OnAir not really working
 

I've had 3 flights in the last week, BKK-DXB, DXB-LHR RTN, on all of these flights the speed of OnAir was so slow that is was unusable. Anyone else having this issue this week? Sunspots? It's never been Speedy Gonzales but I've been able to at least get my emails.

I reckon it's been like that on > 50% my EK flights. Not that I fly EK that much these days.

I recall seeing somewhere that inflight internet is not available when flying over India, so that could answer why it's not available for a good chunk of BKK-DXB.

As for DXB-LHR, I suspect that there's a very number of people connecting, thereby crippling an already slow connection.

Same issue as well , also noted that on recent DXB-LHR/LGW flights the wifi has been uber slow !

Well im writing this reply from my flight to PER, I spoke to the Purser and she said, and I quote "it works much more consistently on the 777". It just so happens im on a 777 at the moment.

Hope this helps.

I think the 777 has a more up to date system. Unfortunately, not that many 777s have wi-fi at the moment.

?? Most of them do at this point

Yes, it doesn't work over India but it didn't work the other parts of the flight either.

Really? That's good to know.

I thought only the fairly new ones had Wifi.

It's mostly the older ones that were retrofitted first afaik

I need to fly more often so I stop giving crap advice :)

My experience as EK Plat: rarely have decent speeds, > 50% practically unusable for most of the flight. So have resigned to using it for simple e-mails... ...seems to be a known issue, as whenever I file for a refund, it is immediately issued without any query. Can't understand why they can't get it right, as on EY I rarely have the same kind of problems (although my last two flights were patchy as well there).

You ask for a refund for $1 that goes to charity? :confused:

777s work on a different satellite band which gives it more bandwidth

Well, my next flight is on a 777 so we will see, I'm beginning to think they didn't pay their bill or something.

Hm I never really have serious issues, except recently it not being available at all until quite late into one flight (777), but when available works quite well, use it on my laptop, too, occasionally. On a quite empty 777 flight a year or two ago I even managed a video skype call with no issues.

If you pay beyond the free allowance given, does it get any faster ?

Not really. Very slow DXB-LGW, not so bad LHR-DXB a couple of weeks ago.

Ok. That's good to know, I wondered whether it was a ploy to get people to pay for it.

Maybe it should be accessed by Biz and F only though how you implement that, I've no idea.

That has been my experience until these last trips, then it just went to Hell.

What a bizarre suggestion. I travel mostly in Y and the Wifi is a vital lifeline to the outside world for me on ULH flights when I need to be in touch with my employees, regardless of me being in Y

I understand but if the issues are due to bandwidth then wouldn't it make sense to offer if to those in premium seats until such time they can get an improved system in place whereby everyone can take advantage of it?

Those in Y pay to get from A to B. Those in J/F pay for the extra comforts and premium services at a substantial markup I might add.

Maybe not a popular move but just an idea.

It'd make more sense to increase the pricing, so those in Y who have work to do aren't disadvantaged by those in J streaming Netflix, especially the rich brats travelling with their parents.

Legally all pax are paying to get from A to B, some pay for extra comforts. Those in Y may be choosing EK for the WiFi and free alcohol and food, etc. Not all Y pax are purely price sensitive, or I'd be flying Ethiopian long ago the way EK prices are going.

I fly 77Ws more than 338s, and if it's better there.

I genrrally dont attempt to connect for the first two hours. I always thought $1 was a nominal fee many people would pay but I find that it improves a lot after that. Doing that the last few months has helped a lot.

I think charging 1$/HR might be a fair method as one can use it briefly to update friends and family but for business travellers who need it for a few hours they'd be happy to pay presumably. I'd probably happily pay 10$ per flight for WiFi access

Fair point.

My understanding is that was only introduced for a limited time in 2014 and ended again in 2015.

I still pay $1 think it's limited to 500mb

I meant the bit about the proceeds going to the Emirates Airline Foundation as charity...

FYI, the kit / service is provided by two different companies. AeroMobile for 777s and OnAir for the A380s (although for the WiFi splash screen, it will always shows as OnAir) and it's only the 777s where you can watch live TV as they have greater bandwidth. I've also heard that the free service is likely to be withdrawn at some stage

WiFi working fine on EK773 right now (777), usual speeds

I usually find the service poor to unusable now and generally pretty frustrating. When the service first appeared it was $20 for 100MB:
My recollection is that it used to be quite good when it was relatively expensive.

I'd definitely pay $20 again if the service was reliable (although I do claim it as a business expense anyway so the cost is not such a huge issue for me).

Heading East it's really annoying to lose the service over all of India also, was there some talk of them relaxing this?

I've been using the WiFi for a solid 7hrs straight so far this flight on both Laptop and mobile and quite happy with the speeds. Re India it's an issue with the Indian DGCA, good luck with that.

On the other hand, some people - like me - use air travel as an excuse to be completely cut off from reality.
So, please, don't advertise that on-air wifi gets cheap !

I've noticed they actually do this very thing.
On some recent 777 trips, there was no wifi available in Y but there was in business class, all on planes less than 3 years old as well.

?? And how would that be possible? You can't control the precise end of a WiFi network's range.

No but you can limit with passwords and hidden SSID's.
I attached a screenshot from my phone, taken within the opensignal app which scans all SSID's, as you can see they are all assigned to a specific seat.

:D :D That's not the wifi for pax, those are the wifi networks used by the wireless tablet controllers for the J and F seats.

Wifi has always been called OnAir and available to all. Do you think they go around explaining to all J and F pax how to setup a wifi connection to a hidden SSID, how exactly to spell the SSID and give them each individual passwords?

Older planes have wired controllers, so it makes sense that you saw this on newer planes only.

Well, don't I feel like an idiot now lol.
However I do wonder why on the new 777's there is no WiFi.

Because it's retrofitted by a third party installer, which is why older 777s actually more reliably have Wifi available