Occasional Inflight iMessages Received (but didn't pay for access)
Oct 31, 2018, 2:45 pm
#91
Join Date: Oct 2012
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Oct 31, 2018, 2:56 pm
#92
Join Date: May 2009
Location: Washington, DC
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I have never found it to work on international flights (although that could cue the joke that it's because the wifi never works on international flights). pmUA772, pmCO772, 787-8 and 787-9.
Oct 31, 2018, 3:44 pm
#93
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If you purchase wifi, you should be able to use any internet based messaging app. I've used What's App over the Pacific many times. Line, etc., should also work.
Oct 31, 2018, 3:46 pm
#94
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On a UA flight last night I was surprised to receive a text message mid-flight from a friend. Shortly after that, I received another one from someone else. I was able to respond to the texts and continued to exchange messages. This was the first time that I experienced being able to do this. I was on a 738, my phone was on airplane mode and I did not pay for wi-fi. How was this possible?
*I'll leave it to the techies to explain it as I have no clue why it works
**my first experience was on a 738 PBI-EWR last year where I had my phone in airplane mode with wifi on (just logged in but not purchased), sitting on my thigh and plugged in charging when it began to vibrate and needless to say, it scared the "you know what" out of me
Oct 31, 2018, 4:38 pm
#95
Join Date: Aug 2001
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I've found that most push notifications come through without buying the wi-fi. Slack, iMessage, news apps, the works. I've not been successful in sending iMessages though.
Oct 31, 2018, 4:40 pm
#96
Join Date: Jun 2014
Programs: UA MM
Posts: 4,125
I have no trouble sending iMessages any time I can receive them. What usually don't go through are images... only text. At least that's what I remember.
Oct 31, 2018, 6:23 pm
#97
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Sadly, karma perhaps, on the birds with GoGo (ie, UAX), the free hour of WiFi I’m supposed to get per flight (and free texting, as well) for T-Mobile customers doesn’t work on UA at all - purposely - not sure why, but pretty certain it’s the only US carrier this doesn’t work on.
Wait, when did AA announce that, and curious as to why. They did announce it publicly, right?
Oct 31, 2018, 7:40 pm
#98
Join Date: Aug 2007
Programs: UA 1k
Posts: 226
I don't seem to find this working on the pmCO 757 birds, especially the PS ones. But it does work more often than it doesn't throughout most of my flying.
I have also seen it work for a while, then stop midway through flight. And the opposite too. And sometimes my Mac iMessages work while my phone or iPad don't.
It is incredibly convenient when it does as it allows me to still get some important things done with people on the ground, coordinate my pickup etc...
I have also seen it work for a while, then stop midway through flight. And the opposite too. And sometimes my Mac iMessages work while my phone or iPad don't.
It is incredibly convenient when it does as it allows me to still get some important things done with people on the ground, coordinate my pickup etc...
Nov 1, 2018, 11:28 am
#99
Join Date: Jan 2005
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First report of free inflight texting, announced with other product improvements (mostly to catch up with Delta and/or UA): https://www.usatoday.com/story/trave...ers/715698001/
and then, walking it back, though not in the form of a press release: https://viewfromthewing.boardingarea...ing-after-all/
Nov 2, 2018, 1:02 am
#100
Join Date: Aug 2015
Location: IAH
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Nov 3, 2018, 5:07 pm
#101
Join Date: Apr 2009
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It's happened on occasion for me but I didn't take specific notice of the aircraft type. I'll make a more conscious attempt going forward but even the times that it did work it was only intermittent and not throughout the whole flight as I recall
Nov 3, 2018, 7:14 pm
#102
Join Date: Apr 2017
Posts: 52
I have always used Google Hangouts (same as Allo) on united flights throughout the fleet. (I regularly fly 777s on international routes, and just flew an Airbus A320 domestically and definitely was able to use hangouts). the messages don't always "push", I have to go into the app and look for replies, but it works.
Nov 3, 2018, 7:34 pm
#103
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I have found that when I enable wifi on my phone and go to the United Wifi page just to track the flight progress map, I get Facebook and even gmail notifications pretty regularly--I just can't deliberately access internet stuff. It was basically everything internet-connected which worked, not just iMessages or Google Hangouts, etc.; any kind of "push" notification was getting through (even if that simply meant the phone was polling the web services of the various apps regularly and occasionally getting through).
Nov 4, 2018, 8:09 am
#104
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I tried this after the initial discovery with the same colleague on the way home - but she was in the air and I was on the ground. It still worked on the flight (737 something but not MAX) but there was significant delay. When I first discovered this, there was no delay. Not sure why.