Free WiFi for First Passengers
 

I've just been told that BA are now offering WiFi free to all First passengers. This is hot off the press.

No idea which packages are being offered for free - has anybody been on a flight with this yet?

SQ offer free Wifi to F (and I think J) and PPS (qualified or Solitaire) through IT (seat number + surname) but only a tiny number of MB - 50 (F) / 30 (J/PPS) from memory.

JL do it for F with vouchers (unlimited).

As far as BA goes at the moment, I'm just happy to get the Wifi at all, even if it's not free.

TK offers it for free to all Business pax and Elite Plus members on long haul and have done so for several years, even Saudi has offered it to all Business Class pax for quite some time. Ek gives everyone 10MB, and Biz and F get unlimited free. BA is maybe five years behind many other airlines..................

IB in J too (limited time) and QR to all passengers for a small time.

I just flew LHR-NBO-LHR-SFO. LHR-NBO (and return same plane)- no wifi
LHR-SFO wifi but not free for me in 1A. I was surprised they had it and it worked.

it's 4mb for free which frankly is pointless.

LH also offers in First but using a voucher.

Out of my four recent F flights, on three the voucher worked very easily, and on one of them there was a problem by which none of the vouchers onboard were working, but buying unlimited access for about EUR19 on the 12 hour flight was possible. Crew were very apologetic, and offered that since I could not use the normal internet voucher, they offered me EUR25 service recovery voucher to use in their shopping on that or any future flight. I bought the internet access on my credit card, used the voucher to by a gift on a future flight, and felt they had done right by me on the flight where a glitch prevented the usual service from working.

As others have noted, TK gives this to elite card holders in all classes, as well as to business class passengers, which is the way I think any serious airline should be looking at the equation. So often, the time and resources spent executing the payment process for these passengers is really just a thorn after either the cost of a F/J ticket, or a complete waste of time for the passengers who are taking enough flights to hold higher status. When we're already at the point where this service can be sold for EUR19 on a 12 hour flight, once has to wonder if it's not simply better and even transactionally equivalent for the airline just to comp the service in the same way as extra baggage or free seat selection, both of which are already much more expensive than internet.

QR give you a voucher for the whole flight but it’s only 200 MB which will run out before the end of the flight if you do a lot of internet browsing.

WY also give you a voucher in F and EK is free internet for the entire flight if you are crediting to Skywards.

This is a very good idea by BA so let’s hope it’s true!

JL provides Diamond and JGC Premier members vouchers (unlimited MB, use for 40 international flights).

And, JL and NH provide free WiFi for all domestic flights (except a few aircraft without WiFi capability). Thank for small country.