notquiteaff

Perhaps they accidentally applied AS rules to their onboard systems

https://www.alaskaair.com/content/tr...messaging.aspx

On AS I occasionally get emails (I never pay). First time it happened I thought I hadn’t turned off cellular data.

Eadward

I've gotten imessage to work too. Hope this won't bring the party to a close.

Boogie711

I was on a United flight streaming a movie on my iPad using the United App when I got new email notifications. This was about 2 months ago.

But I couldn't reply. They just got hung up in the 'outbox.'

LordHamster

I've always found that Google Hangouts works as well on most airlines without purchasing "Wifi"

LordHamster

Feeling the sudden urge to set up a Proxy server at home on port 5223.

goalie

I discovered this completely by accident PBI-EWR (737)* this past May with my iPhone in airplane mode, wifi on and sound off. I was charging my iPhone with it sitting on my thigh and while dozing in and out of sleep, my phone vibrated with an iMessage from goalie-mom telling me they might be a few minutes late picking me up after my connecting flight EWR-SFO. goalie-mom and I "chatted" throughout the flight and I also had a "conversation" with another f/t'er as well**

*goalie-mom's first message came thru shortly after we reached 10,000 feet when wifi was turned on and the conversations we had continued thru cruising altitude until we reached 10,000 feet on descent when wifi was turned off

**complete with the fat fingered messages being sent to goalie-mom instead of a f/t'er and vice versa

bluedemon211

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, don't tell anyone or it might be "enhanced" away

chrisl137

I've even had some websites work with the free AS wifi. They seem to be leaving a lot of ports open and just throttling the data rate way down. Text works fine, but websites that send a lot of big images (rather than scaling to your device) will tend to time out.

NewYork1K

Have gotten iMessage and Google Hangouts to work on both Thales (737) and Panasonic planes (everything else except gogo planes). Seems that sending images is still blocked though.

David Randles

I've never experienced this but I think it has something to do with the flight crews communication software.

eng3

exactly, how do we get this thread closed and buried so UA doesnt get any ideas. Though I think it is the supplier's issue.

This has been around for years and I think I have seen news paper articles about it so maybe they don't care.

cur

dl offers whatsapp, imsg, and a few others for free as a perk because they aren't chintzy and realizes it's a low cost way to go above and beyond for customers.

ua however, this is probably some gap that apple has capitalized on through its programming.

SkiPremier

My last two flights (last week) I didn't buy wifi, however had it enabled for the PDE, and was able to text for the entire flight.

LarryJ

The "wifi" (internet function actually) on mainline aircraft is turned on just prior to pushback and remains on until arrival at the gate.

LordHamster

Not on the flights I've been on. Most actually have no functioning internet till about 10-15 min after the 10,000 foot chime.