon on the streaming wifi package. Certainly no issue with speeds there, I feel.

I'll add my welcome to jennifac. Welcome aboard!

I'll also add my frequent reminder that as a new user, they can only make 5 posts in the first 24 hours and so will be unable to directly reply further until that time expires, I'm sure they will catch up on any further help that can be offered.

It seems there are 2 questions:

a) Will there be WiFi?
b) If there is WiFi will there be enough bandwidth (in layman's terms, is it fast enough)

To the first question, BA is currently in the process of rolling out WiFi but the majority of aircraft don't have it yet. There is a specific post with details of which aircraft are known to have it:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...-underway.html

See the wiki at the top for specific details. Looking at that, we can see that 8 of the 747 fleet have been equipped, but here comes the bad news......

All of the 747s with WiFi are the so-called "86J" variants which are the ones with the refurbished larger CW cabins and improved in-flight entertainment. And as far as I can tell Las Vegas is only ever served by the older "52J" 747 variants, none of which have WiFi fitted at at this moment in time. While unfortunate, it is perhaps not surprising that BA use their older, tattier 747s on that route - I can recall one insider here commenting that the ideal LAS plane would have a cabin made entirely of stainless steel so it could simply be jet washed down at the turnaround :D

So, the chances of WiFi would seem to be between minuscule and none. The only scenario I can think of where it isn't none is if they had to swap in a last minute WiFi equipped 747 at the last minute due to technical issues, but even then presumably they would look to another 52J variant first to avoid seating hassles.

The second question becomes somewhat moot. That said, perhaps the performance might be better than some fear (based on the details here: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showpost.php?p=29681218&postcount=45)

Check with whichever hotel you're staying if they have FoxSports, It is likely they will repeat the game later in the evening or on Sunday. Much better to view it there rather than waiting to watch it when back home

Alternatively, check with english pubs in Las Vegas, they would definitely have FoxSports and would be able to tell you when the repeats are as well

There is also the problem of Geo-blocking.

The internet connection most likely will not be shown as a UK connection and therefore Geo-blocking will kick in and block the stream. This will also probably be the case for radio streams of the game.

Welcome to Flyertalk and welcome to the BA forum jennifac, it's good to see you here, and by all means let us know how this is resolved. I'm guessing you've hit your 5 posts limit on day one here.

I know the bandwidth - if offered - is OKish for the football since BA's wifi is actually quite a bit faster than my home bandwidth (living as I do somewhat in the sticks), just don't expect too much fine detail. But I agree that the chance of having wifi on the aircraft is not high and then you'll have to find a provider that will work over both BA's wifi and potentially a VPN provider too. Standard iplayer provision on the main broadcasters will possibly not work since this is highly sought after digital property. But check here perhaps 2 days before the flight, we may well then know the aircraft registration and whether it has wifi or not.

This may sound desperate stuff, but if BA have moved your flight timings since the initial booking, you have the ability to switch to another service.